How to Test a Tracking Link (Guide for Singular Partners)

Before you start running campaigns for our shared customer using Singular Links, you can use a demo / test tracking link (prepared by the Singular team) to test the configuration.

This will let you see what information a user click would send to Singular and from Singular to your servers.  

Guide for Singular Partners
Prerequisites
  1. A Singular attribution integration has been set up with your organization.
  2. You have Singular click and postback templates configured.
  3. You received a test tracking link for your testing

Tools

A mobile device for testing.

 

Step by Step

1

Reset Your Test Device's Advertising ID

If your mobile device has been used to test Singular attribution before, you have to clear the data before using it again. If this is the first time you are using the device for testing, you can skip this step.

To clear the data:

  1. Uninstall / delete the Singular Device Assist app from the device.
  2. Reset your device's advertising identifier: 

    • For Apple devices: Go to Settings > Privacy & Security, select Tracking, and turn the toggle off and back on next to Allow Apps to Request to Track
    • For Android devices: Go to Settings > Google > Ads and select Reset Advertising ID.

Note: In iOS 14, if you turn IDFA access off for all apps, your global IDFA will be reset. The toggle must be turned back on before performing your test and you must accept the prompt "Allow App to Track" when opening the Singular Device Assist app. This ensures you can share your advertising ID with Singular to check your attribution test.

Technically, one app can cause IDFA to reset for the entire device. Assume that only one app called requestTrackingAuthorization got permission to track.

See more information here for resetting your advertising ID, if additional help is needed.

 

2

Get the New Advertising ID

Now that your device has a new advertising ID, you need to find out what it is. There are third-party apps that can help you, such as Singular's Device Assist testing apps for iOS and Android, or you can go into the device settings yourself:

  • For Apple devices: This must be done from a third-party app now. For devices on older OS, you could go to Settings > Privacy, select Advertising, and then see the IDFA.
  • For Android devices: Go to Settings > Google > Ads and see the AAID (Android Advertising ID, also known as GAID, Google Advertising ID).
3

Get the Singular Link

You should have received a tracking link from the Singular team that looks like the following.

Note that the link includes parameters, such as "aifa", "idfa", "cl", and "pcid". The values in {curly braces} are macros - placeholders meant to be replaced with actual values by the ad network when it serves the ad (the macros' names and appearance may vary).

Important: you must remove device ID macros from the tracking link that will not populate a value. If macros themselves are sent instead of a value your click may not be logged with Singular and there will be no attribution.

https://singularassist.sng.link/D59c0/tpa9&aifa={google_advertising_id}
&idfa={idfa}&cl={click_id}&pcid={campaign_id}&pcn={campaign_name}
&pshid={publisher_id}&psn={publisher_site_name}&psid={publisher_site_id}
&pcrid={creative_id}&pcrn={publisher_creative_name}
4

Insert Advertising ID into Link

Before you can test the link:

  1. Replace the relevant placeholder with the device's advertising ID (if available):
    • If you are testing an Apple device, replace your IDFA macro, such as {idfa}, with the IDFA of your device.
    • If you are testing an Android device, replace your Android Advertising ID, such as {google_advertising_id}, with the AAID of your device.
  2. Delete all the other placeholders unless there are parameters that are mandatory for your postback URL. For example, in some platforms Click ID or Transaction ID is mandatory, so in that case, you would have to insert a valid Click ID in the cl parameter.

Here is an example of what the result should look like (for an Android device):

https://singularassist.sng.link/D59c0/tpa9&aifa=0f9f9e46-df3b-
4012-8b1e-639ebc39a20f&idfa=&cl=&pcid=&pcn=&pshid=&psn=&psid=
&pcrid=&pcrn=

Note: All the parameters in the link have to be given a valid value or left blank. If you click on a link that still has placeholders in curly braces {}, it may not result in successful attribution. To learn more, see Tracking Link Parameters.

5

Trigger the Link

Send the tracking link to your testing device. Then click the link from the mobile device.

You are redirected to the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

6

Install and Open and Click the App

  1. In the app store, download the app and install it.
  2. Open the app (Singular's attribution process is only triggered once the app is opened).
  3. Trigger post-install events from within the app to test the sending of postbacks for those events. When testing using a test link from Singular's integration team and the Singular Device Assist app, you can click on the in-app buttons named Copy IDFA/GAID, Share IDFA/GAID and Start Testing. This will trigger test events that the test postback can send to you. Expect event names in postbacks are:
    1. For iOS:
      • "copy IDFA" and/or "share IDFA" (test events) and "start Testing" (test revenue event*)
    2. For Android:
      • "Copy GAID" and/or "Share GAID" (test events) and "Start Testing" (test revenue event*). 

*Revenue events are events that need to be configured in a postback in order for a revenue amount to also be sent in your postback. Your postback template must contain the macro {AMOUNT} or an equivalent from our documentation in order to receive a revenue value. 

7

Verify Attribution

To verify that the install has been attributed correctly by Singular, you can share your AAID/IDFA with the Singular integration engineer. The engineer will share the feedback and the relevant logs of the test.