Things to consider before you select your Mobile Attribution Partner

Today, I will talk about some of the major things that you should know before you select your Mobile attribution partner. If you are not aware of the basics of what the attribution is, please feel free to read the Mobile attribution guide -Part 1- Part 6 (just select Nov 2016 on the right hand side > and you will find it)

So what are the key things you should consider, below are my thoughts.


1. Company, Technology and Innovation

• Look at the technology they are using- is it a technology built for Mobile (simply Mobile first)? If not, don't go ahead. Web analytics and tracking is very different from Mobile analytics and tracking
• List of integrated partners
• Clients list and testimonials
• Average years in the industry
• Are they updating their product regularly as per the industry demand and overall landscape/ecosystem
• Multi-platform support? Can they track smart watch as well- for instance?
• Do they have a dedicated R&D team- do they innovate?
• What is the downtime?
• It should be unbiased- should not own any Ad network to avoid any conflicts of interest
• Who is the Attribution authority and any other certifications they have- data, security, fraud prevention etc
• How they are handling the data and how secured it is?
• Do they offer full funnel approach or only click based attribution. This is very important if you are running Display campaigns as you cannot ignore Impressions based attribution
• Customizable attribution window?
• How is their integrations with 3rd party providers- for instance DMPs or DSPs
• What is the cost structure? How much are they charging per session/event?
• Do they offer configurable attribution?
• How do they validate the purchase or in APP events?
• Segmentation- how far can you segment
• Should allow unlimited data exporting options and also it should send data wherever needed- network, S2S, 3rd party vendor, CRM etc
• Marketing team should be able to do it without needing any help from Technical team- so choose a partner accordingly

(2) Network Integrations 

• How many networks are currently integrated with them? Minimum of 500 networks integrated is preferred, anything below that- dump it
• What is the lead time?
• How long it takes for the integration?
• Current documentation available- network assistance?
• How fast do they integrate a network who is new or not already integrated with them?
• What data can Ad network receives? Callbacks details etc
• Charges - callbacks, postbacks etc- ideally they should not charge
• Data latency- How long it is takingthe data to reach and what is the overall latency?

(3) Customer service , client training, webinars, education offerings etc

• What is the turnaround time?
• Do they have a local support? Lets say you are based out of Dubai and the Attribution partner is in North America- do they offer support based on your time zone?
• Are they offering support if needed by you or your new/existing partner?
• Are they educating you on the new features or essential like frauds and how to prevent it?
• Do you have a dedicated account manager?
• Do they offer weekly/fortnightly support?
• Do they offer guides, technical documentation , help. FAQs online or through an online community?
• Do they offer product training- beginners, intermediate, advanced and ad-hoc?

(4) Universal SDK

• Should be lightweight
• Has to be open-source to maintain transparency 
• Should not occupy too much of space on your app
• Should be Flexible enough
• Should be network agnostic
• You only need to install SDK once- its finished for ever , no more SDK needed

(5) Dashboard

• Is it user friendly?
• Easy to use, sleek, sophisticated?
• Report generation- easy and friendly?
• Visually appealing? graphs, line charts and other options?
• Easy to download and share reports?
• How quick it is to set up a tracker for a new network?
• Data digging- do you find it comprehensive and can reach upto the last layer- for example the creatives and adgroups apart from networks and campaigns
• Unlimited reporting available?
• Can you see real time data?
• Features like cohort analysis, LTV, engagements, events data etc. should be easily available
• Can you access it on different screens with ease? Is there any app available?
• Do they offer recommendations and any actionable insights?
• Can you get your data from the time you started the contract? Many a times at the most you can get 90 days data. Remember, the data is yours and its your rights to get the data whenever you need it?
• Do they offer an API?
• Is the dashboard customizable?

(6) Responsive to the market needs and features?

• Do they offer features like deeplinking, social media tracking, TV attribution, cohort analysis, Rich in-app events tracking
• Scale- How many billion events are they tracking currently? Are they ready to scale up as your company scales up?
• Do they offer key/critical Features like- data driven marketing, real time intelligence, fraud prevention, store stats, app analytics, multi platform support
• Support Re-targeting and Re-engagement campaigns?
• Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other major Ad networks? Are the already a  preferred partner?
• How good are they in capturing the industry information and sharing it with the clients to educate them
• Offer multi-channel attribution? Customizable event tracking?

Note- This is an ongoing list, I will keep on updating this as and when needed.