Event Tracking (Beta)

Track custom user actions and reward affiliates for specific behaviors beyond just purchases. Event tracking gives you deeper insights into user behavior and flexible commission structures.

Beta Feature Notice: Event Tracking is currently in beta. While fully functional, we cannot guarantee complete resistance to tampering or manipulation at this stage. Use appropriate validation and monitoring for mission-critical implementations.

What Is Event Tracking?

Event tracking allows you to log specific user actions in your app and attribute them to the affiliate who referred that user. Instead of only tracking purchases, you can now monitor and reward affiliates for:

  • User signups and registrations
  • Free trial activations
  • Profile completions
  • Content shares and referrals
  • Feature usage milestones
  • Custom conversion goals

Why Use Event Tracking?

1. Flexible Affiliate Compensation

Pay affiliates for actions that matter to your business, not just purchases:

Traditional: Affiliate earns commission only when user makes a purchase
With Event Tracking: Affiliate earns when user signs up, completes onboarding,
                     invites friends, or achieves specific milestones

2. Incentivize Specific Behaviors

Create targeted affiliate programs based on your business goals:

  • Growth Focus: Pay $5 for each verified signup
  • Engagement Focus: Reward affiliates when users complete onboarding
  • Viral Growth: Compensate for successful referrals from referred users
  • Product Adoption: Incentivize usage of premium features

3. Data-Driven Optimization

Access detailed analytics to improve your affiliate program:

  • Identify which affiliates drive the highest quality users
  • Compare signup-to-purchase conversion rates by affiliate
  • Optimize commission structures based on user lifetime value
  • Detect and address low-performing partnerships

How Event Tracking Works

The event tracking system follows a simple flow:

  1. User arrives via affiliate link → Attribution established
  2. User performs tracked action → Event logged with affiliate attribution
  3. Event appears in dashboard → View and analyze in real-time
  4. Commission processed (optional) → Pay affiliates for specific events

Implementation

Event tracking is available through our SDKs for iOS, Android, and other platforms. The basic implementation is consistent across all SDKs.

Basic Usage

Before tracking events, ensure you've initialized the SDK and set an affiliate identifier. Then use the event tracking function:

// iOS Example
InsertAffiliateSwift.trackEvent(eventName: "user_signup")

// Android Example
InsertAffiliate.trackEvent("user_signup")

// React Native Example
InsertAffiliate.trackEvent("user_signup")

// Unity Example
InsertAffiliate.TrackEvent("user_signup");

Common Event Examples

User Signup

InsertAffiliateSwift.trackEvent(eventName: "user_signup")

Trial Activation

InsertAffiliateSwift.trackEvent(eventName: "trial_started")

Profile Completion

InsertAffiliateSwift.trackEvent(eventName: "profile_completed")

Important Requirements

  1. Affiliate Attribution Must Be Set: Events will not be tracked if no affiliate identifier is active
  2. Within Attribution Window: Events must occur within your configured timeout window
  3. Unique Event Names: Use consistent naming conventions across your app
  4. SDK Initialization: Ensure the SDK is properly initialized before tracking events

Viewing Event Data

Track and analyze events in your Insert Affiliate dashboard:

  1. Go to Events (or relevant dashboard section)
  2. View all tracked events with affiliate attribution
  3. Filter by event type, affiliate, or date range
  4. Export data for deeper analysis

What You Can See

  • Event Name: The action that was tracked
  • Affiliate: Which affiliate referred the user who triggered the event
  • Timestamp: When the event occurred
  • User Identifier: The attributed user (when available)
  • Attribution Source: The original deep link or campaign

Best Practices

1. Start Simple

Begin with 2-3 key events:

  • User signup
  • Main conversion action
  • One engagement metric

Expand once you understand the data and impact.

2. Use Clear Naming Conventions

Good naming makes analysis easier:

  • ✅ user_signup, trial_started, purchase_completed
  • ❌ event1, thing_happened, user_action

3. Balance Event Tracking

Don't track everything:

  • Too few events: Miss important insights
  • Too many events: Analysis becomes overwhelming

Focus on events that correlate with business value.

4. Validate Event Data

Regularly review event data for:

  • Unusual spikes or patterns
  • Potential gaming or manipulation
  • Data quality issues
  • Attribution accuracy

5. Communicate with Affiliates

Make event tracking transparent:

  • Document which events you track
  • Explain how events lead to compensation
  • Provide affiliates with their event performance data
  • Set clear expectations about data validation

Common Questions

Can I pay affiliates directly for events?

Event data is tracked in your dashboard. How you compensate affiliates for events is up to you - either manually through your payment system or by integrating event data with your commission structure.

What's the difference between event tracking and purchase tracking?

Purchase tracking uses verified receipts from App Store/Google Play or payment processors, making it tamper-resistant. Event tracking relies on client-side reporting, which is easier to implement but less secure.

How many events can I track?

There's no hard limit on unique event names, but we recommend staying focused on 5-15 key events that truly matter to your business.

Can I track the same event multiple times for one user?

Yes. You can track events multiple times per user. For example, you might track "content_shared" every time a user shares content.

Ready to implement event tracking? Check your SDK documentation for platform-specific implementation details, or reach out to support if you need help getting started.