What is a postback?

In mobile marketing, a postback, also known as a callback, is the communication of data between one server and another after an in-app event, like an app install or other user activity. This system allows developers and marketers to receive real-time notifications about how users interact with the app.

Why is a postback important?

A postback allows app developers and marketers to attribute installs and track a user’s activity within an app. Marketers who have the valuable information a postback provides client-side can:

• Optimize the campaigns they are running.
• Create retargeting segments with smaller user groups with common traits based on the user’s activities for re-engagement campaigns.

Before we delve into how a postback works, it’s important to distinguish between the two types of postback data:

Install postback: This is triggered when a user installs an app for the first time. By including additional parameters such as media source, cost per install (CPI), click ID, device type, and search queries, marketers can more effectively analyze and identify which marketing campaigns are bringing in the most and the highest quality users.

In-app postback event: This is triggered when a user performs a specific action within the app, such as making a purchase or completing a level. These events provide real-time insights into how users interact with the app, allowing marketers to measure performance and swiftly make strategic, informed decisions. Some examples of in-app events include:

• Screen views: When a user opens an app or scrolls to a new screen, the screen view is recorded. Screen views help track how users move through your app and identify the most frequently visited screens.
• Clicks: Each time a user taps on an app element, such as a button, link, or advertisement, it counts as a click. Monitoring clicks helps measure the engagement and click-through rates (CTR) for different in-app elements.
• Form submissions: These track how users complete specific actions in your app, such as making a purchase or creating an account.

Now, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of how a postback works.

A postback is the AdTech equivalent of communication. When you send a letter, you write an address on the envelope so the letter gets sent to the correct location. Similarly, a network needs to add its server address (callback URL) to the Adjust tracker URL so we can send them a message when an install or event is attributed.

A SKAdNetwork (SKAN) postback works a little differently. At a very high level, the differences between these postbacks are:

• Apple sends them and anonymizes the data, which is contained within a conversion value.
• Install and event data are combined into one postback.
• Since the release of SKAN 4, marketers can receive three postbacks with either fine or coarse conversion values, if there are enough installs to achieve crowd anonymity.

Dive deeper into SKAdNetwork postbacks.

With Adjust, you can set up postbacks to receive advertising IDs, attribution details, app data, and more directly to your servers in real-time as raw data, if the relevant consent requirements are met. Adjust provides postbacks for a(n):

• Click
• Impression
• Install
• Reattribution
• Conversion
• Session
• In-app event (as defined by the client)
• Rejected install (Identified as fraudulent)
• Rejected reattribution (Identified as fraudulent)

To set up a callback, you must specify:

1. The server endpoint URL where you want to receive data. This should be tied to your own business intelligence solution or data warehouse, which is a prerequisite to process callbacks.
2. Callback parameters and Adjust placeholders for the data points you want to track.
3. Whether you want to set up a single activity postback or multiple postbacks for the same activity.

Learn more about setting up postbacks with Adjust or request a demo today.