Beyond Purchases: Track Any In-App Event with Affiliate Attribution
Purchase tracking tells you which affiliates drive sales. But what about everything that happens before and after the sale? Which affiliates drive the most signups? Who refers users that actually complete onboarding? Which affiliate's audience engages most deeply with your app?
Event Tracking (currently in beta) lets you attribute any custom in-app event to the affiliate who referred the user.
Why Event Tracking Matters
See the Full Picture
A purchase is just one moment in a user's journey. Event tracking lets you measure the entire funnel:
- App install — attributed to the affiliate
- Account creation — did the referred user sign up?
- Onboarding completion — did they finish the setup flow?
- Feature usage — are they using key features?
- Purchase — already tracked
- Retention — do they come back?
Identify Quality Referrals
Two affiliates might drive the same number of purchases, but one refers users who churn after a month while the other refers users who stay for a year. Event tracking helps you spot the difference.
Optimise Commission Structures
With event data, you can explore commission models beyond just purchases — pay for signups, reward affiliates whose referrals hit engagement milestones, or bonus affiliates whose users convert to annual plans.
How It Works
Sending Events
Use the Insert Affiliate SDK to fire custom events from your app:
Events are sent with:
- Event name — A string identifying the event (e.g., "onboarding_complete", "trial_started", "feature_used")
- User identifier — Links the event to the referred user
- Optional metadata — Any additional data you want to track
Viewing Events
Custom events appear in your dashboard alongside purchase data. Filter by affiliate, event type, or date range to analyse patterns.
What You Can Track
- Signups and registrations
- Trial starts
- Onboarding milestones
- Feature adoption
- Content consumption
- Social shares from within your app
- Upgrade events (free to paid, monthly to annual)
- Any custom action relevant to your app
Use Cases
Fitness Apps
Track workout completions per referred user. Affiliates whose referrals complete more workouts are driving higher-quality users.
Productivity Apps
Track project creation, team invites, or integration setups. These engagement signals predict long-term retention.
Gaming Apps
Track level completions, in-game achievements, or session duration. Understand which affiliates bring the most engaged players.
Getting Started
Learn more in the Event Tracking documentation.
Key Takeaways
Affiliate event tracking goes far beyond purchase attribution. With in-app event attribution, you can measure custom event tracking for signups, trials, feature usage, and more. Comprehensive affiliate analytics powered by user engagement tracking gives you a complete picture of how mobile app events connect to affiliate activity.