Cross-platform attribution

How it works

Each platform gets its own collector: an SDK in the app, a script on the website, and other integrations for PC, console or TV. Each collector sends events to the same attribution platform. The platform then joins events that belong to one person, most reliably through a user ID that your product sets after login. With the join in place, an ad seen in one place can be credited for a purchase made in another.

Here "platform" means a surface where your product runs. The word is also used for iOS versus Android, and for ad platforms. Check which sense a vendor means.

When it matters

It matters when conversions of value happen in more than one place. A shop whose customers browse in the app and pay on the website needs it. So does a game sold on both mobile and PC. An app whose website exists only to send people to the store usually does not. That narrower case is web-to-app, which ends in the app and needs less.

How it relates to attribution

Standard mobile attribution answers which touchpoint led to an install on one phone. Cross-platform attribution widens both ends: touchpoints and conversions may sit on different surfaces. The hard part is identity, covered in recognising one person across the website and the app.

Vendors often place it on a higher plan. Airbridge, for one, lists web event measurement and PC, console and CTV attribution in its Growth Plan.^[1]