PC game advertising incorporates a variety of campaign strategies across different platforms. Airbridge ensures cross-platform advertising measurement on mobile devices, the web, and PCs to provide you with a comprehensive insight into the growth of your PC game.
Note
This feature is currently in beta. For inquiries and improvement requests, contact your CSM.
To measure the effectiveness of PC game ads, cross-platform measurement is required, as user engagement with the ads can occur across various platforms beyond the PC or console where the game is played. Airbridge supports data collection across mobile devices, the web, and PCs.
In this scenario, users who click an ad are redirected to a landing page where the Airbridge Web SDK is installed. Airbridge collects data from this website and the PC game to measure ad performance. This method is recommended when tracking campaigns where tracking links can’t be used. The collected cookie IDs can also be used for running effective retargeting campaigns.
Airbridge collects data using the tracking links across platforms to measure the performance of PC game ads.
For the PC game measurement, data from mobile devices, the web, and PC games must be collected and sent to Airbridge. The data collected from tracking links and websites are sent to Airbridge via the Airbridge SDK, and the data collected from the PC games should be sent to Airbridge via API.
Follow the steps below to set up PC game measurement using a landing page. If you want to proceed without a landing page, skip this section and move to Creating tracking links.
Prepare a landing page to redirect users who click your ad. The landing page can be where the users can start playing the PC game or a game distribution platform page like Steam or Epik Games Store.
Installing the Airbridge Web SDK to the landing page allows you to track ad performance without tracking links and run effective retargeting campaigns using the cookie IDs collected via the SDK.
Registering a mobile app is not required to get started. Simply enter a website or the desired landing page into the Website field. It can be changed afterward.
Refer to this article to learn more about getting started with Airbridge.
Install the Airbridge Web SDK to the desired landing page. By enabling the UTM parsing of the Web SDK, Airbridge can track data via UTM parameters without the use of tracking links.
Design the event taxonomy for your PC game measurement. The game events will be sent to Airbridge and recorded following the set event taxonomy.
Create a tracking link to use for your ad. When creating an integration channel tracking link in the Airbridge dashboard, configure the website destination as the desired landing page. If you don’t have a website, you can enter the game distribution platform URL of your game, such as Steam or Epic Games Store.
For detailed instructions on how to create tracking links, refer to this article.
The in-game events collected from the PC game shall be sent to Airbridge via the S2S event API.
Refer to the information below and send the PC game events via the S2S event API. For more details on the S2S event API, refer to this . Make sure to send to the in-app event endpoints and not to the in-web event endpoints.
The following table shows the different endpoints for the PC game installs, PC game opens, and In-game events.
In-game events are events that are performed after the user performs the PC game install or PC game open events.
Event |
Endpoint |
|---|---|
PC game install |
|
PC game open |
|
In-game event |
|
Send the IPs with the X-Forwarded-For header when in-game events occur. If not, the server IP that called the API will be sent with the in-game events, and Airbridge will be unable to connect the ad click and in-game event.
Refer to the following table for sending the PC game events to Airbridge. To learn more about standard and custom events, refer to this article.
Name |
Required or Optional |
Description |
|---|---|---|
| Required | Send the user ID that is used to identify users in your gaming service. This user ID will be used for attribution. |
| Optional | Send the device and platform information. |
| Optional | Send events collected from the PC game. The |
Send the PC Game Install or the PC Game Open events before sending the in-game events to Airbridge. The attribution result of the in-game events sent afterward will vary depending on the event first sent. Refer to the table below.
The users who return to your game after a certain period of time can be measured by enabling Airbridge's reactivation tracking feature. Refer to this articleto find out more.
User type |
Send first |
Description |
|---|---|---|
New users or users with no tracking records in Airbridge | PC Game Install | This is a , triggering attribution. Attribution is performed following the configured attribution rule. |
Existing users or users with tracking records in Airbridge | PC Game Open | This is not a Target Event, and attribution is not triggered. |
Suppose the attribution window is set to 3 days.
Date |
User |
Events sent to Airbridge |
Description |
|---|---|---|---|
Jan 1 | User A | 1. PC Game Install event | Attribution is triggered by the PC Game Install event. |
Jan 2 | User A | 1. PC Game Install event | The Purchase Item event occurred within the attribution window and is attributed to the same touchpoint that drove the PC Game Install event. |
Jan 3 | User B | 1. PC Game Install event | Attribution is triggered by the PC Game Install event. |
Jan 4 | User C | 1. PC Game Open event | There is no prior Target Event. All events are classified as Unattributed. |
Jan 5 | User A | 1. PC Game Open event | The events occurred beyond the attribution window of the PC Game Install event of User A, which triggered the attribution. All events are classified as Unattributed. |
Refer to the examples below for sending PC game events via the S2S event API.
Refer to the example below.
curl --location 'https://api.airbridge.io/events/v1/apps/{{ APP_NAME }}/mobile-app/9161' \
--header 'Authorization: AIRBRIDGE-API-TOKEN {{ API_TOKEN }}' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'X-Forwarded-For: {{ CLIENT_IP }}' \
--data '{
"user": {
"externalUserID": "abrid123"
},
"device": {
"platform": "steam",
"deviceType": "desktop",
"osName": "Windows",
"osVersion": "11",
"screen": {
"width": 1920,
"height": 1080
}
}
}'Refer to the example below.
curl --location 'https://api.airbridge.io/events/v1/apps/{{ APP_NAME }}/mobile-app/9160' \
--header 'Authorization: AIRBRIDGE-API-TOKEN {{ API_TOKEN }}' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'X-Forwarded-For: {{ CLIENT_IP }}' \
--data '{
"user": {
"externalUserID": "abrid123"
},
"device": {
"platform": "steam",
"deviceType": "desktop",
"osName": "Windows",
"osVersion": "11",
"screen": {
"width": 1920,
"height": 1080
}
}
}'Refer to the example below to send various in-game events to Airbridge.
curl --location 'https://api.airbridge.io/events/v1/apps/{{ APP_NAME }}/mobile-app/9360' \
--header 'Authorization: AIRBRIDGE-API-TOKEN {{ API_TOKEN }}' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'X-Forwarded-For: {{ CLIENT_IP }}' \
--data '{
"user": {
"externalUserID": "abrid123"
},
"device": {
"platform": "steam",
"deviceType": "desktop",
"osName": "Windows",
"osVersion": "11",
"screen": {
"width": 1920,
"height": 1080
}
},
"eventData": {
"goal": {
"category": "buy_item",
"action": "weapon",
"label": "longsword",
"value": 1.234,
"customAttributes": {
"foo": "foo",
"bar": 1.234
}
}
}
}'It is advised to send revenue events as Airbridge Standard Events so you can use the revenue data for postbacks and view them in Airbridge reports such as the Revenue Report.
When configuring theeventData.goal.categoryas airbridge.ecommerce.order.completed, the revenue data is sent as the Order Complete event, and the eventData.goal.value will be reported as the revenue amount.
curl --location 'https://api.airbridge.io/events/v1/apps/{{ APP_NAME }}/mobile-app/9360' \
--header 'Authorization: AIRBRIDGE-API-TOKEN {{ API_TOKEN }}' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'X-Forwarded-For: {{ CLIENT_IP }}' \
--data '{
"user": {
"externalUserID": "abrid123"
},
"device": {
"platform": "steam",
"deviceType": "desktop",
"osName": "Windows",
"osVersion": "11",
"screen": {
"width": 1920,
"height": 1080
}
},
"eventData": {
"goal": {
"category": "airbridge.ecommerce.order.completed",
"value": 1.234
}
}
}'Check the items below to make sure the PC game measurement is successfully set up.
Items |
What to test |
Troubleshooting |
|---|---|---|
Attribution | Make sure that the PC game installs and in-game events are attributed to the intended ad channel after clicking the tracking link. | Make sure the IPs that have generated in-game events are sent with the |
API configuration | Make sure the events are collected according to the API configuration. The API configuration can be tested by sending events without the | Check the API configuration again. |
The PC game measurement results can be viewed in the Airbridge report by selecting the game events as the report metric. The game events will be recorded as app events, with “(App)” appended to the metric name.
The PC game events are defined by the information sent via the eventData.goal parameter. You can create a customized report view using the information sent via the eventData.goal parameters to fit your marketing needs.
Suppose the "Level Achieved" event parameters have been configured as below.
eventData.goal.action: The location information of the user who achieved a certain level within the gameeventData.goal.label: The method of achieving the level
In the Airbridge report, select level_achieved (App) as the metric and Channel, Event Action, and Event Label as GroupBy to create a report view like the following image.
Suppose the parameters of the “Purchase Item” event have been configured as below.
eventData.goal.category: purchase_itemeventData.goal.action: The type information of the purchased itemeventData.goal.label: The information on how the item was attached to the game character
In the Airbridge report, select purchase_item (App) as the metric and Channel, Event Action, and Event Label as GroupBy to create a report view like the following image.
Airbridge uses probabilistic approach for PC game measurement. The connection between touchpoints and conversions is inferred within a 6-hour timeframe, but the timeframe can be modified for PC game measurement.
Make sure to avoid the following mistakes.
IP not sent: Send IP with the
X-Forwarded-Forheader when an in-game event occurs.Wrong endpoint: Send events to the correct endpoints.
S2S API configuration error: Send data via the S2S event API for in-app events.
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