The tracking solutions landscape is a bit cumbersome. Let’s simplify it by saying that all the solutions have something one thing in common: they track users.

Why would you be interested in tracking your users? It depends. If you have a blog, it would be helpful to know what are the posts that got more visits and people staying the most reading them. From that information, you can infer which topics your audience is interested in.

If you have a mobile game, you want to know what’s the average age of the gamers who spent the most time playing it. Then you can adjust your campaigns targeting to that demographic.

Before getting into the solutions, be aware that users don’t ask to be tracked, and if they knew, some would choose not to. This is a gray area, and you should ask for permission before triggering your tracking snippets.

Depending on the technology your business use, you have the following tracking categories:

Web tracking

The most common type is website tracking. You usually place a javascript pixel in your site, and the providers will start collecting information about your visitors.

The pixel might even work on mobile, and you will be able to see the cross-device journeys.

Solutions: Mixpanel, Oribi.

MMPs (Mobile Measurement Partners)

Mobile apps and games are native pre-compiled applications. If you want to track users in this context, you need to install an SDK (library) in your app, and this library will start collecting users activity.

Solutions: Appsflyer, Kochava.

Deep Linking

It might not be considered a tracking solution, but I think it is worth to mention deep linking providers.

With deep links, you can connect a website, or a mobile app, to a specific section in another mobile app, even passing through some data.

For example, if you are running a discount campaign for a particular item in your mobile app, you can link an Ad to the purchase section of the game, and pass through a coupon code.

Solutions: deeplink, Branch.io.

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Leo Celis