AppLovin

info

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AppLovin runs web advertising campaigns through its Axon ad platform. The Axon pixel tracks the shopping events AppLovin uses for attribution and campaign optimization. Once an event key is configured, the Pixel Manager loads the AppLovin pixel and sends all conversion events automatically.

note

The AppLovin integration is currently in beta.

Setup

1. Open the AppLovin dashboard and browse to Account > General > Keys

2. Copy the Event Key

3. In the Pixel Manager, open Tracking Pixels → AppLovin, paste the key into the Event Key field, and save.

That's it. There is no need to manually add the AppLovin pixel snippet or any event snippets to your site. The Pixel Manager loads the pixel and sends the events automatically.

The same event key also serves as the pixel ID of the Conversion API, so there is only one ID to enter.

Like every advertising pixel, AppLovin only loads once the visitor has given marketing consent.

What the pixel sends

The Pixel Manager sends AppLovin's own event names, which follow the GA4 naming scheme, through axon("track", ...). AppLovin's minimum for purchase sites is page_view, view_item, add_to_cart, begin_checkout and purchase, plus sign_up and login. The Pixel Manager covers all of them, and a few more (see Supported Events).

Items carry the following fields:

• item_id: follows the product identifier setting, so it matches the IDs in your catalog feed
• item_name
• price
• quantity
• item_brand
• item_variant_id: for variations

AppLovin also defines item_category_id and image_url. Neither is sent: item_category_id is a Google product taxonomy number, which WooCommerce does not store, and the data layer carries no product image.

Deduplication

Every browser event carries a dedupe_id, and the Conversion API sends the same one for the same event. For purchases the dedupe_id is pmw_<order ID>. AppLovin merges duplicates that arrive within five minutes of each other, so an event that reaches AppLovin through both channels is counted once.

Keep the aleid and alart URL parameters

AppLovin appends the aleid and alart parameters to the URL of every ad click and needs them on the landing page for attribution. Make sure no redirect on your site drops them, for example a redirect that strips query strings, a forced language or currency redirect, or a URL shortener. A redirect that loses them breaks the attribution of that visit.

Advanced Matching

With advanced matching enabled, the Pixel Manager sends the SHA-256 hashed email address, phone number and user ID of logged-in customers and purchasers to AppLovin, with the pixel events and with the Conversion API events. The Conversion API additionally receives the country and postcode.

Hashing follows AppLovin's own normalization rules: email addresses are lowercased, and for Gmail and Googlemail addresses the dots and any plus suffix are removed; phone numbers are reduced to digits including the country code.

All personal data is hashed before it leaves your server. AppLovin receives only the hashes, never the plain values.

You can enable it under Tracking Pixels → AppLovin → Advanced Matching.

Turn on Advanced Matching

AppLovin marks user data as required on purchase and sign_up events. With advanced matching off, the AppLovin Pixel Helper flags the purchase event as incomplete. We recommend enabling it.

Conversion API (CAPI)

The Conversion API is an optional addition to your AppLovin pixel that sends conversion data to AppLovin server-to-server. Purchases are sent from the WooCommerce order itself, so they are tracked even when an ad blocker stops the pixel or the customer closes the tab before the order confirmation page loads. The browser funnel events are relayed through the Conversion API as well, deduplicated against the pixel through the shared dedupe_id.

Find more information in AppLovin's Axon Conversion API documentation.

1. Open the AppLovin dashboard and browse to Account > General > Keys

2. Copy the Conversion API key. If it is not shown there, ask AppLovin support to issue one for your account

3. In the Pixel Manager, open Tracking Pixels → AppLovin (under Show advanced settings), paste the key into the Conversion API Key field, and save.

The Conversion API uses the event key from the setup as its pixel ID, so no second ID is needed.

Identifiers

AppLovin matches Conversion API events on these identifiers:

• the pixel's _axwrt visitor cookie
• AppLovin's aleid click ID, captured from the landing page URL and from the pixel's _axeid cookie, and kept with the order so the server-side purchase still carries it
• the client IP address and user agent
• the hashed email, phone number and user ID, when Advanced Matching is enabled

AppLovin rejects an event that has none of its identifiers (visitor ID, click ID, email, phone or user ID). The Pixel Manager therefore skips such an event instead of sending a request that is bound to fail.

Purchases are routed through SweetCode Cloud when it is active, and sent directly to AppLovin otherwise.

Enhanced user identification

AppLovin recommends mirroring the pixel's _axwrt cookie into a cookie set by the server, because Safari caps the lifetime of cookies written by JavaScript, which would otherwise make returning visitors look new after a few days. The Pixel Manager does this automatically: it copies _axwrt into a server-set axwrt cookie that lasts one year, on your shop's domain without www, with SameSite=Lax.

The cookie is only set when the visitor has given marketing consent, and only from the Pixel Manager's own uncached request on the cart and checkout pages, so page caching is not affected.

Testing

Use the AppLovin Pixel Helper Chrome extension (available in the Chrome Web Store) to verify the browser events. It marks every event green, orange or red, depending on whether it is complete, missing recommended fields, or invalid.

AppLovin publishes no test event code for the Conversion API, so there is no way to send server-side events that are excluded from your reporting.

Server-Side Proxy

You can offload AppLovin Conversion API calls from your WooCommerce server to the edge using the Server-Side Proxy. This reduces server load and improves tracking accuracy by routing events through a first-party subdomain.

Shortcode

The [conversion-pixel] shortcode sends a lead conversion to AppLovin, for lead forms and other conversions outside the shop funnel. By default it sends generate_lead.

[conversion-pixel pixel="applovin"]

To send a different event, set the applovin-event parameter to generate_lead, sign_up or subscribe.

[conversion-pixel pixel="applovin" applovin-event="sign_up"]

AppLovin discounts leads with a value of 0, so pass a value with the applovin-value parameter.

[conversion-pixel pixel="applovin" applovin-event="generate_lead" applovin-value="25"]

More on the shortcodes in the shortcode documentation.

Supported Events

The Pixel Manager sends these AppLovin events:

• page_view: sent on every page.
• view_item: sent on product detail pages, with the product details.
• add_to_cart: sent when a product is added to the cart, with the product details, price and quantity.
• remove_from_cart: sent when a product is removed from the cart.
• view_cart: sent on the cart page, with the cart items.
• begin_checkout: sent when the checkout is started, with the cart value and its items.
• add_payment_info: sent when the customer selects a payment method on the checkout.
• search: sent on search result pages, with the search_term and the result items.
• login: sent when a customer logs in.
• sign_up: sent when a customer account is created.
• purchase: sent when an order is placed, with the order number as transaction_id, the order value, tax, shipping, currency, the new-customer flag and all purchased items. AppLovin defines the value as before tax and shipping; it follows the marketing value logic setting of the Pixel Manager.
• generate_lead, sign_up or subscribe: sent by the [conversion-pixel] shortcode.

Here's a list of supported events.

Find more information on the events and their fields in AppLovin's events and objects documentation.

note

AppLovin matches the product IDs in the tracking events against your product catalog. Make sure the product identifier setting in the Pixel Manager matches the IDs in the catalog you submitted to AppLovin.