What are Definitions?
Definitions are the building blocks of how adtribute understands and processes your data. They help describe and organize different types of information and interactions regarding the users, channels and products of your business and are broken down into 5 types: Events, Entitities, Conversions, Touchpoints and Channels.
Events & Entitities are basically our base layers and Conversions, Touchpoints & Channels are the intermediate layers on which you can build more logic on top of the base layer defintions.
Types of Definitions
Events: These capture any interaction a user has with your digital product, such as clicking buttons, submitting forms, making purchases, or viewing pages.
Entities: These describe objects in your business, like meetings, orders, customers and provide the latest information about them, e.g. canceled meeting or order.
Conversions: These represent successful outcomes you want to track, like purchases or lead submissions.
Touchpoints: These identify interactions specifically related to marketing channels, such as ad clicks, email opens or filling out post purchase surveys.
Channels: These describe your marketing channels and provide additional context to user touchpoints that are associated with the respective channels, e.g. ad spend and naming conventions for campaigns, ad sets and ads.
Definitions are further split up into their Configuration and the Attributes.
Understanding Configurations
Each Definition Layer consists of their Configurations which define the fundamental settings that determine what the respective layer is (e.g. what is an Event, Entity, etc.), how it behaves and how the data is processed in the system.
Here are some examples for standard Configurations for the 5 Definition Layers (there are many more):
Events | Entities | Conversions | Touchpoints | Channels |
Viewed a product | Shopify Order | Initiated Checkout | Meta Ads Touchpoint | Meta Ads |
Added a product to cart | Shopify Customer | Add to Cart | Google Ads Touchpoint | Google Ads |
Started a checkout | Shopify Order Line Item | Klaviyo Lead | TikTok Ads Touchpoint | TikTok Ads |
Submitted a form |
| Shopify Order | UTM Source / UTM Medium Touchpoint |
|
Viewed a page |
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| Referrer Ads Touchpoint |
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Subscribed to a list |
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Creating Custom Configurations
As of right now, the Configuration for Events, Entities and Channels are pre-defined by the Connections.
Events and Entities are always created and tracked automatically. You can integrate Custom Channels within the Connections with sheets that then show up in the Channels layer.
For Conversions and Touchpoint, you can configure custom definitions based on Events and Entities.
You can create a custom Configuration for Conversions and Touchpoints by clicking into the layer and then on the top right you see the "Create x" button.
You can find a detailed explanation on how to create these Configurations in the following articles:
Common Custom Configuration Use Cases:
Custom Conversion metrics or filters for hero orders, completed configuration or midway through quiz
Custom Touchpoints for smaller Channels or platformless Channels like Influencer or AppLovin
Custom Channels like Infuencer or AppLovin by creating sheets in the Connections layer
Understanding Attributes
Each definition can have multiple Attributes that provide additional information. Think of Attributes as properties that describe your definitions in more detail.
Here are some examples for standard Attributes for the 5 Definition Layers (there are many more):
Events | Entities | Conversions | Touchpoints | Channels |
Meta Ads ID | Fulfillment Costs | Gross Revenue | Country | Channel Name |
Google Ads ID | Fixed Transaction Costs | Net Revenue | Sessions | Channel Bucket |
TikTok Ads ID | Product Costs | GMV | Landing Page | Channel Product Grouping |
UTM Source / Medium | Variable Transaction Costs | Sold Quanitity |
| Channel Country |
Referrer |
| Product Title |
| PPS Grouping |
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| Discounts & Taxes |
| Impressions |
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| CM1, 2 & 3 |
| Thumb Stop Ratio |
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|
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| Thru Plays |
Types of Attributes
Predefined Attributes: Built-in attributes that come with adtribute by default.
Connection Attributes: Automatically created when you connect platforms like Shopify or Google Ads.
Custom Attributes: Attributes you create to track specific information unique to your business.
Creating Custom Attributes
When creating definitions, think about what questions you want to answer about your business. This will help you determine which events to track and what Attributes to include.
Begin with your most important business outcomes as conversion definitions
Identify key marketing touchpoints that influence these conversions
Map out the customer journey events you want to track
Consider what additional attributes would provide valuable insights
When you create Attributes always make sure to keep a clear naming conventions for easy identification and add a detailed descriptions to help team members understand each definition's purpose.
You can create a custom Attribute by clicking into the respective layer and then on the top right you see the "Create x" button.
You can find a detailed explanation on how to create these Attributes in the following articles:
Common Custom Attributes Use Cases:
Product Grouping
Mapping Naming Conventions to sold Product Groups defined by product tags or SKUs to then filter for those Product Groups in the dashboards and see how they perform (Revenue, Spend, Product Cost, Profit).
Country/Store Grouping
Mapping Naming Conventions to Conversion Country or Store/Domain to then filter for those Countries/Stores in the dashboards and see how they perform (Revenue, Spend, Product Cost, Profit).
Hero Product Order Grouping
Mapping Naming Conventions to Orders containing a certain (hero) product to then filter for those Countries/Stores in the dashboards and see how they perform (Revenue, Spend, Product Cost, Profit).