The time-to-action report allows you to visualize the time between an offer goal (an action) and the attributed click. This report can help highlight partners with atypical conversion timing and potential fraud. This is similar to what you may have seen in the industry as Time to Install (TTI), Mean Time to Conversion (MTTC), Click to Install Time (CTIT), Session Time Distribution.
You can access this report by going to Reports > Time-to-Action Report.
About This Report
The time-to-action report displays both a table and frequency histogram chart. Together, they enable you to analyze the average behavior for this offer goal, in terms of time-to-action distribution. They also enable you to compare specific partners with the average behavior across all partners.
Default View
When you load the report, it prompts you to select an offer goal for analysis. Initially, the chart should display a light gray histogram chart of the frequency distribution for action by time after click across all partners, as well as the following:
- Chart: If you check a checkbox in this column it will display a new line overlaid on the average chart. The line will be color-matched with the checkbox. You can select up to 5 boxes.
- Partner ID: The partner’s ID.
- Partner: The partner’s name.
- < 30 Sec. (Threshold 1): Percentage of conversions, for that line item, that is below threshold 1. Threshold 1 is usually small (low 10s of seconds or less for mobile applications) and reflects a threshold under which it’s unreasonable (even physically impossible) for a real user to convert. Thus, it’s common for an advertiser to want 0% of their conversions (none of their conversions) to be under that threshold
- > 600 Sec. (Threshold 2): Percentage of conversions, for that line item, that is above threshold 2. This threshold is much larger (can be 1 day, for example, a typical 95th percentile for mobile apps). Also, conversions that occur after that threshold may not be fraudulent. What is suspicious, rather, is if a high percentage of conversions occur above that threshold, especially if the pattern is implausible (symptomatic of click spamming) or with spikes that cannot be explained.
- Total < 30 and > 600: Total of the two columns above, reflecting the total percentage of conversions that are outside the established thresholds. This is the default sort and is used for highlighting partners that have atypical, potentially fraudulent curves.
As you may notice, on some offers, there is a partner that is dominant in volume that will also dominate the average. Of course, if that dominant partner is fraudulent it could make the other partners look atypical. However, based on an understanding of the offer specifics and what is typical for the industry, even this scenario can be correctly diagnosed.
Selecting the Time Range
The buttons at the top-right of the graph allow you to select the visual zoom level: 10 minutes, 1 hour, or 1 day on the x-axis.
Configuring Your Report
To configure the values for Threshold 1 and Threshold 2, click Configure. You can also select the units used for the thresholds (seconds, minutes, hours).
Exporting Your Report
You can export your summary data table as a CSV file by clicking Export.