Storing branch attributes offline from Branch.io to track user attribution in my own database - branch.io

Question

I am trying to store our a campaign attribution identifier offline so that we can do some very custom analytics on the response. Our business team has very specific criteria for determining repeat user activities in our system that can't be tracked with normal analytics, at least not in a very simple way. They need to know how individual users were referred to our system via campaigns, links, etc.
I believe this is as simple as using branch.io to generate a link with specific data in that link. Then, assuming that user ever clicked that link, we should be able to, from our app, use the branch.io SDK to call out to branch.io, retrieve the attribution information, and then pass it to our own servers.
Is this use case possible with branch.io, and am I thinking of it correctly?
Create a branch.io link with a unique referral source
User clicks on that link which may or may not take them to an install
Eventually the user installs our app
On registration within our app we query branch.io using the SDK and ask it for existing attribution information associated to that user.
We make an API call to our own services and pass down whatever we got from branch.io and the user's ID to persist in our own analytics database.
Please let me know if this is possible and if we're thinking of it correctly. I believe this is fundamentally the same use case as custom on-boarding but need to verify for our management team before we bother to implement.

Answer 1

The client-to-server technique that you have described in your response will absolutely work with Branch! If you are interested in a server-to-server approach, your best bet would be to create a webhook from your Dashboard account for the Install event. When installs are referred you'll notice that the json data included in the response will have:
{
"metadata": {
"ip": "<purposely stripped out>",
"referred": true
},
"os": "iOS",
"session_referring_click_timestamp": "2016-02-09T15:57:23.411Z",
"session_referring_click_query": {},
"os_version": "9.2.1",
"first_referring_click_timestamp": "2016-02-09T15:57:23.411Z",
"first_referring_link_data": {
"date_ms": 1455033416690,
"date_sec": 1455033416,
"date": "2016-02-09T15:56:56.690Z",
"data": {
"$og_title": "Jingles Bingleheimer",
"$publicly_indexable": 1,
"face_index": "2",
"~creation_source": 3,
"$identity_id": "225633246304569572",
"monster": "true",
"+url": "https://bnc.lt/ALMc/pkZbNmazPq",
"$one_time_use": false,
"~id": "225633381004658863",
"~channel": "sms",
"body_index": "1",
"monster_name": "Matts Monster",
"$exp_date": 0,
"color_index": "4"
},
"branch_id": "225633381004658863",
"app_short_identifier": "625048",
"domain": "bnc.lt",
"channel": "sms",
"state": 1,
"href": "/ALMc/pkZbNmazPq"
},
"first_referring_click_query": {},
"event": "install",
"event_timestamp": "2016-02-09T15:57:51.019Z",
"session_referring_link_data": {
"date_ms": 1455033416690,
"date_sec": 1455033416,
"date": "2016-02-09T15:56:56.690Z",
"data": {
"$og_title": "Jingles Bingleheimer",
"$publicly_indexable": 1,
"face_index": "2",
"~creation_source": 3,
"$identity_id": "225633246304569572",
"monster": "true",
"+url": "https://bnc.lt/ALMc/pkZbNmazPq",
"$one_time_use": false,
"~id": "225633381004658863",
"~channel": "sms",
"body_index": "1",
"monster_name": "Matts Monster",
"$exp_date": 0,
"color_index": "4"
},
"branch_id": "225633381004658863",
"app_short_identifier": "625048",
"domain": "bnc.lt",
"channel": "sms",
"state": 1,
"href": "/ALMc/pkZbNmazPq"
},
"hardware_id": "<purposely stripped out>"
}
As you can see, it will include the referring link information in the response.
In general, installs will be referred if:
The user clicks on a Branch link and there is an identity associated to the link.
The user installing the app has not installed the app in the past.
Also, webhook documentation can be found here and the SDK will need to be integrated with your app so that Branch can understand that an Install event has occurred.
Note: You can also create webhooks on custom events such as "sign_up_complete" as well.