Singular

Overview

Singular is a unified marketing data platform that specializes in mobile attribution and analytics, serving primarily mobile app marketers. Established in 2014, the platform consolidates data from various marketing channels, ad networks, and internal systems into a single view. This consolidation is designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of marketing performance, from initial ad impression to in-app user behavior and lifetime value (LTV).

The core functionality of Singular revolves around mobile attribution, which involves tracking and assigning credit for app installs and in-app events to specific marketing campaigns or sources. This is critical for optimizing ad spend and understanding the efficacy of different channels. Beyond basic attribution, Singular incorporates advanced ad fraud prevention mechanisms, aiming to detect and mitigate various types of fraudulent activities that can inflate ad costs and distort performance metrics. This includes identifying bot traffic, click injection, and other forms of fraudulent engagement, as detailed in industry analyses of ad fraud prevention strategies by publications like Search Engine Journal's guide to mobile ad fraud.

Singular also offers cost aggregation, which involves collecting and normalizing cost data from numerous ad platforms. By combining this cost data with attribution data, marketers can calculate key performance indicators (KPIs) such as return on ad spend (ROAS) and customer acquisition cost (CAC) with greater accuracy. The platform's ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) capabilities facilitate the movement of this unified data into data warehouses and business intelligence tools, enabling further analysis and integration with broader enterprise data strategies. This capability is particularly beneficial for organizations that require granular control over their data infrastructure and wish to integrate marketing insights with other operational data sets. Singular's focus on data unification and fraud detection positions it as a tool for marketers seeking to enhance the transparency and efficiency of their mobile advertising efforts, ultimately supporting data-driven decision making for LTV measurement and campaign optimization.

Key features

• Unified Marketing Data Platform: Aggregates data from over 2,000 marketing channels, ad networks, and internal data sources into a single platform for comprehensive analysis.
• Mobile Attribution: Provides deterministic and probabilistic attribution models to accurately credit app installs and in-app events to specific marketing campaigns across various channels, including paid, organic, and owned media.
• Cost Aggregation: Automatically collects, normalizes, and reconciles cost data from diverse ad platforms, enabling accurate calculation of ROAS, CAC, and other financial metrics.
• Ad Fraud Prevention: Employs a suite of algorithms and detection methods to identify and block various types of mobile ad fraud, such as click spam, click injection, install hijacking, and bot traffic, aiming to protect ad spend and data integrity.
• ETL and Data Warehousing: Facilitates the extraction, transformation, and loading of marketing data into enterprise data warehouses (e.g., Snowflake, Google BigQuery) and business intelligence tools, supporting advanced analytics and custom reporting.
• Deep Linking: Offers capabilities for creating and managing deep links, ensuring users are directed to specific content within an app after clicking an ad or marketing link.
• Audience Management: Tools for segmenting users based on behavior, demographics, and campaign interactions, enabling targeted marketing and re-engagement strategies.
• Reporting and Analytics: Customizable dashboards and reports provide insights into campaign performance, user LTV, cohort analysis, and other key metrics, with options for granular data exploration.

Pricing

Singular offers custom enterprise pricing, which is tailored to the specific needs and scale of each client. This model typically involves direct consultation with their sales team to determine a solution that aligns with the client's data volume, feature requirements, and level of support. As of May 2026, specific public pricing tiers are not disclosed on their website.

Common integrations

• Ad Networks & DSPs: Integration with platforms like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, TikTok Ads, Snap Ads, and numerous demand-side platforms for attribution and cost aggregation. Singular Integration Overview.
• Mediation Platforms: Compatibility with ad mediation services for comprehensive ad revenue measurement.
• Marketing Automation Platforms: Connections to platforms for email marketing, push notifications, and in-app messaging.
• Data Warehouses: Direct ETL integrations with cloud data warehouses such as Snowflake, Google BigQuery, and Amazon Redshift for advanced data analysis and storage. Singular Data Connectors Documentation.
• Business Intelligence Tools: Export capabilities to BI tools like Tableau, Looker, and Power BI for custom reporting and visualization.
• CRM Systems: Integration with customer relationship management platforms to enrich user profiles and improve segmentation.
• App Store Connect & Google Play Console: Data ingestion from app stores for organic install tracking and performance monitoring.

Alternatives

• Adjust: A mobile measurement partner offering attribution, analytics, and fraud prevention, often compared for its global reach and enterprise capabilities.
• Kochava: Provides mobile attribution, analytics, and a data-driven platform for managing and optimizing mobile campaigns.
• AppsFlyer: A widely used mobile attribution and marketing analytics platform with a strong focus on fraud protection and diverse integrations.
• Branch Metrics: Specializes in deep linking, attribution, and mobile analytics, particularly strong in user experience optimization across different platforms.
• Firebase (Google Analytics for Firebase): Google's mobile development platform offering analytics, crash reporting, and other tools, including a free attribution solution for basic needs.

Getting started

Integrating the Singular SDK into a mobile application involves adding the SDK to your project and initializing it with your API key. The following example demonstrates a basic initialization for an Android application using Gradle, as per the Singular Android SDK Integration documentation. Similar steps apply for iOS and other platforms.

1. Add the Singular SDK dependency to your build.gradle file (app-level):

dependencies {
    implementation 'com.singular.sdk:singular_sdk:12.7.0' // Use the latest version
}

2. Initialize the SDK in your Application class or main Activity:

import com.singular.sdk.Singular;
import com.singular.sdk.SingularConfig;

public class MyApplication extends Application {

    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
        super.onCreate();

        String singularApiKey = "YOUR_SINGULAR_API_KEY";
        String singularSecret = "YOUR_SINGULAR_SECRET";

        SingularConfig config = new SingularConfig(singularApiKey, singularSecret);
        Singular.init(this, config);

        // Optional: Set a custom user ID
        // Singular.setCustomUserId("user_id_123");

        // Optional: Track a custom event
        // Singular.event("AppOpened");
    }
}

3. Ensure your AndroidManifest.xml includes necessary permissions:

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.example.yourapp">

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
    <uses-permission android:name="com.google.android.gms.permission.AD_ID" /> <!-- For Google Play Services Ad ID -->

    <application
        android:name=".MyApplication"
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:roundIcon="@mipmap/ic_launcher_round"
        android:supportsRtl="true"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme">
        <activity android:name=".MainActivity">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
    </application>
</manifest>

Replace "YOUR_SINGULAR_API_KEY" and "YOUR_SINGULAR_SECRET" with your actual credentials obtained from your Singular dashboard. This basic setup initiates the SDK, allowing it to begin tracking app lifecycle events and user data for attribution and analytics purposes.