Hightouch Events provides a flexible interface for tracking both user traits
and user events. This flexibility allows you to adapt the tracking to your
specific business context. With the tracking API, you can power a wide range of
use cases, from user activation to detailed analytics.
Identify events capture data about who your users are. This user context
is vital for understanding and targeting your users. For example, you might use
the collected identifiers in followup email campaigns, to segment your users by
location, or to link anonymous and authenticated events.
Identify events have three main components:
An anonymous id. Anonymous ids are used to tie together events coming
from the same device. Tying additional user ids or traits to the an
anonymous id lets you better understand other events coming from the same
device. The anonymous id is autogenerated and stored on the client, and is
included in other event types such as Track events.
A user id. A user ID is a persistent identifier that's associated with
the same user across devices and sessions. For example, it's common to use a
user ID generated by your database. You should avoid using identifiers that
may change, such as email, since if the user updates their email you will
still want to treat them as the user.
Additional user traits. You may optionally provide additional user
traits. Examples include the user's email, name, or age.
Track events capture data on what the user is doing. Track events can
capture a broad range of actions, such as clicking a button, completing a
purchase, or creating a new account.
Additional information about the event can be included in the properties
field. For example, for a Purchase Complete event, you may want to include
the product ids of the purchased products.
When syncing into the warehouse, the event field is used to generate table
names in the warehouse. Additionally, the
properties field is autoconverted into
columns in the warehouse.
Screen events are the equivalent of page views for mobile apps. Like
page events, you should automatically call the screen event when a mobile
screen view is loaded.
Group events let you associate users with a larger group. For example, a user
may be part of an organization, or family.
The traits field is optional, and can include information on traits on the
group. For example, if linking a user to a company, you may include traits on
the company such as the company size or location.