Introduction

The mParticle platform is the hub for all of your data. It collects data from any number of inputs - mobile apps, web, feeds from external SAAS providers, data sent via our Events API - and forwards it on to output services to be used for analytics, attribution, storage, audience targeting, push notifications, etc.

The primary task accomplished in the mParticle dashboard is creating Connections between inputs and outputs - to collect your data, enrich and transform it, and forward it to where it needs to go. mParticle forwards two main types of data:

• Events data is about what users do in your app. Opening your app, logging in, viewing a screen and making a purchase can all be captured with Events data. For example, you might track the average number of sessions per user over a given period of time as a way of measuring user engagement with your app.
• Audience data captures groups of users that meet a given set of criteria. For example, you might create an audience of users who have purchased icecream from your app and forward that audience to a marketing automation platform, to target messages to those users when new dairy products become available.

To get started with mParticle, you will need to set up some data inputs and integrate with at least one output service. See our Getting Started Guide for an in-depth tutorial.

Once you’re up and running, see the rest of this Platform guide for a more advanced look at the mParticle dashboard, or browse the Integrations Centre to see all available integrations.