Normally, advertisers can’t accurately attribute app installs to an ad campaign. Without clear attribution methods, they make decisions with less understanding to which channels drive conversion. And without data to guide us, we lead with our assumptions, and we can’t prove our advertising is effective.
In this guide, we’ll learn how you can attribute app installs to better optimize your ad strategies. Read this tutorial and your stakeholders will thank you!
If you don’t have data to back your decisions up, you’re flying blind. Based on limited metrics, you’ll have to make the call which channels are succeeding, leaving a KPI like app installs out of the equation.
App install data is also crucial to teach you about audience interest and demographics. If you understand which channels and targeted audiences download your app, you’ll better understand who your app is for.
If you get these answers right and serve your app ads to the right audience and channels, your paid ad campaigns can boost both visibility and download rates. More installs means you’ll rank higher on the app stores, leading to more organic installs after a campaign. That’s right — an ad campaign eventually leads to more organic conversions.
So, app install attribution goes beyond the obvious. At the end of the day, it influences how many people will see your app altogether.
Everyone would be doing app attribution if it were easy. Because of the data fragmentation coming from multiple mobile sources (think Android and iOS stores), it’s difficult to track campaigns consistently.
In addition, the user journey occurs over touchpoints on different devices. Simply tracking an app install ignores the important steps in the user journey to conversion after install. You’d be tracking installs with no context.
Then, there’s simply a lack of know-how. This guide will tackle all of these, since mobile ad tracking doesn’t need to be difficult.
The step-by-step process isn’t too different from desktop attribution, with the caveat that you’re using different methods of tracking user behavior.
This is how attribution begins. A user views or clicks on an ad that then qualifies as a touchpoint in their user journey. This could (and likely will) occur multiple times before conversion. These data points make users easier to identify and target in the future, forming a more holistic view of their behavior.
The platform for the ad (Instagram, for example) captures data points about the user. These include identifying information that gives each customer a unique profile:
Device ID
IP address
Timestamp
First install
User agent
From here, an attribution provider links the engagement (in this case, clicking a link to install the app) to the app store with UTM parameters the advertiser provides.
Not too dissimilar to desktop tracking, right? The difference is the methods to use to track mobile attribution. MMPs go where a pixel cannot.
There are a couple main methods for tracking mobile app installs. Advertisers choose their method based on the level of visibility and control they’d like over the process, and the level of difficulty to implement them. The big two are MMPs and a more DIY approach through app store referrers.
One of the simplest methods of app attribution is a mobile measure partner (MMP). MMPs like AppsFlyer and Adjust are platforms that provide attribution solutions.
These platforms give you the ability to analyze and track app activity. They offer a unified view of campaigns for mobile apps, with simple implementation: you’ll download and integrate an SDK.
An MMP SDK allows you to track in-app events. One of the pros of MMPs is their custom event abilities that give you insight into install events and also app activity, meaning they’re more comprehensive than your other options and lend themselves well to the full marketing lifecycle, including redownload retargeting.
Both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store offer their own referral data to track installs. This method shows which campaigns led users to download your app from the app store.
Though they used to be less robust, app store referrers now provide more accurate insights into who is downloading your app and why. Many MMPs integrate data from multiple app stores for a more detailed picture of total installs (or any other app store metrics you’re tracking).
Source: Apple
Attaching UTM parameters to your ad URLs helps you track the source, medium, and campaign that drove the click. This method is a time-honored marketing tradition, and deceptively simple.
UTM parameters require vigilance on your team’s behalf. You’ll have to accurately document and implement them across your campaigns, and using them to track installs can lead to some false positives.
Additionally, this solution works better for the Android app store. It’s not as simple for iOS app tracking, where you can’t pass the UTM referrer parameter to the PlayStore URL after installation. That’s why app store metrics aren’t the best tracking solution.
Let’s show you how we’d set up a sturdy system for accurate app install attribution. One that’s fast and robust. Thank us later!
To start, select a platform that aligns with your attribution model and supports your ad channels. Common attribution models include:
Last-click attribution: Awards 100% of conversion credit to the last touchpoint that the user clicked on.
First-click attribution: Assigns 100% of the credit to the first marketing touchpoint (the channel or activity that acquired the contact).
Linear attribution: Each touchpoint is awarded equal credit for the conversion.
Time-decay attribution: Assigns credit based on how closely the touchpoint occurred to the time of conversion. This means that the more recent channels/ads are awarded more credit.
This list to attribution tracking is hardly comprehensive, and you can often tailor the tools you work with to what you favor.
Ensure the platform integrates with the platforms you advertise on, such as Facebook, X, Instagram, and so on.
For the sake of this tutorial, we’ll show you how AppsFlyer works. AppsFlyer uses a last ad click or impression attribution model. That’s why AdRoll’s data comes in handy, since we give you info on user behavior throughout the customer journey, and AppsFlyer will help you track the last click to installation.
AppsFlyer integrates with many of the most popular platforms, including Android, iOS, web, and CTV.
Most attribution platforms require an SDK to integrate with your app, and AppsFlyer is no different. Thankfully, SDK implementation is much simpler than managing your own UTMs for each campaign or trying to piece together native app store analytics.
AppsFlyer has comprehensive docs that walk developers through integration.
Next, you incorporate UTM parameters in your ad links to capture details about the source, medium, and campaign.
AppsFlyer does this for you automatically through Smart Script. The process listed in their docs is simple:
Make a list of UTM parameters on the incoming URL (for example: utm_source and utm_campaign) and match them to the parameters for the outgoing URL (for example: media_source and campaign).
Provide these in the list of arguments to the web developer.
This ensures your app download data can roll up to larger campaign goals more quickly than manually doing this for everything yourself. Then, you can track who is downloading your apps and where they're downloading your apps.
Or, if you prefer a less manual approach, AppsFlyer has their own UTM-like parameters that use names like af_ad for the name of the ad. So, you may choose to use traditional UTM parameters and MMP-specific parameters.
AdRoll uses ad macros that can work with UTM and MMP-specific URL parameters.
AppsFlyer uses deep linking to direct users to the right page based on their platform. That means users who click an ad CTA on a mobile device might be directed to download an app, while desktop users will be directed to a website.
AppsFlyer helps you see campaign conversions from their dashboard. When integrated with a product like AdRoll, you can track where users convert and from which campaigns.
For instance, AppsFlyer data on this dashboard is visible through af_media_play:
This gives you the power to analyze and optimize campaign performance with more agency than you’d have with an app store referrer or MMP alone. You can answer questions like:
Which campaigns drive the most app installs and why?
What are our best performing channels for driving mobile installs?
Which ad networks are driving positive ROI?
Mobile app attribution is a necessity, no longer a luxury. Customers convert through tablets, phones, CTV, and desktop — and many companies operate mobile-first.
With how competitive mobile advertising is, you’ll want to ensure proof of your campaigns’ success. Choosing the right method to attribute app installs gives you the ability to make better decisions, and with how important it is to show your work, tracking installs is essential.
Thankfully, AdRoll is partnered with AppsFlyer to make app tracking and ad tracking play nice. Get in touch with us to learn more.
Last updated on January 23rd, 2025.
