Mobile Attribution Use Cases

If you’ve been keeping up with our blog, you know how to implement mobile attribution to track app installs. Mobile attribution, however, has benefits that extend beyond that. There are many reasons mobile-first platforms closely track their analytics and fine-tune campaigns with tracking baked in.

These are the reasons you want to track mobile metrics, either through your own process or an MMP. 

Better Understanding Your Audience

A slick attribution setup helps you do more of the marketing activities that count. If you can map a mobile user’s journey, you can see where and how they convert as well as why they stay or churn.

Mobile attribution tools help you track where users are downloading your app from, their demographics, and their interests. This granular insight helps you tailor your marketing strategies effectively.

These are the kinds of insights you get from mobile attribution:

Source of downloads

App attribution helps you award the channels that give results. With information about the source of your downloads (be it social ads, retargeting campaigns, or any other means), you can optimize marketing efforts for the most successful channels.

It’s important to choose tools that help you track the whole funnel, so your attribution model doesn’t favor just the last click.

Demographic information

The ad platform you choose typically captures information about a user, such as:

• Device ID

• IP address

• Timestamp

• First install

• User agent

And depending on the platform, you can get even more granular demographics: age, gender, interests, employment, language, etc. Tracking this information lets you know who is most interested in your app — does it align with your ICP?

Behavioral patterns

Ushering users to your app creates a space where you can gather information about how they engage with content post-download. With an MMP, you can track in-app purchases, specific features, content types, and so on that will help you gauge user preferences. This is basically what you’d expect to do with website tracking, too.

For instance, if you discover that a large portion of your audience comes from social media campaigns targeted at young adults, you can focus your ad spend on similar campaigns for more downloads.

If you’re curious about how you can use this data to make even better campaigns, we have guides on targeting strategies based on behavioral, demographic, and contextual information.

Improving App Rankings

Mobile attribution directly impacts your app’s rankings. Often, your rankings are influenced by reviews and downloads, meaning the more people that download your app, the more visible you are on the app store.

By understanding what drives installs, you can climb the app store charts. Higher-ranking apps are associated with better credibility.

It’s a catch-22. You need to be visible on the app store to get downloads, but the only way you’re visible is by having a high download rate. Mobile attribution breaks the cycle of invisibility.

Analyzing User Retention

For the same reason you track your website to understand churn and retention, you’ll want to track app activity. Even without a pixel, mobile attribution tools can track the entire user journey, from installation to uninstallation.

Attribution supports customer lifetime value by:

• Identifying sources of loyal customers

• Learning why users uninstall

• Improving onboarding flows

• Understanding which retargeting campaigns work

For example, if users you acquire through a specific campaign tend to uninstall within a week, you might investigate whether the messaging aligns with your app’s value prop or if the onboarding experience is lacking.

Without a way to track app interactions, you’d struggle to connect the dots and lose plenty of good customers.

Measuring Your Campaigns

Most importantly, mobile attribution helps you measure the effectiveness of your campaigns. Without specific tools for mobile attribution, you don’t know how to optimize campaigns.

Tracking how each marketing campaign contributes to actions like installs and sign-ups helps you build a full-funnel strategy with no weak links. A cross-channel measurement platform will help you learn how each strategy contributes to your goals.

Once you understand the financial impact of your campaigns, you can compare the cost of acquisition to the revenue generated and estimate the ROI.

Attribution tools can show which platform delivers the highest ROI, enabling you to focus resources on the most effective channels. (Hint: We might know a good attribution tool. Ask our team!)

Drive App Engagement

Acquiring users is just the first step. The harder task is keeping users engaged: Nearly 80% of users never use an app again after 72 hours of installation. 

Mobile attribution tools help track key engagement metrics beyond the initial download, such as:

• First deposit

• First sign-up

• Phone number verification

• Subscription trial startup

• Video view

• App launch

• Cart activity

• Product purchase

You can also use this data to run campaigns tailored to different audience segments, like those who signed up but never logged in again, or users who add a product to their cart but don’t buy it. Some actions prime users to stay engaged, so be sure to target those engagements.

Allocating Budget Better

Who loves to save money? Effective budget allocation makes campaigns better. Desktop attribution is one half of the budget equation, but mobile attribution is also essential.

Accurate mobile measurement means you can focus on these elements for a better budget:

• Channel performance: Determine which channels offer the best cost-per-install (CPI) and cost-per-action (CPA).

• User quality: Focus on channels that bring in high-value users who generate revenue.

• Campaign optimization: Identify underperforming campaigns and reallocate the budget to more successful ones.

If attribution data shows that users who converted through Instagram have a lower CPI and higher lifetime value (LTV) than those from Google Ads, you can prioritize Instagram in your marketing budget. The hard numbers back up your choices with facts.

AdRoll Partners with AppsFlyer for Mobile Attribution

Mobile attribution underpins every aspect of app marketing. Mobile attribution isn’t a nice-to-have, but a need-to-have, and that’s why most ad platforms work with MMPs to ensure that advertisers can attribute campaigns everywhere.

At AdRoll, we work with AppsFlyer to give you accurate mobile data. Get in touch with us if you want to start tracking your apps!

Last updated on January 22nd, 2025.