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Ask HN: Can you segment inorganic vs. organic app downloads iOS with SearchAds?

When running a campaign w/ Apple search ads, is there any way to know whether the user launching the app came from search ads, or from Twitter, other social, website etc. I'm guessing there isn't but thought I'd ask. It might be that the conversation rate for users is the same for most apps regardless of their referral method, but I'm not always sure this would be the case. Users sometimes trust ads less versus blog posts depending on how they were introduced to the product (conversion rates are much higher with word of mouth for example). What I'm looking for is in applicationDidFinishLaunchingWithOptions(...) to be able to have a boolean that is whether or not the download was organic versus paid.

erikbrodch 7y ago
these can help: https://support.appsflyer.com/hc/en-us/articles/213747963-Apple-Search-Ads-configuration#introduction https://support.appsflyer.com/hc/en-us/articles/213747963-Ap... https://docs.branch.io/deep-linked-ads/apple-mobile-tracking/ https://docs.branch.io/deep-linked-ads/apple-mobile-tracking...
Nextgrid 7y ago
Please don't stalk people. Your metric should be whether you are making more $$$ with the ads than without.
- erikbrodch 7y ago
  I don't think it's stalking. As mentioned, it's anon'; In addition, $ isn't always the KPI you are looking at. If, for example, you want to see what source of traffic brings the most retained users in order to invest your marketing budget in the right place? Totally legit IMHO.
- davidajackson 7y ago
  These metrics are anonymized. This is for A/B testing and it's common practice to optimize onboarding flow based on where users came from. Not stalking at all. It's literally called Growth and companies have entire teams dedicated to optimizing onboarding. >> Your metric should be whether you are making more $$$ with the ads than without. Not if you have different conversion rates based upon where your customers come from (and want to improve conversation rates by A/B testing different customer segments); then the metric you suggest is bad. You have an extra variable which is organic acquisition so you can't optimize as well.

erikbrodch 7y ago

these can help: https://support.appsflyer.com/hc/en-us/articles/213747963-Apple-Search-Ads-configuration#introduction https://support.appsflyer.com/hc/en-us/articles/213747963-Ap... https://docs.branch.io/deep-linked-ads/apple-mobile-tracking/ https://docs.branch.io/deep-linked-ads/apple-mobile-tracking...

Nextgrid 7y ago

Please don't stalk people. Your metric should be whether you are making more $$$ with the ads than without.

erikbrodch 7y ago
I don't think it's stalking. As mentioned, it's anon'; In addition, $ isn't always the KPI you are looking at. If, for example, you want to see what source of traffic brings the most retained users in order to invest your marketing budget in the right place? Totally legit IMHO.
davidajackson 7y ago
These metrics are anonymized. This is for A/B testing and it's common practice to optimize onboarding flow based on where users came from. Not stalking at all. It's literally called Growth and companies have entire teams dedicated to optimizing onboarding. >> Your metric should be whether you are making more $$$ with the ads than without. Not if you have different conversion rates based upon where your customers come from (and want to improve conversation rates by A/B testing different customer segments); then the metric you suggest is bad. You have an extra variable which is organic acquisition so you can't optimize as well.