Attribution

Attribution answers the question: where did this user come from? In mobile app marketing, attribution connects each install to the specific ad, link, QR code, or organic source that drove it.

How Attribution Works

When a user clicks an ad or link before installing your app, an attribution platform records the click. After the app is installed and opened for the first time, the platform matches the install to the original click using device identifiers, probabilistic fingerprinting, or Apple’s SKAdNetwork/AdAttributionKit framework.

Attribution Models

Last-click attribution - credits the install to the last ad or link the user clicked before installing. The simplest and most common model.

Multi-touch attribution - distributes credit across all touchpoints the user interacted with before installing. More accurate but harder to implement.

View-through attribution - credits installs to ad impressions even if the user didn’t click. Useful for measuring awareness campaigns.

Attribution and ASO

Attribution data helps you understand the relationship between paid and organic growth. If a paid campaign drives installs that improve your keyword rankings, the organic downloads that follow are partially attributable to the campaign.

For App Clips and QR code campaigns, URL parameters serve as attribution markers. Adding ?source=qr&location=store-front to your invocation URL lets you trace each App Clip launch to its specific trigger point and measure conversion from scan to full app install.

Privacy and Attribution

Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework requires user consent before tracking across apps. This has reduced the accuracy of deterministic attribution on iOS. SKAdNetwork and the newer AdAttributionKit provide privacy-preserving attribution with aggregated and delayed reporting.

Google’s Privacy Sandbox for Android is introducing similar restrictions. Attribution strategies are evolving toward aggregated measurement, modeled conversions, and first-party data.