App Analytics
Part of Mobile app acquisition measurement
Separating paid attribution from organic app discovery
Read mixed App Store and Google Play source labels accurately, keep ad credit separate and avoid counting unknown acquisitions as organic.
Paid attribution and organic app discovery are different reporting claims. Begin with each report’s source and event definitions. A store search row is not necessarily unpaid, and an unattributed acquisition is not automatically organic.
Paid Attribution vs Organic App Discovery: Key Differences in Reporting
- Paid Attribution (Apple Ads)Installs attributed via click/view within 30 days (click) or 24 hours (view), using privacy-preserving postbacks via AdAttributionKit. Not all store search installs are organic.
- Organic App Discovery (App Store Connect)Acquisitions from App Store search or browse, but only if not attributed to an ad. Manual redownloads reset the source; does not guarantee unpaid discovery.
- Google Play ReportingSource definitions vary by report. Do not assume unattributed installs are organic. Use report-specific dimensions and avoid combining sources without clear separation.
Read the store category
| Report label | What it includes | How to use it |
|---|---|---|
| App Store Connect: App Store search | Acquisitions attributed to App Store search | Do not assume the label is wholly unpaid. |
| App Store Connect: App Store browse | Acquisitions attributed to App Store browse, a non-ad store discovery source | Keep it as its own store-defined source. |
| Google Play report label | Whatever source definition the report provides | If a label combines or does not identify sources, do not call the entire result paid or organic. |
Keep report and metric names when moving figures into a working table.
In App Store Connect, Apple records a source when someone taps to download or redownload. A manual redownload resets the source used for subsequent usage, sales and subscriptions in that system. A later source row may therefore reflect a new download, not the person’s first discovery of the app.
Keep ad credit under its own rules
Apple Ads reports tap-through installs and total installs from a view or tap within the reporting period. Those figures describe Apple Ads attribution; they do not establish how App Store Connect classifies every search acquisition.
Apple’s AdAttributionKit uses privacy-preserving postbacks for eligible ad attribution. It attributes installations based on clicks or views: an install within 30 days of a click, or within 24 hours of a view.
A winning postback can identify whether an installation was a redownload; some details, such as the publisher item ID, are conditional on privacy thresholds. Postbacks are sent within 24–48 hours of an app launch, so they are not a complete person-level history of discovery. Record the ad system and attribution rule beside its total.
Use the source question and report definition to choose an appropriate Google Analytics dimension. Do not subtract an ad platform’s credited installs from all store downloads and label the remainder organic; the events, windows and populations may differ.
Key Attribution Windows & Definitions
- Apple Ads Click-to-Install Window30 days
- Apple Ads View-to-Install Window24 hours
- Postback Delivery Time24–48 hours after app launch
- Redownload Impact on SourceResets attribution source for subsequent usage, sales and subscriptions in App Store Connect
Make a defensible source claim
For each figure, record the app, store, report, source label, event, first-time or repeat status, market, dates and attribution window where relevant. Separate confirmed ad credit, a report-defined unpaid category, mixed categories and unknown source. Preserve a mixed label when the report cannot split it.
Suppose App Store search downloads rise during an advertising period. The search source alone does not reveal unpaid search growth. Review Apple Ads figures under their own rules and leave any unexplained difference unresolved. Neither an attributed install nor a change in a store source row proves advertising created an incremental user.
