

Ask HN: How do I know where my mobile downloads are coming from? - peterstark

Hi everyone,<p>Last month, my company launched its first mobile app. The team has been promoting the app all over the place (FB, Twitter, forums, email, Ads, PR, etc). As a result, we have grown to a few thousand users, which is awesome.<p>The problem is that we have no idea where our users are coming from. We don't know what our most effective marketing channels are. We don't know which marketing campaigns are most effective in bringing users.<p>How do you deal with this problem? Please list the pros and cons.<p>Thanks!
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kliu0910
Hi Peter,

I have several friends who are experiencing the same pain as you.

As a result, I built a free service (Yozio, <http://yoz.io>) to solve this
specific problem.

How it works:

1) Promote your app using Yozio's tracking links. (e.g. yoz.io/aBcDE)

2) When a visitor clicks on a Yozio tracking link, he is redirected to your
app store landing page.

3) When the same visitor installs your app, Yozio is notified and tracks the
install back to the original click.

We are getting a lot of great feedback. Please give us a try and let us know
what you think.

Regards, Kevin

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justDance83
I see that it only takes 2 lines of code. Does that mean you need to download
an SDK to make it work too? Slightly off topic, does anyone know of a good way
to auto update SDKs for Objective C? Thanks. Also Kevin, I filled out your
survey, please message me an invite code.

~~~
kliu0910
Done :)

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farren
I've been using a sort of ghetto hack, so I'm not sure if you want to copy me.

When users land on any of my marketing pages, I cookie them in safari. Then
when they open my mobile app, I send them to safari, check if the cookie
exists, and then redirect them back to the app. This lets me tie installs back
to link clicks.

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germancoder
I question the accuracy because w3.org actually mentions that cookies work
differently on mobile devices vs. web. However, if you're only targeting smart
phones with full web browsing capabilities like the iPhone or Android (or
Win7???) then it should be ok.

Source: <http://www.w3.org/TR/mobile-bp/#d0e1925>

~~~
germancoder
Thanks though for sharing this solution. I'll stick around to see if anything
new pops up.

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PhotonCannonR
Doesn't stuff like Google Analytics do this? At least that's what we use for
our websites to track conversions. Don't know if you can do the same for
mobile apps...

<http://www.google.com/analytics/features/mobile.html>

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PhotonCannonR
Looked a little deeper. Seems like it might only work for Android then.

"If you're an Android developer, Analytics also gives you the tools to monitor
the success of mobile ads for your app. You can track activity from a click on
your ad to the Android Market to app download. It's a simple way to determine
what marketing efforts are most effective for you."

Nothing about iOS conversions on their page.

