iOS: Can I find the source of install without using 3rd Party?-CodePudding

If I'm having ads that takes the users to my app in the store on different platforms (ads on Facebook, Google ads, ...), can I detect the source of the current install? For example: when the user press on Google ad and download my app, is the info that this user came from a google ad available on the first open of the app? (without using 3rd parties)

I noticed that it is easier to use 3rd parties to detect this. So I'm using Branch now. However even after adding the Link ID that I get from branch to a field in Google Ads dashboard, the Branch SDK is still not reporting the source of the install. (knowing that when I create a link from Branch directly and try it, it works perfectly)

CodePudding user response：

I mean when you click an ad you get redirected to the AppStore. The iPhone only knows the AppStore and doesn't save anything besides that. Except for the browser history maybe but apps can't read that.

Branch is looking for IP addresses etc. and matches them. You could make the link redirect to your site (to get their IP etc.) and then redirect the users to the AppStore form there. Your App can then connect to your server and compare the device's IP to a list of all Google/Facebook etc. IPs that you saved on your server. If they match you know the source (or at least you have some data, it's not 100% accurate of course).

You might add other checks as well but IP is just one example.

CodePudding user response：

A Branchster here:

I believe you are currently running App Install/UAC campaigns where attribution happens through the respective SAN(Self-Attributing Network) MMP API rather than the Tracking Link being used. Historically we synced with the DDL(Deferred Deep Linking API) to return the deep link data to report the source of installation which was not very consistent and accurate.

This lead us to develop the SAN Deferred Deep Linking feature that returns the source of install ad data inside your app. This leverages Branch MMP API and is more consistent in returning the below data in Branch SDK response -

{
    "session_id": "775732418224171111",
    "identity_id": "775732414789038000",
    "link": "https://abc.app.link?$identity_id=775732414789038000",
    "data": {
        " is_first_session": true,
        "$3p": "a_google",
        "~advertising_partner_name": "Google",
        " click_timestamp": 1557204842,
        "~secondary_publisher": "google",
        "~campaign": "ABC",
        "~campaign_id": "33333377778880001",
        "~ad_set_name": "DEF",
        "~ad_set_id": "4444333399990002",
        "~ad_name": "XYZ",
        "~ad_id": "22223333377770003",
        "~feature": "paid advertising",
        "~ad_objective_name": "APP_INSTALLS",
        "~channel": "Google"
    },
    "device_fingerprint_id": "777778888855555222"
}

Note that at the time of writing this answer, it's a request-only feature and you can raise a request here if you want to get whitelisted.