Measuring a landing page that sends visitors to the app store

The four counts you need

A landing page for an app has a longer path than a landing page for a web product, because the conversion happens somewhere else. You need one count for each stage and you need them split by the same campaign name.

The first row is the one that varies by plan. Counting page visits inside the attribution platform is web event measurement. In Airbridge that is a Growth Plan feature, while the other three rows are covered by web-to-app attribution in Core.^[1] On an entry plan you can read visits from the web analytics tool you already use and compare by campaign name.

Set it up in this order

1. Decide the campaign names once and use the same spelling in the ad platform, in the page URL and in the link. Mismatched names are a common reason the four counts cannot be lined up.
2. Make the store button a tracking link. The reasons are in how web-to-app attribution works.
3. Pass the visit's campaign details onto the button, by hand or with a web SDK. The page on UTM parameters versus tracking links explains why you need both.
4. Choose one in-app event as the value count, and make sure the app sends it.
5. Run a full test from a phone that does not have the app, and check that all four counts move.

Reading the drop between stages

Each gap points at a different owner.

Visits to clicks

This is the page's own job. A low share of visitors tapping the button is a message or design problem. Attribution will not fix it, but it tells you which traffic source brings visitors who tap.

Clicks to installs

Some loss here is normal, because the store page is a second decision. A sudden or very large loss often has a technical cause: the link opens the wrong store, an in-app browser blocks the redirect, or installs are happening but arriving unmatched. Compare the number of unmatched installs on the same days before you blame the store listing.

Installs to value

If one page brings installs that never sign up, the page may be promising something the app's first screen does not show. A deferred deep link that opens the promised screen is the usual fix.

A worked example

Say a language app runs two landing pages for the same ad set. Page A gets more taps on the store button. Page B gets fewer taps, yet more of its installs start a trial. Judged by web analytics alone, page A wins. Judged by trials per visit, page B may win. You can only see that when the fourth count is tied back to the page.

What to do next

Build the table above for one live campaign and fill in last week's numbers by hand. Any row you cannot fill shows which piece is missing. If the missing row is installs or value, fix the store button first. If you are still deciding whether a web step is worth adding at all, read why teams run web campaigns to grow an app.