App Store conversion tracking
Conversion tracking is where you determine the click to sales ratio for your apps. If you’re running an ad campaign, conversion tracking is essential in determining if you’re getting a reasonable return on your investment.
Traditionally, it’s been fairly easy to do this when you had total control over your store, like when selling Mac or Windows software. But with the App Store, some new challenges have arisen and people have had to resort to some cunning ways to accomplish things which we’ve come to take for granted over the years.
A while back, I had the realization that developers could use the LinkShare affiliate program to accomplish conversion tracking in the App Store. I hadn’t seen anyone else doing this and I’ve had it on the back-burner to write this post for some time now.
Earlier today, I was talking with Jerry Brace of Embraceware about advertising in general and I mentioned my conversion tracking technique. He then referred me to a post by Shane Crawford on this exact topic.
Shane did it more justice than I would ever have and I picked-up a few tidbits I wasn’t aware of (custom signatures, in particular, were most valuable). So instead of writing any more on the topic, I’ll just refer you to his two-part series on the subject since many App Store developers still aren’t aware of this technique and it’s good to get the word out about these sorts of things:
tap tap tap is a leading iPhone and iPad app developer and publisher. We’ve been creating top-notch apps since the App Store first opened. Our apps are used by literally millions of people in all corners of the world.
A few of our favorite and most popular apps we’ve created are:
Camera+
the ultimate photo app
The Heist
solve puzzles.
Classics
your favorite books, in your pocket
Voices
voice morphing for your iPhone
Convert
unit convert
DarkMalloc
4:53am, October 4, 2009
Nice post! I’ll be using this
Marshall Haas
4:57am, October 4, 2009
Always so helpful. I’ll be looking into this. Thank you!
Ouriel Ohayon
5:27am, October 4, 2009
We are currently working on providing iPhone developers a smart URL that will deliver conversion stats to the appstore using what you describe above.
I can already reveal the nice URL http://getap.ps/YOURAPP
Much required indeed
Contact me if you want to know more
Tom
10:43am, October 4, 2009
Thanks for the links! It was an interesting read. Once I’m on my laptop I’ll look for that third part teased towards the end of part 2.
Note that I’d be wary of Appsfire. It looks like they’re adding their own Linkshare tag, thus getting the commission for you… Their developer offer might be different but I’d just keep an eye on that.
Luc Vandal
11:29am, October 4, 2009
Thanks! Nice change from the App Store whining lately on Twitter
Patrick Buckley
11:37pm, October 16, 2009
Hi John,
Great minds think a like
. I just read your post and our company http://appsto.re is doing what you described and offering it as a free service to iPhone developers. We have had hundreds of developers using appsto.re URLS to track clicks and conversions in beta over the past few weeks. We are based here in SF and would love to talk with you, give us a call anytime 917-974-6317.
You can sign up at http://appsto.re/developer/login to test out the system for yourself. We also have a blog post with some screenshots of the stats dashboard at http://blog.appsto.re
Robb
3:40pm, October 29, 2009
Unfortunately, the data gathered by this method is not meaningful over the long term. It requires that developers “take it on faith” that any sales the same price as their app are sales of their app. This is unreasonable. Linkshare doesn’t report sales of your app specifically. It reports sales of a generic app, so users can click on your app link, not buy your app, and buy a different app which you will still get 5% commission for. Furthermore, when referring a user to The App Store via LinkShare, that users purchases are tracked and reported for the next 120 days. According to AdMob’s July Industry report, users who pay for apps will buy ~5 paid apps per month (~20 over the 120 day period). So you could reasonably expect up to 19 other apps to purchased significantly skewing your data. This comment got really long. I may turn it into a blog post…
Sally Milnes
6:17am, April 18, 2011
Hi was wondering if anyone could tell me how I would find out the costing involved in developing an app. It’s hypothetical and will be used within a uni project. Would appreciate any help.
Thanks
Sally