How I verify that user installed an iPhone app?

Question

We provide advertising capabilities to iPhone app customers, where they can advertise apps to millions of users on social network, and stand out among large number of apps in app store.

Now, to prove the ROI, we also want to provide statistics of how many users actually installed the app using our advertisements on social network.

My question is:

• How do I verify whether user installed an app (when user clicks on advertisement and we take user to App Store (on mobile device) or itunes page (on PC/Mac) )

• Is there a way to integrate with developer's interface to get this information?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

This is a broad question and there are some simple solutions which may require some work. Apple provides you no feedback for when an app is installed. Assuming you are storing the click of the ad on a server you will need to match to that click with something you send up when the app is opened for the first time.

1. (if the ad is shown in a native app on the phone) You can send up a unique key when the click happens and also send that same unique key when the app opens for the first time and match them on the server. This key can be a hashed mac address or something you save to the UIPasteboard. This requires integration on the side of your clients app because they will need to send a http request to you when the app launches.

2. If the social network is web based then your best bet is to match on IP address which isn't perfect but can give you a high percentage of accuracy.

I guess I'm assuming you are hosting the ads though. If you are not then you will have to rely on what the ad networks give you and many of them can provide some form of install tracking.

Answer 2

Well, you can always look at that persons phone and check if your app is present there :P

Just kidding.

You have some ways to get information such as these.

• If you have registration in your app, you can monitor the userInfo, along with the UDID.

• You can setup some webservice calls on applicationDidFinishLaunching for the first time events (using NSUserDefaults key to save the first time info) and use that.

• Check out FLURRY for data analytics in your app . This is an awesome service, and allows you to track your users and how they interact with your app. I would recommend this !

Answer 3

Most ad networks have conversion tracking capabilities, but once you click an ad from the web and go to iTunes, all hope is lost tracking a conversion.

I guess you'd be able to track a conversion if you require the user to provide information (like an email address) before directing them to the appstore then requiring them to input that same email once the app is opened.