Track users after they go from a webpage to an app

Question

I'm running an A/B test on a web page. Users aren't authenticated on the webpage, so there's no user ID to track them. On the webpage, there are links to Android/iOS app stores where users can download or open the app.

After users download and open the app, I want to known which experiment group they were originally in when they were on the web page. How would I do that?

Is there something in the Android or iOS app stores that lets me track users?

Touchmenot

Can you modify the apps to send a request to your web server on first launch? If so, you could do something like this: (1) log the IP of any visitor to your web page (2) app fires request to your web server on first launch; if IP is in your log, and the request occurs within some (short, 10 minutes?) interval after the IP was logged as a site-visitor, then you have a match. There are obviously caveats here, e.g., when multiple users sit behind the same public IP (NAT, VPN). – Dobbs

I'd prefer not to use IP because as you said, multiple people can share the same IP. – Touchmenot

Answer 1

If the app is already installed, this is an easy process, accomplished on either platform with their solutions to deep linking within apps. Google Analytics has some good documentation on how to do this with their SDK.

Essentially, in your links for your two (or more) test groups, you would embed information that would track them to the experiment group they were part of on the site:

examplepetstore://promo?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=promotion

The Tough Problem:

Unfortunately, you stated that you specifically need to support the scenario where the user doesn't initially have the app installed when they click the link. This is a much tougher nut to crack. As far as I know, there isn't a way to handle this natively or easily on your own. You will likely need to rely on a third party provider of deep linking that survives the install process.

Branch.io supports "Deferred Deep Linking": https://blog.branch.io/the-ultimate-deep-linking-tutorial-on-ios-11-and-whats-coming-for-ios-12/

Firebase Dynamic Links: https://firebase.google.com/products/dynamic-links/

The big problem is that any vendor solution, like Branch's, almost certainly needs to use cookies for assisting with trying to link back to the original session through the app install process. Apple has been doing things to support privacy that is making this sort of thing difficult. Expect it to be an ongoing battle.

On Android, you should be fine with a solution like Branch or Firebase.

I wish there was a better solution, but with mobile app sandboxing / privacy, this is a challenging problem that is tough to solve without exposing users to all sorts of security / privacy implications.

Privatdocent

Answer 2

There are options in Google PlayStore to connect the same Google Analytics Account as in your web page.

I've never tried something similar but I believe that this is supported, at least for Android.

Have you tried https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6099219?hl=en&ref_topic=6012386

Additionally, checking within the Google PlayStore Publisher account there is also an option for "Run A/B tests on your store listing" related documentation under https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6227309

Here is a screenshot of the mentioned feature:

Winfrid

Answer 3

Google analytics offers this sort of tracking.

https://developers.google.com/analytics/solutions/ios-install-tracking

Or are you trying to build your Google analytics?

It used to be that you could sign up as an iTunes affiliate to track this, but apps were removed from the program last year.

Sawicki