Has anyone gotten Google Play's "Tracked Channels (UTM)" campaign tracking to work?

Question

The Google Play Developer Console offers the Tracked Channels (UTM) view under User Acquisition → Performance which should be able to show a breakdown of which tagged links users clicked to get to the store listing, etc.

I have generated several different links to my app using the Google Play URL Builder, e.g.:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vandenmars.colortrek&referrer=utm_source%3Dso%26utm_medium%3Dlink%26utm_campaign%3Dlink%26utm_content%3DTBk

I did a couple of tests last week where I opened the Play Store using these links and installed the app on new devices immediately from there. Still, the Tracked Channels (UTM) list shows no entries.

A bit more background that may be relevant:

• My app itself does not use the Google Analytics SDK and does not register a receiver for the INSTALL_REFERRER intent
  I would assume that the Play Store handles the links directly without requiring app interaction, especially since it can track store listing views that don't lead to installs, but maybe this is incorrect? Or maybe the store disables tracking based on the app manifest?
• I opened the links in Chrome on my PC and clicked "Install" there
  Maybe the links only get tracked if they are opened in the Play Store App on the actual device? Seems strange, but I am running a test on that right now, the data just hasn't updated yet.
• The tagged installations I did were on days that have been processed already
  It sometimes takes Google a long time to update the "Performance" data, but the data I can see already includes this Sunday and the tests were done on Friday. So, unless the UTM tracking data takes even longer to get processed, it should already show up.

Do I need to enable something somewhere for this to work? Or am I doing something else wrong?

UPDATE 1:

Meanwhile, one entry has started showing up in the Tracked Channels (UTM) list. Unfortunately, as the help-text states, "UTM-tagged links that have a single store listing visitor [...] are included in the “Other” category." So I have no idea which of my test links it is, if any. The entry is only showing as a Store Listing Visitor, but not as an Installer.

The last day included in the stats is Wednesday (supposedly), which is also the day when I did the test of opening the link directly in the Play Store app on a device for the first time. I did install the app during that visit, but it was after I had uninstalled a previous installation.

So, here's what I learned from this:

• It doesn't look like there is some on/off switch for UTM tagging that I need to enable.
• Including the Analytics SDK and registering an INSTALL_REFERRER is not strictly needed for just the tracking of Store Listing Visitors, but it might be needed to track Installers/Buyers.
• There may be a difference between visits to tagged links from a PC vs. from the Play Store app on a device.

This leaves the following questions:

• Are UTM links only tracked by the Play Store app, or also by visits to http://play.google.com/...?
• Does an app need to use the Analytics SDK to forward information about installs and purchases to the Play Store, or do these get tracked independently of the app like the store listing visitors?
• Is only the first installation of an app on a specific device counted under Installers, or is a fresh install after an uninstall also counted? How about after a factory reset of the device?
• Bonus question: Is there a way to expand the "Other" category? :)

UPDATE 2:

Now I'm back to square one: 3 days ago, I opened more test-links on different devices (including the one that I thought was the one that showed up last time), directly in the app store, installing the app immediately. The data shown includes everything up to and including two days ago, so these visits and installs should be tracked by now. Yet, the list does not show any additional entries beyond the one from update 1 above.

So, either I have absolutely no clue what should be going on, or this whole tracking system is one giant buggy mess... Some things I've read in random forums suggest the latter, but maybe I am missing something, too?

UPDATE 3:

This is getting stranger and stranger. Now, all of a sudden, I see an entry showing 14 store visits and 10 installs for "zedge/android"! Why would someone make their own utm tagged link for my app?!? On top of that, none of my other tests have ever shown up (still just the original entry under "Other") and I don't even see the 10 installs in the statistics... Looks like this whole thing is just plain broken... Correction welcome.

Lovato

I am still facing these issues. Did you have any resolution on this issue ? – Bromic

@Bromic Unfortunately not. It seems to be quite flaky. Sometimes I get some data, more often than not I don't. And I haven't figured out any patterns for when I get the data and when I don't either... I've decided not to rely on it any more for now... But maybe we get lucky and the bump from these two comments will finally get us an answer here... – Lovato

Thanks ! Have you found some other way to track the "store list visitors" according to the different campaigns ? – Bromic

@Bromic Unless you somehow send them to a page you own first and track them there before you redirect them to the store, I don't think there are too many other options unfortunately, ... – Lovato

I think the issue still exists. We did some 300k sms campaign last week and still nothing shows up in UTM tracked channels. – Advice

just here to say that yap it didnt work at all – Deluca

still having the same question in 2020, why google made it so hard while ios can easily track the referral in its console..... – Suited

Answer 1

We're in the same situation too now. No Google Analytics set up, need to run some ads this weekend, so I'm going to try to use UTM tags to track the app installs.

There may be a difference between visits to tagged links from a PC vs. from the Play Store app on a device.

Found this in their documentation

"Note: Over-the-air and web (play.google.com) impressions aren’t tracked on your app’s User Acquisition page at this time."

If you want, send the link over and I can test it out.

Volleyball

Is this actually your answer? How did it fix the OP's problem. While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes. – Halfblooded

@Halfblooded It's actually already very helpful just to know that I'm not the only having issues... ;) And given the lack of responses also attests to how much of a mess this tracking seems to be... – Lovato

Answer 2

Before direct user to Google Play app page, send GET request with UTM params to your own site. Register this site to Google Analitics. It will count page visits only.

Levy

Answer 3

I am going through the same problem. I wanted to test if the UTM source and UTM campaign from the new Dashboard required some SDK or API installed in the app itself. So I contacted Google Play Devs, I asked specifically if we needed Google Analytics and their response was:

this not the case and also there is nothing further that you can add to the app itself.

I did try downloading my own app and sent the link over to a couple of dozen people (bare in mind that the app does have a Google Analytics setup, but it is from 2016, so old version) with the following link

Power my Robot with UTM links setup

I put random words, and all the visits and downloads on both UTM Campaign and UTM Source showed under "Other" and not the words I put. I managed to get around 20 downloads from this link.

However, after questioning Google why it was showing under "Other" and not the word I put in the link, they said it is because of a minimum threshold, which they don't know the amount.

As mentioned above, I used this form to get the Google Play with the UTM tags.

And also, I agree with a comment above, that Apple simply works. From the campaign section in the dashboard, you can open the "Link Generator" and they specifically say that the minimum amount in order to show the number is at least 5 installs using the link in order to protect users' privacy. Google Play can learn something from Apple in this case.

I will try to keep this updated if anything changes on my stats. And feel free to click on the link above and install the app, open and then de-install, just to build up the numbers and see if I can cross the threshold and discover what is the minimum amount they require.

Toole

Any updates on this? Did the UTM tracking begin working in a more predictable way? Did your app cross the enigmatic threshold? – Hekate

Have u resolved this issue yet? Thank you – Norine

Answer 4

Have found google page that suggest how to build url with utms: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/android/v4/campaigns?hl=es#google-play-url-builder

This is an example: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id={application_id}&referrer=utm_source%3D{source_id}%26utm_medium%3D{medium}%26utm_term%3D{term}

Amarette

Answer 5

I confirm that the Google Play Store UTM tracking doesn't work with your configuration, as I have the same (no Google Analytics SDK, but firebase-core) and I can't see any installation listed in the Acquisition view of the Play Store. I note that the Play Store documentation part about UTM tag has a link to an url builder on the Google Analytics Guide, so may be the solution in to install GA SDK.

Philana

same situation here, all the utm are referred as 3rd source. have you figure it out? Thank you – Norine

Answer 6

On https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9859173 I found this as FAQ:

What does the "Other" breakdown mean?

The “Other” breakdown is shown when there are search terms, UTM sources, or UTM campaigns that did not have enough visitors or acquisitions over time to be reported individually.

Thus it seems that the number of installations (or visits) simply is to small to show up.

Makedamakefast