Tracking App Store Downloads with Marketo

[Anonymous]

Received a request to track downloads of a mobile app that is downloaded from the app store or Google play. One of the goals is to track which facebook ads are driving conversion and bring that intelligence into Marketo.

Anyone have an approach for how to handle in Marketo? Even possible?

[Anonymous]

You can use a redirect so that when someone clicks the ad it goes to a webpage and is immediately redirected to the app store.

Use the configurator to create url parameters for tracking in marketo.

[Josh_Hill13]

How could we know if the person made the download?

[Casey_Grimes]

There are ways to track this, but it's very much a Rube Goldberg-esque endeavor. I'm assuming for purposes here that you are tying your Marketo User ID to your Analytics ID or you're having every link Marketo-encoded here.

For your iOS/Android install campaigns, set up URLs that write into Google Analytics, such as

https://click.google-analytics.com/redirect?tid=UA-1111-1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2F...{idfa}&cs=source&cm=medium&cn=Example%20Campaign&cc=content&ck=keyword

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.android.g&referrer=utm_source=source&cm=medium&cn=...

From there, you're going to need to use the Analytics API to bring the data back into Marketo (whether as Munchkin faux-visits or custom activities.) Additionally, you'll want to repeat the same step with the app itself to fire an event in GA/MKTO upon first being loaded to tie the app open/mobile IP to the associated record (and, obviously, to confirm installation.)

But from a lazy point of view, if all you're looking for is Facebook conversions I'd skip the install campaign and just use Facebook's in-house conversion code for that, taking Marketo out of the equation.

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys. Never hear of Rube Goldberg so had to to do a little Googling. @Courtney

@Jamie Lewis, are you saying the data can get passed via a parameter into the AppStore? Is any kind of 3rd party app needed? @Courtney Grimes, I guess what you are saying is it's time to bring in a developer?

Courtney GrimesTo get more specific, looking to see that Jim Smith clicked a FB adv or other adv and then downloaded the app. The goal is to have that data then sit in Marketo for reporting and nurturing.

AppStore - Leads by Lead Source Details

--FBRetargeting          987

--EmailSponsorship     878

--Homepage                678

[Josh_Hill13]

Jeff Coveney​ it looks like the params are being passed to your UA/GA account, but not to Marketo. So you'd need a developer to build a URL that also passed back to Marketo. Of course, the link example Courtney provided would be wrapped in the Marketo code, so it *should* get tracked, however, not necessarily with the UTM field data you might want.

Let's bring Sanford Whiteman​ into this one

[SanfordWhiteman]

Thanks Josh... haven't tried to do this in a bit, but you caught the main technical prob immediately: tracking app downloads by lead as Jeff phrased it isn't the same as tracking hits to the App Store page.  While Android will reveal the store referrer (or at least used to) iOS will not.

So across app stores, attaching download/install events to a known Marketo lead is only possible in two ways that I know of:

1. Using "fingerprint" technology such as http://branch.io, an ugly-beautiful approach that attempts to match (and succeeds ~99% of the time) a browser click to a store download within a deliberately limited timeframe by tracking common browser and device info like source IP, OS version, etc.
2. Perhaps this is self-evident: requesting the user's email address in-app and sending a corresponding form fillout. I imagine Jeff doesn't want to do this, but it's there.

Using Branch would require significant custom development: not only would you need to add the Branch SDK to the app but you would also need to use the Branch Webhooks API to transform app events into Marketo events.  On the bright side, you would have a really cool system when it's all in place.

AFAICS, Courtney's idea of redirection links isn't specific to GA -- it could just as easily use a custom Munchkin logging endpoint (or even a "multiplexing" logging page that sends hits to both services).

I agree with Courtney that only looking at FB integrations makes sense (given that you specifically mentioned FB in your post) but as for "Jim Smith clicked a FB adv or other adv and then downloaded the app" I'm not confident you can do this because the Facebook EULA requires you to only use aggregate data, not user-specific data, for re/targeting.  You would likely need to let the user opt in by including the FB SDK and having them authenticate, only then relaying info to Marketo.

tl;dr Unless you have an R&D budget for this you might want to go for aggregate info, unless I'm missing something.

[Geoff_Krajeski1]

Wouldn't using GA Universal analytics and in some way tying back with URL params (utm_* or otherwise) be able to be used as a trigger within a Marketo campaign?

I've had many app downloads direct me to some kind of thank you page, or open one in the background upon first open/close of the app.

Again, would require a developer, but perhaps another viable option...

[SanfordWhiteman]

If you didn't resupply your identity in the app, the only cross-store way to track downloader identity is high-precision "technographic matching" like Branch.io.  As I noted, Android apps can read store referrers, but iOS apps can't. That gulf in available functionality can create confusion about what we've seen in the wild.

In general, UTM params are no more magical than any other query params: if a store doesn't want app authors to read them, they won't be supplied in-app.  A Munchkin token could be used directly instead of GA... if the store supported it.  That said, some Google ad-driven clickpaths are more trackable than others, e.g. AdMob, but unless they are specifically whitelisted, UTM codes are like anything else. Great for us, not so great for privacy.

If on first run you open a Thank You page at a domain that has a Munchkin cookie, you may be able to both associate and attribute app downloads. In the lead's activity log, you'll have both the pre-download activity (i.e. Munchkin Clicked Link on the /go-to-store) and the post-download activity (Clicked Link on /come-from-app).  This is the approach Courtney is describing, although with GA as opposed to using Munchkin directly (I would use Munchkin).  But remember, the lead needs to be associated either before or after for this to work.

[Casey_Grimes]

I agree that there's nothing special about UTM parameters as opposed to tacking anything else on a querystring, but it's something most marketers have a passing familiarity with and I've gotten into the habit of using Google Analytics as a poor man's data warehouse.

With that said, I started thinking a little more about this, and there may be a way to do this if you're using remarketing and the person logs into or somehow re-establishes their identity on the app—it would actually make things a lot easier.