When Install Volume Lies
Why campaign dashboards that stop at installs rarely answer whether paid users complete the action you paid for.
Install counts feel definitive until deferred deep links fail, ATT prompts suppress identifiers, and organic reopen noise inflates a campaign’s story. Ad campaign app analytics fails when teams treat CPI as the outcome instead of the first step.
Pick a primary post-install event for each campaign family: first key action, trial start, or purchase. Write the attribution window and exclusion rules so next month’s readout still matches.
When media and product disagree on who “won” a user, show the disagreement. Hidden mismatches become false confidence in the next budget meeting.