Properly tracking install referrals on Play Store

Question

I have a simple task: I want to track the referral id of an app install and pass it to backend.

What I did: I created a link with an extra parameter referrer

Answer 1

I have used utm tagging

you can see full source at https://github.com/dheeraj9198/Utm-Test

I am providing the basic code

public class CustomCampaignTrackingReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {
    private static final String TAG = CustomCampaignTrackingReceiver.class.getSimpleName();
    private static final Logger LOGGER = LoggerFactory.getLogger(TAG);
    private static final Marker MARKER = MarkerFactory.getMarker(TAG);


    @Override
    public void onReceive(Context context,final Intent intentx) {
        LOGGER.info(MARKER, "on Receive called");
        ExecutorService executorService = Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor();
        executorService.execute(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                try {
                    for (String key : intentx.getExtras().keySet()) {
                        try {
                            LOGGER.info(MARKER, key + " => " + String.valueOf(intentx.getExtras().get(key)));
                        } catch (Exception e) {
                            LOGGER.error(MARKER, "caught exception in on key retrieval ", e);
                        }
                    }
                } catch (Exception e) {
                    LOGGER.error(MARKER, "caught exception in key loop ", e);
                }
            }
        });
        executorService.shutdown();
    }
}

--------------------------Manifest---------------------------------------

        <receiver
            android:name="com.google.android.gms.analytics.CampaignTrackingReceiver"
            android:exported="true" >
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="com.android.vending.INSTALL_REFERRER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </receiver>

        <receiver
            android:name=".receivers.CustomCampaignTrackingReceiver"
            android:exported="true" >
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="com.android.vending.INSTALL_REFERRER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </receiver>

Answer 2

You need to test it properly, I am posting mine use case, hope it will solve your problem :)

Refferal URL -

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mypackage&referrer=utm_source%3Dmobisoc%26utm_content%3D{transaction_id}%26utm_campaign%3D1

Code to receive refferal -

public static final String KEY_UTM_SOURCE = "utm_source";
public static final String KEY_UTM_CONTENT = "utm_content";
public static final String KEY_UTM_CAMPAIGN = "utm_campaign";
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
    Utils.log("Referral Received");
    try {
        String referrer = intent.getStringExtra("referrer");
        if (referrer != null && !referrer.equals("")) {
            Utils.log("Referral Received - " + referrer);
            String[] referrerParts = referrer.split("&");
            String utmSource = getData(KEY_UTM_SOURCE, referrerParts);
            String utmContent = getData(KEY_UTM_CONTENT, referrerParts);
            String utmCampaign = getData(KEY_UTM_CAMPAIGN, referrerParts);
            if (utmSource != null && utmSource.equals("mobisoc")) {
                sendLogToMobisocServer(context, utmContent);
            } else if (utmSource != null && utmSource.equals("app_share")) {
                RawStorageProvider.getInstance(context).dumpDataToStorage(RaghuKakaConstants.REFFERAL_FOR, utmContent);
            }
            updateRKServerForReferral(context, utmSource, utmCampaign, utmContent);
        }
    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

private String getData(String key, String[] allData) {
    for (String selected : allData)
        if (selected.contains(key)) {
            return selected.split("=")[1];
        }
    return "";
}

Now the most important part testing. You can test the referral locally. Just you need to attach your phone, open the shell prompt by using adb shell. And broadcast the referral data. Here are the command sequence example -

C:\Users\Neo\Desktop>adb shell
$ am broadcast -a com.android.vending.INSTALL_REFERRER -n com.mypackage/<className of your ReferralReceiver with package> --es "referrer" "utm_source%3Dmobisoc%26utm_content%3D{transaction_id}%26utm_campaign%3D1"

Additional -

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mypackage&referrer=utm_source%3Dmobisoc%26utm_content%3D{transaction_id}%26utm_campaign%3D1

Just see my link. If user will go to the playstore via that link, and install the app. Then first time when the app will launch, your onReceive method will be fired automatically, and you will get all the data after referrer=.

Broadcast -

$ am broadcast -a com.android.vending.INSTALL_REFERRER -n com.mypackage/<className of your ReferralReceiver with package> --es "referrer" "utm_source%3Dmobisoc%26utm_content%3D{transaction_id}%26utm_campaign%3D1"

For testing it you no need to publish your app on playstore, Just put a debug point on first point of onReceive, launch in debug mode, and fire the command sequences I have posted, you will get all the data after "referrer" tag. So by this you can decide what data you need to add while creating the referrer link.

Let me know in case of more clarification you need :)

Answer 3

It is better and more reliable to track referrer via Firebase Dynamic Link.

Below this how it work.

https://domain/?link=your_deep_link&apn=package_name[&amv=minimum_version][&ad=1][&al=android_link][&afl=fallback_link]

Here's the example of link after fill in the parameters.

https://example.app.goo.gl/?link=https://www.example.com/someresource&apn=com.example.android&amv=3&al=exampleapp://someresource&ibi=com.example.ios&isi=1234567&ius=exampleapp

Of course, you can shorten the link to something like https://example.app.goo.gl/abcde directly at Firebase console. It will take only few minutes to setup the Dynamic Link.

Then in the Android app on your main Activity you can call AppInvite.AppInviteApi.getInvitation(mGoogleApiClient, this, false) to retrieve link information.

More information can be found here https://firebase.google.com/docs/dynamic-links/