App Store Connect analytics: what each metric means

An impression is counted when your app is visible for more than one second on the Today, Games, Apps or Search tabs, and every product page view also counts as an impression. Both come in a total and a unique-devices version. Product page views include pages that other apps open with StoreKit. Conversion rate divides total downloads and pre-orders by unique device impressions, so a person who scrolls past you in search lowers it even without opening your page; a pre-order counts once and is not counted again when the app downloads. If impressions are high and conversion is low, the icon, first screenshots and subtitle are the first things to check: see screenshot sizes, subtitle and promotional text and A/B testing the product page.

First-time downloads are first installs on iOS, macOS, tvOS or visionOS; redownloads are counted when someone taps the redownload button and exclude auto-updates and device restores; total downloads is the two combined. Usage metrics are a different population: they come only from App Store users who opt in to share data with developers, so read them as a sample, not a census. A session is any use of at least two seconds, and coming back from the background starts a new one. Deletions count removals from the Home Screen or through Manage Storage (iOS 12.3 and later), not erased devices. Crashes are here too; on Android the equivalent signals are in Android vitals.

The acquisition view splits traffic by source. App Store search covers views and downloads from search, including search ads. App Store browse covers the Today, Games and Apps sections. App referrer is a link inside another app, including Apple apps such as Messages but not Safari. Web referrer is a link on a website; after a chain of redirects in Safari, the last URL gets the credit. Downloads through Apple Business or Apple School Manager show as Institutional Purchase. A source shows as Unavailable for downloads before 15 April 2017 and for downloads through a gift card, a promo code or device management software, so promo code installs will not show where the code came from.

To see downloads from one channel, create a campaign in Analytics, Acquisition, Campaigns. The link carries a provider token (pt), fixed for your developer account, and a campaign token (ct), which is the campaign name: up to 30 characters, not starting or ending with a space. A first download within 24 hours of someone using the link counts toward that campaign. Campaigns appear only 24 hours after launch, and a campaign’s data shows once at least five people have made a first-time download through it. The same tokens work in a Smart App Banner on your website and in StoreKit. Use one campaign per place you link from, such as a creator video, a newsletter or a directory listing; for where to link from, see free app promotion sites.

Store analytics show what happens once someone reaches the App Store; the harder part is getting them there. Censuus ranks apps by the real visit traffic they draw, and adding your app is free on the submit page. Sponsorship raises placement and adds a followed link to your website; details are on the sponsor page. For the whole plan, start with how to market an app. We do not promise downloads or store rankings.