Question from Reddit user:
I’m running a campaign for app installs with Google Ads.
Linked my Google Ads account to Google Play (to the dev account that is the owner of the app), which I believe will automatically report me the installs based on my Ads. However, I have no solid understanding on how to track/measure on iOS.
If I launch now, Google will serve ads to both android and ios users. Assuming Google Ads report 100 installs from this campaign, would these be only Android installs from google play?
Any tips on how to measure installs for iOS devices? And if we can’t implement it, any tips on any source to check the bulk of installs in iOS (e.g. some sort of apple app store dev account stats menu).
Answer from Nabil:
The short answer is:
No, if you launch your App campaign with only the Google Play connection, the installs you see reported will be almost exclusively Android installs because the Play Store automatically reports them to Google Ads.
For iOS, Google Ads cannot track the install without a direct measurement mechanism, especially due to Apple’s privacy changes.
The solution is to integrate the Firebase SDK into your iOS app, use Google Analytics for Firebase to measure the first_open event, and link this data to Google Ads for conversion tracking.
For a comprehensive, platform-agnostic view, you should use a Mobile Measurement Partner (MMP) like AppsFlyer to attribute all installs and in-app actions, as this is the standard practice for accurate iOS measurement.
The long answer is:
Your understanding of the Google Play link is correct – that connection allows Google to automatically measure an install as a conversion when a user downloads the Android app from the Play Store after clicking your ad.
This is simple, reliable, and requires no code changes.
However, for iOS, that direct connection does not exist, and the complexity is significantly increased by Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework and the deprecation of the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA).
Without a proper setup, you will be blind to iOS installs.
The industry-standard and highly recommended solution for Google-centric tracking is to use the Firebase SDK and Google Analytics for Firebase.
You’ll need to integrate the Firebase SDK into your iOS app, which automatically collects key events including first_open.
This first_open event is the industry standard equivalent of an install.
Once Google Analytics for Firebase is set up, you simply link the Firebase project to your Google Ads account.
Google Ads will then treat the first_open event as an install conversion, allowing you to measure your iOS campaign performance accurately.
To get an even more robust and comprehensive understanding of your iOS installs, including post-install events, and to measure campaigns across other platforms like Facebook or other ad networks, you should implement a Mobile Measurement Partner (MMP) such as AppsFlyer.
The MMP SDK is integrated once, and it serves as a central hub for all attribution.
It tracks the user from the ad click to the install, attributes that install back to the correct source, and can even report granular in-app events, which is crucial for campaign optimization.
AppsFlyer, for example, handles the complex logic required for attribution on iOS, including working with Apple’s SKAdNetwork data, and then feeds the conversion data back to Google Ads via the Google Ads API.
This combined approach of using the Firebase SDK for core Google measurement and an MMP for holistic, platform-agnostic attribution is the most effective way to ensure you capture and accurately measure every install, regardless of the device.
If you can’t implement tracking immediately, the only bulk source to check iOS installs is the App Store Connect analytics dashboard, which provides un-attributed download numbers, but this is only for total downloads and won’t tell you which installs came from your Google Ads campaign.
About The Author
