We ripped the paywall out of the native flow and routed first payment through a web checkout that forwards UTM and campaign metadata to our attribution partner. The result was cleaner conversion paths in our reporting.
App store receipts made most of our acquisition channels look similar because installs and renewals were fragmented. Once payments lived on the web we could match ad source to purchase directly and hand that to our attribution provider. That removed a lot of guesswork when calculating CAC by channel.
The trade offs were more edge cases to handle like refunds, app entitlements, and user identity when they later open the app. But syncing entitlements and being strict about a stable id fixed most drift.
Has anyone compared true CAC before and after moving initial payments to web and integrating with an attribution partner?
We cut a chunk from our reporting noise by routing payments to the web and then sending purchase events to our attribution provider.
The hardest part was identity mapping for users who installed first then paid. We used a stable email or a server issued id to stitch them. The Web2Wave builder gave us a usable starting funnel so we did it without a big engineering project.
After moving checkout to web and wiring first purchases into an attribution partner our channel CACs became actionable. We could stop pausing campaigns on weak creatives and double down on winners. The speed to test offers increased too because the web paywall lets you change prices without a build. That was a huge win for ROAS.
We saw clearer channel returns after web checkout. It made our paid social reports actually useful. Worth the initial sync work.
web checkout made CAC real not guessed
Moving first touch payments to the web is one of the fastest ways to reduce attribution noise. Integrate the web purchase call with your attribution provider and send raw creative ids plus campaign params. Then reconcile that with your subscription ledger so each renewal gets linked back to the original web purchase. Expect to handle refunds and chargebacks in your revenue model and make sure your LTV calculations use net revenue after refunds and fees. Once set up you can model CAC by creative accurately and allocate spend properly.
One tip. Track both last click and first touch utm from web to see if a campaign is good at activation or retention. They tell different stories.
We integrated web purchases into our attribution partner and got clearer channel metrics. It helped decide creative spend quickly.