Apple’s forcing us to use external checkout for our subscription flow.
Now I’m losing visibility into the funnel. Can’t track conversions properly anymore.
What’s everyone else doing for analytics when the purchase happens outside your app?
Bridge the gap with UTM parameters and session matching. Pass unique user IDs through the checkout flow so you can connect external conversions back to specific app sessions. Most analytics tools let you import offline conversions if you match the user properly. Takes more work but gives you the complete picture without relying on delayed webhooks.
We started using webhooks from our payment provider. Works okay but there’s still a delay in getting the data.
Had this exact problem with a productivity app. The data gap drove me crazy for weeks.
What saved us was combining a few approaches. We used custom events to track when someone hit the external checkout page, then matched that with purchase confirmations from our payment processor.
The key was creating a unique session ID that followed users through the whole flow. When they came back to the app after purchasing, we could connect the dots.
Still not perfect - you lose some granular funnel data. But at least you can measure your actual conversion rates and optimize the parts you control.
You can set up postback URLs to capture when someone completes the purchase on your external checkout page.
Most payment processors let you send conversion data back to your app or analytics platform. This way you still know who converted even though they left your app to pay.
It takes some setup but works pretty well once you get it running.
Server side events. Track everything through your backend instead.