After iOS ATT and Google privacy changes, our mobile analytics lost a lot of downstream detail. Moving the paywall and initial onboarding to web recovered that visibility. On web we kept UTMs and could trace creative → landing → trial → subscription outcomes without the 72 hour delays or privacy thresholds.
That visibility let us segment users by campaign and spot that a particular creative drove many trials but had high cancellation in week two. Without web data that channel looked fine. With web attribution we could pause or rework that creative quickly.
Has anyone else used web attribution to re-evaluate channel profitability after ATT?
We were blind after ATT. Moving the first session to web gave us instant downstream events again. I used a simple web SDK that pushed subscription events back to our backend.
No magic. Just data we could act on.
Web funnels let me preserve UTMs and see creative level performance beyond install. That unlocked faster decisions on creatives and channels.
I treat web as the source of truth for downstream conversion when privacy blocks native attribution. Changes on the web propagate fast so I can shut down bad creatives quickly.
We saw a channel with high trial numbers but poor week two retention. Web tracking caught that because UTMs survived the whole funnel.
It helped us re-allocate spend away from that creative.
UTMs on web gave us back creative level data
Privacy changes mean you must shift to first party signals. Web funnels give you two things: preserved UTMs and richer behavioral events. Use them to build channel cohorts and compare LTV across cohorts.
The tactic that works is to measure cohorts at multiple horizons: day 1, day 7, day 30. Then attribute spend to the cohorts that deliver quality retention rather than just front loaded conversions. That stopped us from over-investing in a low quality source.
We used web funnels to create creative level reports. The difference was night and day. We stopped scaling a creative that looked good only because installs hid its poor retention.
If you can, sync web purchases into your subscription system so the app sees the same entitlement. It avoids mismatches and keeps analytics clean.
Be careful with cross platform halo effects. Web spend can increase organic app searches and muddy attribution.