After iOS ATT and early Privacy Sandbox changes, our app lost several downstream signals and creative-level clarity. Moving purchase and onboarding to the web helped us recover useful data.
Signals we recovered:
- creative-level conversion beyond trial. Web UTMs let us see which ads led to paid renewals.
- richer event data in Mixpanel because web tracking is less constrained than ATT-limited device tracking.
- clearer churn indicators tied to acquisition source, which improved win-back targeting.
Practical notes:
- you still need to stitch identity when users cross from web to app; otherwise the signal is lost.
- privacy thresholds at scale reduce some benefits, but for many teams the granular creative insight is worth it early on.
How have others used web-derived signals to improve churn prediction or LTV modeling?
Web analytics gave us back creative granularity.
We pushed web events into Mixpanel and used a simple server id to stitch users once they logged into the app.
That was enough to build better retention cohorts without complex device tracking.
Web funnels let us bypass ATT limits for acquisition attribution and gave us the creative-level signals we needed.
We routed those events into our analytics and adjusted bids for creatives that showed better renewals rather than installs.
We used web signals to feed our churn model and it improved early warning rates.
It is not perfect but it’s better than the app-only data we had.
Web tracking replaced missing signals quickly
Privacy changes make deterministic device-level attribution unreliable. The web funnel lets you collect first-party signals: UTMs, on-page behavior, checkout events. Use those as predictors in your LTV models.
Practically, add server events to your data pipeline and join them to user profiles on account creation. Then retrain churn models to include acquisition source and early web behaviors. This yields better cohort-level LTV estimates and more informed bid strategies.
We discovered that users who completed a certain quiz path on the web had 40% higher 90-day retention. That was invisible in app-only data.
Web data helped our attribution but required identity stitching.
Make sure you document which web events map to in-app signals.