Been looking into different attribution platforms lately and honestly getting overwhelmed by all the privacy regulations.
Need something that still gives decent conversion data but won’t get us in trouble with GDPR or iOS changes.
What’s actually working for you right now?
We switched to a mix of Mixpanel and first-party data collection about 8 months ago. Lost some granular attribution but compliance got way easier.
The key was setting up proper event tracking in-app instead of relying on third-party pixels. Takes more dev work upfront but you own the data.
For attribution, we’re using UTM parameters heavily and asking users how they found us during onboarding. Not perfect but gives us enough to optimize ad spend.
Revenue tracking stayed solid since that happens server-side anyway. The main loss was detailed user journey stuff, but honestly most of that data was noise.
We just use Google Analytics 4 with consent mode. Basic but gets the job done for most stuff.
Most tracking tools overcomplicate things. I stick with simple UTM tracking and ask new users where they heard about the app during their first session.
For conversions, I track everything server side so privacy updates don’t mess with my revenue data. You lose some detail but gain reliability.
The real trick is testing one channel at a time so you can see what drives downloads versus what just looks good in reports.
Just use server side tracking. Skip the fancy stuff.
PostHog works well if you want everything in one place. Privacy compliant out of the box and you can self-host. For attribution, stop chasing perfect data. iOS killed that anyway. Focus on incrementality testing instead. Run holdout groups on your paid channels. If your conversion rate drops 20% when you pause Facebook ads, you know Facebook drives real value. Way more reliable than last-click attribution that breaks every iOS update.