We currently track users on an Android-based project using UTM tracking. I've heard reports that not all users are being tracked (i.e. 20 users download the app using the UTM link, but we can only find records of 15 in the data).
I was curious as to whether anyone else has experienced something similar? It feels like the most likely scenario is that the users are typing in the link wrong or something similar, but I wanted to check I'm not missing anything obvious before jumping to conclusions.
The links we are using look like this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.sample.sample&referrer=utm_source%3DXXX%26utm_medium%3DXXX
And the code snippet in the AndroidManifest.xml file looks like this:
<application>
<!-- Used for Google Play Store Campaign Measurement-->
<receiver android:name="com.google.android.gms.analytics.CampaignTrackingReceiver"
android:enabled="true"
android:exported="true">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="com.android.vending.INSTALL_REFERRER" />
</intent-filter>
</receiver>
<service android:name="com.google.android.gms.analytics.CampaignTrackingService"
android:enabled="true"
android:exported="false" />
</application>
Auto-answering as I found the response. Essentially, there are problems with UTM links when users access them via a web browser rather than via the Play Store. Using link shorteners like bit.ly force a web browser experience and hence many users are untracked. UTM parameters in data show up as "not set", rather than what the actual original parameter was.
Wondering how many apps have incorrect tracking as a result of this, could be a lot...