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I'm currently setting up conversion tracking on Firebase and Facebook for mobile marketing campaigns, but the tracking confuses me entirely. It's my first time promoting an app with a subscription model, and even Google, Apple and Facebook themselves struggle to answer my questions. Maybe one of you is able to help me out?

  • Where do I see the revenue I got from newly subscribed people in a specific timeframe on iTunes Connect?
  • Does Firebase and Facebook track Trials also as in_app_purchases?
  • If a user subscribed and paid after the 7 day trial, will he only then be counted for an in_app_purchase and revenue event?

So far, Facebook only tracks some revenue and purchases, but not even a 10th of what I'm actually making, but I also don't know how to compare Firebase, Facebook and iTunes Connect as the numbers are so extremely different. Your help is much appreciated.

Christin
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2 Answers2

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Where do I see the revenue I got from newly subscribed people in a specific timeframe on iTunes Connect?

App Store Connect doesn't show any user level details, in the subscription summary view you can see number of subscriptions and revenue sold that day - but not much more detail than that.

Does Firebase and Facebook track Trials also as in_app_purchases?

No. From my experience they count revenue for a trial purchase, and count renewals as additional in-app purchases if the user opens the app. This makes them both wildly inaccurate for actual revenue/conversion tracking when using subscriptions with trials.

If a user subscribed and paid after the 7 day trial, will he only then be counted for an in_app_purchase and revenue event?

In this scenario I've seen Firebase count revenue when the trial starts, no revenue when trial converts, and only revenue for renewals if the user opens the app during the renewal period.

The best way to measure LTV for a user is to store the receipts on your server (along with price and currency information) and refresh them to check for trial conversions and renewals. Anything done purely client-side may miss events if the user doesn't open the app frequently.

enc_life
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  • Thanks a lot for clearing this up! Seems like running ad campaigns for subscription apps is pretty messy when it comes to conversion tracking, ugh. – Christin Feb 13 '19 at 08:52
  • It's pretty messy. There are companies that offer this as a service (disclaimer I work there): https://www.revenuecat.com/2018/10/18/integrations – enc_life Feb 13 '19 at 14:57
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First, App Store Connect does not provide you the revenue split for new and existing subscribers. If you are using just Facebook SDK it wont' be able to track most of the trial conversions, plus it will calculate as revenue each trial start.

To accurately track in-app subscription events like trial conversion in Facebook Ads you need to send these events through integration from the back-end. We have built a solution for all that - backend infrastructure to store and validate user receipts with Apple and Google, out-of-the-box integrations to send accurate subscription data to Facebook Ads and other destinations, cohort analysis to see the revenue from the new subscribers vs existing, plus understand the retention of existing subscribers. You can check it here

Michael
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