Where do your iOS app downloads come from?

Launch week ends with one number in App Store Connect. Downloads went up on Tuesday.

Was it the Reddit post? The directory? The friend who shared it? The graph doesn't say.

Campaign links answer that, as long as you know where they stop. Apple rebuilt Analytics in App Store Connect in March 2026, so this is how they work now.

What can App Store Connect tell you about where downloads come from?

More than most makers think, and less than they hope. Here's what each part answers:

The first three rows cost nothing to set up. Apple sorts every download into a source type:

• App Store search and App Store browse. People who found you inside the App Store, ads in search results included.
• App referrer. A tap on a link inside another app, such as Reddit, X or Messages.
• Web referrer. A tap on a link on a website in Safari. If the link went through redirects, the last address in the chain gets the credit.

So you can see "Reddit". You can't see which of your three Reddit posts it was. And Apple shows referrers and campaigns only above a minimum amount of data, so a small launch may see nothing in those rows at all.

That gap is what campaign links are for.

What is a campaign link?

Your App Store link with three extra parameters. This is Apple's own example:

https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id123456789?pt=123456&ct=test1234&mt=8

• pt is your provider token. It identifies your developer account, not an ad network, and it's the same on every campaign link you make.
• ct is the campaign token. The name you give the campaign, up to 30 characters.
• mt is the media type. Leave it as Apple makes it.

Someone who taps it lands on your normal product page, in their own country's store. Nothing on the page changes. Only the counting does.

Why can't you make a campaign link before launch?

Because Apple won't let you yet. The add button next to Campaigns appears only once your app has analytics data. Apple says to check back after the app has been live and getting downloads for at least 24 hours.

You can't get around it by typing a provider token yourself, either. It comes with your first campaign link.

For a first app, that rules out the usual advice to have every link ready weeks ahead. Two things work instead:

• Release quietly first. Set the version to release manually, release it a few days before you tell anyone, and ask a few friends or testers to download it. Once the button appears, make your links. Then announce.
• Start with your second place. Post in the first place with a plain App Store link and use campaign links from day two.

I'd pick the quiet release. Your launch day is the day you tell people, and nobody can tell the version went live three days earlier.

How do you make a campaign link?

Once the button is there, it takes a minute (Apple's steps):

1. In App Store Connect, open Apps and select your app.
2. Click the Analytics tab.
3. In the Acquisition section, click Campaigns.
4. Click the add button (+) next to Campaigns.
5. Type a campaign name. That name becomes the ct token.
6. Copy the link.

After the first one, Apple's advice is to keep the same provider token and change only the campaign token. So once you know your pt, the next links are just a new name at the end.

What should you call your campaigns?

One name per place, and a new one each time you post there again. Pick names you'll still understand in a month:

Keep each name within 30 characters, with no space at the start or end. And keep a note of what each one means. Apple doesn't ask, and in six weeks you won't remember what "test2" was.

Where do you read campaign numbers?

In the Analytics tab, click Metrics in the sidebar, then Add Filter, then Campaign, and pick one from the menu. Apple tracks impressions, product page views, downloads, usage, sales and subscriptions for each campaign.

In launch week, three of them matter (Apple's definitions):

• Product page views. People who opened your page from that link.
• First-time downloads. People who got the app for the first time. Judge each place by this one.
• Redownloads. People who had the app before. Mostly noise in launch week.

New campaigns show up at least 24 hours after their launch. Check the next morning, not the next hour.

Why does App Store Connect show less than you expected?

Because campaign data is built to protect privacy, and it leaves people out on purpose:

• Five is the floor. Each metric shows only if it reaches at least 5 in the date range you picked, and a campaign appears once five people have downloaded through it for the first time. If you see "not enough data", widen the date range.
• 24 hours to decide. A first download counts for the campaign only if it happens within 24 hours of tapping the link. Someone who taps on Monday and downloads on Friday doesn't count for it.
• The last link wins. Someone who taps two of your campaign links gives the credit to the most recent one.
• Usage needs consent. Sessions and other usage numbers come only from people who agreed to share their diagnostics and usage information with developers.
• Promo codes have no source. A download through a promo code or gift card shows as Unavailable. That includes the codes you send to writers.
• Redownloads start over. When someone deletes the app and downloads it again from the App Store, the new download gets the new source.

So read campaign numbers as a floor, and as a comparison between places. Not as a total.

What do your launch week numbers mean?

Put each place in a row, then look at the pattern rather than the size:

Then look at time. Say one place took ten minutes and brought six first-time downloads, and another took a whole day for twenty. With nine more places to try, the first one won. That's why free places to promote an iOS app are worth a campaign link each: a month later you know which ones earned a second post.

Can you use campaign links on your own website?

Yes, and you should. Put one on every "Download on the App Store" button on your site, with a name like site-button. If your site shows a Smart App Banner in Safari, Apple says to add your campaign and provider tokens to it too.

The same goes for anything you post: your X launch post, your Reddit posts, your email signature. A plain App Store link anywhere is a download you can't place.

When is a custom product page better than a campaign link?

When a place needs a different pitch, not just a different count.

A custom product page has its own screenshots, promotional text and address, and Apple now lets you publish up to 70 of them per app. Each one gets its own metrics after five first-time downloads, under Acquisition, Product Pages.

For launch week, campaign links are enough. Later, when one place keeps sending people, give it its own page, with screenshots that answer the question those people keep asking. The 30-day launch plan puts that in week three.