Organic Installs

Organic installs

Mobile app marketers typically classify app downloads into two categories: those obtained through paid sources and those obtained organically. Mobile app marketers refer to the installs that are called organic, meaning no marketing activities or paid advertising was employed to acquire such users.

Following the organic marketing definition, organic installs occur when users come across the app through various marketing efforts, such as search engine optimization (SEO), app store optimization (ASO), or word-of-mouth recommendations.

Moreover, an install can also be classified as organic if a user clicks or views an advertisement but downloads the app after the attribution window has expired. This implies that if a download occurs outside the time frame that can be traced back to an engagement with an advertisement, it cannot be confirmed if it resulted from the ad, and hence, the install is considered organic.

Uses of organic installs

1. Validating app hypothesis on prelaunch 

Organic users offer a valuable means of validating app hypotheses, owing to their more engaged behavior. If a company can cultivate organic traffic before launching the app, this can provide an excellent way of validating the app without the need for substantial investment in paid advertising. In an age where ad costs continue to escalate, attracting organic users to an emulated app store page can prove a cost-effective means of running prelaunch validation and saving budget on resourceful app design and development. 

2. Growing LTV and ROI

Organic app installs matter because they frequently attract the most high-value users who are more committed to a product or service. These users retain more effectively and engage in more in-app sessions than their paid counterparts. As a result, organic installs can lead to higher ROI on marketing activities and customer lifetime value (LTV). However, scaling organic installs can be notoriously difficult and time-consuming compared to paid acquisition, owing to the decreasing organic multiplier, i.e., the ability of non-organic campaigns to drive organic installs. This means that the options for using paid campaigns to scale organically have become more limited.

How to track your organic installs with Adapty

By leveraging Adapty, you can track app installs based on the acquisition channel and evaluate how your organic installs are performing in comparison to your paid acquisition campaigns in terms of converting to paying customers. Adapty also facilitates integration with mobile measurement partners such as Appsflyer and Adjust, enabling you to access comprehensive analytics on app installs and subscriptions across the entire customer journey. Simply navigate to the Analytics section of the Adapty dashboard to review the detailed data.