Get referrer details after installing app from Play store

Question

I am using Branch for deferred deep linking and I am trying to find all referral data after installing app from play store. I have added Google Analytics Campaign Parameters to Google Play URL as recommended. like.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=&referrer=utm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_term%3D3208%26utm_content%3D47321%26utm_campaign%3D64856

but I am getting referral details for "utm_source : google-play" and for "utm_medium : organic" which is not correct.

I have also try to get referral data by broadcasting referral details from android studio's terminal like.

adb shell am broadcast -a com.android.vending.INSTALL_REFERRER -n / --es "referrer" "utm_source=google&utm_medium=linkedin&utm_term=3208&utm_content=37413&utm_campaign=invite"

and it works well.

So plz help me out.

Answer 1

Alex from Branch.io here:

Branch doesn't overwrite the INSTALL_REFERRER, so these incorrect utm_source and utm_medium values are not coming from our system. Sometimes the INSTALL_REFERRER is delayed — is it possible you might have been testing multiple links with different values set in rapid succession?

Side note: Branch does also use the INSTALL_REFERRER for other purposes, so you may want to review our docs on how to use it for both Branch and your own needs.

More generally though, Branch makes the INSTALL_REFERRER obsolete. The point of the INSTALL_REFERRER was to allow you to pass values through the install process, and storing UTM parameters there is a hack to give you some basic visibility into your acquisition channels. Branch allows you to do both of these things with far more power and precision, so you really shouldn't need to be using the INSTALL_REFERRER for this at all. Check out the Branch docs pages for storing link data and setting up the Google Analytics integration for more details.