What is cross-platform attribution?
Cross-platform attribution is the process of tracking and measuring the conversions across multiple websites, mobile apps, and social media. It allows businesses to see how their marketing efforts are performing across different channels and devices to make informed decisions about where to allocate their budget.
Mobile users interact with your content in multiple ways whether it be on the mobile web or in the native app. Unfortunately, the web uses cookies to store user session information and apps have no access to these shared web cookies. This means users that transition from the web to the app will have no context transferred unless the developer uses deep linking. If a user is looking at a pair of shoes on the web before deciding to download the app, the user will not see that pair of shoes when they open the app.
Although the experience across both platforms is difficult to accomplish, it is essential for a user experience. Web provides immediacy, allowing users to interact with content without committing to an entire app download. Apps provide stored user context, minimal data usage, and pre-rendered elements. For these reasons, it is not a matter of which platform to choose, it is a matter of how to marry the two into a unified mobile experience.