As mobile commerce surges, brands must rethink tracking. Learn how to fix attribution gaps and unlock growth with SDKs, MMPs, and smarter partner strategies.
Mobile commerce is no longer just an afterthought. It’s the core of how consumers interact with brands. In 2024, mobile transactions accounted for nearly half of all e-commerce revenue, which is expected to increase significantly in 2025. So, while consumers expect seamless experiences across devices, marketers must ensure they deliver a seamless experience and implement tracking and attribution that support accurate, persistent tracking amidst the rise in mobile-first behaviors.
The Challenge of Mobile Attribution
Traditional web tracking models often do not translate well to mobile environments. App-based transactions introduce complexities that standard cookie-based tracking can’t capture. Without a straightforward way to track mobile events, brands risk losing visibility into performance-driven conversions, undervaluing their partnerships, and misallocating spend. Specifically, marketers must address the dual challenges of consumer experience and proper tracking infrastructure. They must eliminate friction for consumers moving from web to app, while ensuring tracking infrastructure remains intact and reliable across web, m-commerce, and in-app events.
Many tracking solutions rely on identifiers like IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers), but privacy changes have made this approach unreliable. Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework now requires user consent, with a majority opting out. Marketers need more resilient ways to track mobile partnerships without losing critical insights.
The Role of SDKs and Mobile Measurement Providers
To ensure accurate tracking of mobile app events, brands have two primary options: Software Development Kits (SDKs) and Mobile Measurement Providers (MMPs). Performance tracking infrastructure may not extend to mobile apps, specifically for tracking in-app events like downloads. So, without dedicated tracking in place, mobile app activity is not reliably tracked. Each approach has its value:
- SDKs: Installed within an app, SDKs provide direct, real-time tracking of in-app events. They offer detailed insights into user interactions and conversion paths and ensure that partners are appropriately credited for their role in outcomes.
- MMPs: These third-party solutions aggregate data from multiple sources, helping brands track mobile activity across different platforms. They often integrate with deep linking technology to ensure seamless user journeys from web to app.
Both options help bridge the gap between mobile web and in-app experiences, ensuring that consumer activity and transactions are accurately tracked and attributed. The choice between SDKs and MMPs depends on factors such as ease of integration, long-term maintenance, and the need for cross-channel attribution.
Why Accurate Tracking Matters on Mobile
Without persistent mobile, m-commerce, and in-app tracking, brands risk:
- Data Fragmentation: Failing to implement mobile tracking infrastructure risks unreliable data, making data-driven decision-making and spending optimization impossible.
- Underreported Conversions: Without proper attribution, brands may undervalue partners or performance channels that drive in-app activity and transactions, mobile app installs, purchases, or subscriptions.
- Inequitable partner rewards. Mobile tracking solutions are necessary to ensure that your data is accurate and reliable, support partner optimization, and automate the deployment of equitable partner rewards in exchange for value provided.
- Limited optimization Opportunities: When mobile events aren’t captured correctly, potential optimizations, such as dynamic commission structures based on mobile behaviors, go unrealized. When consumers shift from mWeb to app activities, the likelihood of inconsistent tracking increases, which creates data silos between the partner channel and mobile experience.
Steps to Ensure Accurate, Persistent Mobile Partner Tracking
- Evaluate Your Current Tracking Setup: Audit whether existing systems effectively capture mobile, m-commerce, and in-app events. Identify gaps in tracking that could lead to inaccurate reporting and attribution.
- Identify and Integrate the Right Technology: Talk to your performance marketing provider about their mobile and in-app tracking solutions, or consider leveraging a third-party to meet your business’s needs. Don’t forget to review vendors already integrated with your performance marketing platform to simplify onboarding.
- Focus on the User Journey: Enable a cohesive path to purchase for consumers without sacrificing tracking capabilities with an SDK or MMP that supports seamless transitions from mobile web to in-app experiences.
- Test and Iterate: Regularly analyze performance data to refine tracking strategies and optimize partner incentives.
The Future of Mobile Tracking
As mobile-first commerce continues to evolve to suit shifting consumer preferences, tracking solutions must keep pace to ensure accurate, persistent tracking from web to mobile experience. Brands that invest in persistent, complementary, or additive tracking methods will be better positioned to maximize their partnership marketing efforts. With the proper infrastructure, affiliate and partnership teams can confidently scale mobile initiatives while ensuring that every conversion is appropriately tracked and attributed.
Accurate mobile tracking is partly about measurement. It’s mainly about unlocking the full potential of partnership marketing in an app-driven world.
