What actually counts as an acquisition source on a new app
A source is not a channel logo. It is the last honest story of how a person found the listing or the link, including the paths that never appear in a media plan.
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Writing from the week before spend, and the fortnight after the store goes live.
These notes stay with acquisition sources on a new app: what counts as a door, why installs arrive blank, and how a long attribution window hides a weak burst.
Why the first two weeks of installs so often arrive unattributed
Blank sources in week one are usually a naming problem, a timing problem, or a path nobody thought to write down — not a mysterious failure of measurement.
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Store listing, paid ads, and family chats — three sources that get confused
Last-touch rules will happily give a paid click the install even when the person already knew the app from a listing visit or a relative’s message.
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Attribution windows that are too long hide a weak launch channel
A default thirty-day click window on a three-day launch burst will keep claiming later store search as if the burst were still working.
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Write the source list before you spend on the first campaign
The cheapest time to name booths, chats, creators, and listings is the week before money moves — not the Friday after the first report looks odd.
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