Custom Product Pages Are Not Install Tracking

What Custom Product Pages Are (and What They Aren’t)

In iOS 15, Apple launched Custom Product Pages (CPPs), which allow devs to design alternate versions of their App Store listings by altering the screenshots, description, and app video, with up to 35 variations available, each receiving its own URL.

The idea is to optimize your App Store listing to different user groups with A/B testing. So if you want to target photographers, show them a landing page showcasing your app’s features for photos, and if you’d rather attract business, display the landing page with the productivity features. You’d still have the same app but just with different messaging.

This is great for conversion rate optimization. You’re paying to send users to the App Store so why not show them a landing page that’s relevant for them if you have one? You’re more likely to get the tap on Get.

What happened was many devs decided to use CPPs for attribution. It makes sense, right? Build the CPP specific to the campaign or creator, share the URL, and see how many installs the CPP generated in App Store Connect.

Here’s the catch. It doesn’t work how you’d expect. And these gaps are significant enough that it’s very easy to miss out on where your installs were actually driven from.

Custom Product Page’s shortfalls

Only ~70% of installs tracked

The first issue is the one that devs don’t usually learn about until they’ve created their CPPs.

If a user clicks your CPP URL, they get to your custom product page. However, Apple isn’t 100% certain it’ll track an install to your CPP. Here are a couple examples of when that connection might break:

• A user browses away to your page. The user clicks your CPP link, visits your page, goes to the App Store later, then installs. You might never track that install to your CPP.
• User searches instead. You clicked the CPP link, looked at your app and name, then went to App Store search to get it. Your install would be attributed as “App Store Search.”
• Already have the page saved in app store. The user might’ve been on the App Store and seen your app page already.
• Device or iOS version issues. There could be issues with the iOS device, version, or OS.

Apple doesn’t provide the official accuracy number, but developers say the CPP install data only accounts for about 60-75% of the total installs from the links. The rest is usually from other traffic sources, like “App Store Browse” or “App Store Search” categories.

That’s a huge gap, 30%, and not something you can write off with a simple margin of error. If a creator drove 1,000 installs to your app through their CPP link, only 700 of them may have been credited to you. The rest of that data was lost to the other categories, so that creator would have lost 30% of the weight and value.

24-48 hour data delay

Apple does not update App Store Connect analytics in real time. Install data attributed to Custom Product Pages usually shows up 24 to 48 hours after the install. This happens because Apple processes and aggregates the data in chunks.

What that actually means for you:

• You post a video with a CPP on Monday morning, and won't see any impact on installs until Tuesday or Wednesday at the earliest.
• You can't track the real-time performance of an ad or campaign launch.
• If there's an error with a CPP (say you linked to the wrong App Store page, or used a link that broke), you might not know until the next day or two.
• Creators can't view their CPP performance; there's no way to grant a creator access to your App Store Connect data filtered specifically for their CPP.

A 24-hour data delay is OK for A/B testing store listings, where you're typically measuring over weeks. But when you're trying to measure campaign or creator performance, it's pretty restrictive.

Each CPP must be submitted for App Review

Every Custom Product Page created requires App Review. That means screenshots, text, and creative for every CPP must be submitted for approval by Apple, who will check that they adhere to the guidelines. This review process usually takes 24 to 48 hours, but it can take longer.

The friction is noticeable:

• You can't create a CPP in the moment, like for a new creator partnership.
• If Apple rejects a CPP (say, if your screenshots aren't in the right aspect ratio, or you include text with pricing info), you must fix the page and resubmit.
• CPPs are limited to 35 pages total, so if you're working with over 35 creators or campaigns, you can't give them all unique pages.
• If you update your app page in App Store Connect (such as when your app is featured on a major holiday), you'll have to review and adjust your CPPs to make sure they're aligned.

With tracking links, in contrast, you can create a new link in a matter of seconds; no approval is required. If you're collaborating with a new creator, you create a link, send it to them, and you're all good.

iOS only

The most obvious limitation of Custom Product Pages is that it's an Apple feature; CPPs only exist on iOS in the App Store.

If your app is available on both platforms (and according to Statista's 2025 data, 78% of the top 1,000 revenue-generating apps are), CPPs are only going to cover half of your install base. You don't have anything analogous on the Play Store. That means you need a completely different tracking method for Android, and at that point, why not just use one tracking solution that covers both?

Custom Product Pages vs tracking links

	Custom Product Pages	Tracking Links
Install accuracy	~60-75% of installs attributed	85-90%+ (SDK-based matching)
Data delay	24-48 hours	Real-time
Revenue tracking	No	Yes (connect payment provider)
Platforms	iOS only	iOS and Android
Links available	Max 35	Unlimited
Setup time per link	24-48 hours (App Review)	Seconds
Creator dashboards	No (App Store Connect only)	Yes (scoped per creator)
Click tracking	No (only impressions and installs)	Yes
Conversion rate (click to install)	Can't calculate (no click data)	Yes
A/B testing store listing	Yes (this is what they're for)	No
Custom screenshots per audience	Yes	No (uses default store listing)

What Custom Product Pages are actually good at

None of this means CPPs are useless. They solve a specific problem well: optimizing your App Store listing for different audiences.

If you're running Apple Search Ads, CPPs let you show different store pages for different keyword groups. Someone searching "photo editor" sees your photography-focused screenshots. Someone searching "image resizer" sees your utility-focused screenshots. This improves your tap-to-install conversion rate on the store page itself.

If you're running paid campaigns with significant ad spend, the improved conversion rate from a relevant store page can meaningfully impact your cost per install. Apple's own case studies show CPP-optimized campaigns achieving 10-25% higher conversion rates compared to the default product page.

CPPs are a conversion optimization tool. They help more of your store page visitors become installers. That's valuable. But it's a different problem than tracking which link, campaign, or creator drove the install in the first place.

When to use each approach

Use Custom Product Pages when:

• You're running Apple Search Ads and want keyword-specific store pages
• You have distinct user segments that respond to different creative (e.g., casual vs. power users)
• You want to A/B test your App Store screenshots and promotional text
• You're optimizing cost per install on paid campaigns with large budgets

Use tracking links when:

• You need to know which specific link drove each install
• You're working with creators and need per-creator performance data
• You want real-time data, not 24-48 hour delays
• You need to track both iOS and Android from a single system
• You want revenue tracking (which link drives paying users)
• You need more than 35 tracked sources
• You want to give creators their own performance dashboard

Use both when:

• You're running paid campaigns where CPPs improve store conversion AND you want per-link install and revenue tracking. Create a CPP for the optimized store experience, then use a tracking link that redirects to the CPP URL. You get the conversion benefit of relevant screenshots plus the tracking benefit of per-link install and revenue data.

The real cost of using CPPs as your tracking solution

When developers rely on CPPs for tracking, the hidden costs compound:

Undervaluing your best creators. If CPPs only attribute 70% of installs, you're systematically undercounting every creator's contribution. This leads to underpaying performance-based creators and potentially ending partnerships that are actually profitable. No Android visibility. You're flying blind on half your install base. If a creator's audience skews Android (which is common outside of North America), you might see almost no installs in your CPP data even though the creator is driving significant volume. No revenue data. CPPs offer no insight into revenue. You might see that Creator A resulted in 500 installs (actually around 700, with 30% unaccounted for), but you’re left guessing whether those users are actually spending money. Perhaps Creator A's audience drops off after just a week. Or perhaps Creator B's smaller user base generates three times the revenue. Without a direct link between installs and revenue, there’s no way to know. Operational overhead. Imagine creating, submitting for approval, and updating 35 distinct CPPs every time your app changes. You’d then need to check App Store Connect 35 separate times to review the results. Now, contrast that with the ten seconds it takes to generate a tracking link and view your entire performance dashboard in one place.

FAQ

Can I use Custom Product Pages and tracking links together?

Absolutely. In fact, it’s usually the smartest way to leverage both. Create your Custom Product Pages to tailor the store experience to specific audiences (which boosts conversion rates). Then, simply use a tracking link as the primary URL you share, which redirects users to your customized CPP. This approach grants you both an optimized store presentation and precise, per-link tracking that includes revenue attribution. The tracking link captures the click and subsequent install, while the Custom Product Page delivers the optimized store environment.

Are Custom Product Pages free?

Technically, yes. Since Custom Product Pages are a native feature of App Store Connect, there are no direct fees to use them. The catch? The 35-page cap combined with the mandatory Apple App Review process creates significant operational burdens that become unmanageable as your scale increases.

Do Google Play Custom Store Listings work better for tracking?

Google Play does offer Custom Store Listings that function somewhat similarly to Apple's CPPs. They allow developers to build up to 50 distinct listings targeted toward specific countries, users in different pre-registration stages, or even unique URLs. However, the tracking challenges are nearly identical to Apple's: install attribution may still fail to match properly with the custom listing, and you still miss out on revenue attribution and real-time updates for individual links. You will get much more bang for your buck using tracking links across both platforms.

What about Apple's new App Analytics improvements?

Apple has continuously rolled out updates to improve the analytics within App Store Connect. Recent enhancements include more detailed source attribution and a sharper grasp on web referrer information. But the core issues remain: reports are delayed, data is rarely 100% accurate, you can't track revenue, and the metrics apply only to iOS apps. While these refinements are helpful if you have no other choice but App Store Connect, they still leave a wide gap compared to tools designed specifically for tracking.

How does install tracking work without IDFA?

Today's install tracking does not require IDFA, ATT prompts, or advertising identifiers. You get precise, per-link install tracking without ever asking your users for permission.

I only have a few creators. Is this overkill?

Not at all. Even if you're just starting with a couple of creators (say, 2-3), switching to per-link tracking will quickly pay for itself. Understanding which specific creators send users who actually convert to paying customers (versus those who bounce immediately) is the deciding factor between profitable influencer marketing campaigns and a complete waste of money. Plus, getting this set up only takes a few minutes.