How to Track App Installs & Revenue from Instagram & TikTok

If you run creators on Instagram and TikTok, you already know this feeling.

You post a Reel. You share a Story. A creator drops your link in their bio. A week later your installs are up 40% and your revenue is up 15% — and you have no idea which post did it.

Not the exact one. Not the exact platform. Not the exact creator.

The App Store and Google Play won't tell you. They'll show you roughly how much traffic came from "tiktok.com" vs "instagram.com" and that's it. No specific TikTok, no specific Story, no specific creator. If you're running three or more creators across both platforms, that level of aggregate is useless for decisions.

This post is how to fix that. How to set things up so every install and every dollar of revenue gets attributed back to the exact post that drove it — whether it's your own brand account, a paid creator, or a UGC partner.

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Why Instagram and TikTok break normal tracking

Most tracking advice online is built for web conversions: drop a UTM in a link, user clicks, lands on your site, fires a conversion event, UTM shows up in Google Analytics. Done.

Mobile apps break every step of that.

The user taps your Instagram Story link or TikTok bio link. The in-app browser bounces them to the App Store. The UTM is gone — the App Store doesn't read it and doesn't pass it to your app. They install. They open the app. Your app has no idea where that user came from.

On iOS, Apple's ATT prompt killed old-school fingerprint tracking. Opt-in rates sit at 18–20% depending on the niche. That means 80% of your installs come in fully anonymous if you depend on IDFA.

On Android, it's less brutal — but the default attribution report still only tells you "traffic came from Instagram" or "traffic came from TikTok." Not which post, not which creator. And if you try to route users through your own landing page to capture UTMs? You lose 20–30% of the clicks at the extra tap. UTMs are for web, not mobile.

> You need something that works like a UTM for mobile: a link that carries its identity from the first tap all the way through to the first app open, without any extra friction for the user.

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What per-link tracking actually looks like

Four steps:

• Create a unique tracking link for each thing you want to measure — one per creator, one per post, one per campaign, whatever dimension matters to your decisions.
• Post the link in the bio, Story, DM, or comment.
• When someone taps the link and installs your app, it shows up in your Instally dashboard attributed to that exact link — in real time.
• If you've connected a revenue provider like RevenueCat, Stripe, Superwall, or Adapty, every subscription and renewal from that user ties back to the same link.

No IDFA. No ATT prompt. Users see no tracking permissions or extra screens — there's no UI for them at all.

The result: a dashboard where you can pull up any creator, any platform, any post, and see clicks, installs, and revenue side by side.

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Instagram: every place your link can live

Instagram gives you more placement options than any other social platform. Each one has a different click-through rate and a different purpose.

Story link sticker. The highest-CTR placement on Instagram, full stop. Click-through typically runs 2–5%, compared to 0.1–0.5% for bio link taps. Stories disappear after 24 hours, which makes them perfect for time-bound pushes — launch day, a sale, a feature drop. Use a fresh tracking link per Story so you can see which one converted. Bio link. Your always-on placement — the one that catches Reels, feed posts, and anything without a clickable link. Most creators use a Linktree-style multi-link page, which makes your link one of several. If the creator links directly to you, that's better — one fewer tap between their video and the App Store. Or skip the Linktree problem entirely with your own branded download page at instally.io/your-app. Reels and feed posts. No clickable links. Creators have to verbally say "link in bio" or point to a Story sticker. That's why bio link tracking matters so much — it catches the tail of every Reel and feed post. For per-Reel attribution you need to swap the bio between posts, or have the creator pin a fresh Story with a link sticker the moment the Reel goes live. DM link stickers. Niche but high-intent. Click-through on DM stickers can hit 15–20% because the user has already self-identified as wanting the app. Worth a dedicated tracking link if you're running a "comment 'link' for the app" campaign or doing 1:1 creator outreach. Broadcast channels. Rolled out broadly through 2025. Creators push one-to-many messages to their most engaged followers, and the links are clickable. Treat it like a newsletter — high-intent placement, dedicated link.

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TikTok: every place your link can live

TikTok is more restrictive. Three real placements, and one of them only matters if you're running ads.

The bio link. The only organic placement. Every organic video that drives clicks routes through the bio. Creators say "link in bio" in voiceover or add a text overlay that points to it. A creator posting five videos a week is routing all of them through one bio link. For per-video attribution, the creator has to swap the bio between videos — most won't unless you pay for the coordination. Middle ground: one link per creator per campaign. More on tracking per TikTok video. Spark Ads and Partnership Ads. If you're boosting a creator's organic video with paid spend, you can attach a direct click-through destination. This is the one place on TikTok where you get a clickable link inside the video viewing experience itself. Use a unique tracking link per ad creative so you can compare boosted videos. The same link still works on the organic version — if the creator's post keeps running organically after the boost ends, organic clicks still attribute correctly to the same link. Pinned comments. Some accounts can pin a comment with a clickable link. It's inconsistent — TikTok toggles it for different accounts — but if a creator has it available, it gives you a second clickable surface on top of the bio. Use a dedicated link for the pinned comment so you can measure whether it actually outperforms.

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What this looks like in practice

Three creators: Sarah on Instagram, Marcus on TikTok, Jamie on both.

Four tracking links:

• instally.io/s/sarah-ig — Sarah's Instagram (Stories + bio)
• instally.io/s/marcus-tt — Marcus's TikTok
• instally.io/s/jamie-ig — Jamie's Instagram
• instally.io/s/jamie-tt — Jamie's TikTok

Each creator uses their link in the right place — Story sticker, bio, DM, Spark Ad, whatever fits. The campaign runs two weeks. At the end, your dashboard shows:

Creator	Platform	Clicks	Installs	Conv.	Revenue	Rev/Install
Sarah	Instagram	4,200	680	16.2%	$2,040	$3.00
Marcus	TikTok	12,800	1,280	10.0%	$2,560	$2.00
Jamie	Instagram	1,100	240	21.8%	$960	$4.00
Jamie	TikTok	6,500	390	6.0%	$780	$2.00

Marcus drove the most clicks. Jamie's Instagram had the best conversion rate and the highest revenue per install. Sarah had strong Instagram conversion but less scale. Jamie's TikTok underperformed her Instagram — different audience, different platform dynamics.

Now you can make real decisions. Rebook Jamie for more Instagram Stories. Test Marcus on Instagram to see if his TikTok audience carries over. Reconsider Sarah's rate given her conversion quality.

Without per-link tracking, you'd see "about 2,600 installs from social this month" and have to guess.

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Running your own brand account

Same tools, simpler setup. If you're posting from your own Instagram and TikTok:

• Permanent bio link → your branded download page. Catches background traffic from every Reel, every feed post, every "link in bio" CTA.
• Campaign-specific links → swap in during pushes. Catches the spikes — launch day, sale, feature drop.

If you're running Spark Ads off your own account or boosting a creator's, always use a unique link per ad creative. Paid boost CPI usually looks different from organic — you want that delta cleanly separated.

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Revenue per post is the number that matters

Installs are a lagging indicator of popularity. Revenue is a lagging indicator of fit.

A creator who drives 500 installs at $0.50 revenue per install is burning your CPI budget. A creator who drives 200 installs at $6 revenue per install is the one you rebook next month.

> This is the biggest shift between old-school link tracking and per-link revenue tracking.

Once your billing provider (RevenueCat, Stripe, Superwall, Adapty) is connected, every subscription event gets tagged back to the originating link. You'll see:

• Revenue per creator
• Revenue per platform — Instagram vs TikTok often looks wildly different for the same creator
• LTV by acquisition source
• Trial-to-paid conversion rate per source

Trial-to-paid conversion commonly varies 3–4x between creators. You'll find that an Instagram Story audience converts to paid at twice the rate of a TikTok audience, or vice versa, or that one platform brings in users who churn within the first week. None of that shows up in install counts alone.

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FAQ

Do I need a separate link per post, or per creator? Per creator is the minimum. Per post is better when you can manage it, but most TikTok and Instagram creators won't rotate their bio link between videos. A practical middle ground: per-creator links for long-running partnerships, per-post links for Stories and paid ads where rotation happens naturally. Will tracking still work if the user doesn't install right away? Yes. If someone taps the link, closes the App Store, and comes back a day later to install, the install still attributes to the original tap as long as it's within a reasonable window. What happens if a user clicks two different creators' links before installing? The install attributes to the most recent click. Your dashboard also shows the click path, so you can see when there's overlap between creators. Do I need the user to accept ATT on iOS? No. Instally doesn't use IDFA and doesn't trigger the ATT prompt. Users see nothing. Works on every supported iOS version and every device. How fast does revenue show up in the dashboard? Clicks and installs show up in seconds. Revenue shows up as soon as your billing provider reports the event — typically within a minute of the transaction. No 24–48 hour lag like App Store Connect or Play Console. Can I use this for TikTok Shop or Instagram Shop purchases? No — those are native commerce events, not app installs. Instally tracks app installs and in-app revenue. For Shop purchases, use the platform's own storefront reporting. What about Pinterest, Threads, or Snapchat? Same approach. The tracking link doesn't care which platform it's posted on — it records the click and matches it to the install. Use a per-platform link if you want to compare Instagram Stories vs Threads vs Snapchat against each other. How do I know my creator actually posted with my link? Clicks show up within minutes of a post going live. If a creator's link has zero clicks 24 hours after their post, they forgot to use it (or used the wrong one). Ping them. What if a creator's video goes viral weeks after posting? Doesn't matter. The tracking link keeps working indefinitely. Clicks and installs continue attributing to the same link whether the post is a day old or a year old. You'll see the spike in your dashboard the moment it starts.

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Running creators and can't answer "which post drove that install?" — that's the problem Instally solves.