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Organic Install
October 20, 2026 An organic install is an app install that is not credited to any ad or tracked campaign. The user found the app in the store on their own, heard about it from a friend, read about it in an article, or did see an ad but installed after the attribution window had closed.
What is an organic install?
“Organic” is not a property of the user. It is a result of how measurement works. An install only becomes organic when the measurement tool can’t find any qualifying ad click or view to give credit to.
For a mobile measurement partner (MMP), that qualifying condition is the attribution window. Adjust gives an example: with a 7-day click window, a user who installs on day 9 no longer counts toward that ad, and if there is no other valid engagement, the install is recorded as organic. Adjust’s default windows are 7 days for device-matched clicks and 6 hours for probabilistic modeling (Adjust Help Center, Attribution windows, accessed October 2026).
App stores and MMPs count organic installs differently
| Tool | Closest group to “organic” | What to watch for |
|---|---|---|
| App Store Connect | App Store search, App Store browse | App Store search also includes views and downloads from ads in search results |
| Google Play Console | Play Store (Organic), split into Search and Explore | Installs from the play.google.com website also count as Play Store (Organic); traffic from Google Ads is counted separately |
| MMP (AppsFlyer, Adjust and others) | Organic | Every install that can’t be matched to an ad touchpoint within the window |
Sources: App Store Connect Help, Acquisition, accessed October 2026; Play Console Help, Measure your app’s acquisition and retention, accessed October 2026. Apple also resets the source every time a user redownloads the app from the App Store on their own, so someone who first installed through an ad may be counted again under a new source.
That is why the organic numbers in App Store Connect, Play Console and your MMP almost never match. Pick one source as your standard and stick with it when you compare month over month.
Why do organic installs spike on iOS?
On iOS 14.5 and later, an app must ask for tracking permission before it can read the IDFA advertising identifier; if the user declines, the IDFA comes back as all zeros (Apple Developer, advertisingIdentifier, accessed October 2026). Adjust says that on iOS 14.5 and later, it uses probabilistic modeling only for owned media, cross-promotion and consented web-to-app flows (Adjust Help Center, Attribution methods, accessed October 2026).
The result: some installs that actually came from ads can’t be matched at the device level, and they end up mixed into the MMP’s organic bucket. You can only see that contribution in aggregate, through SKAdNetwork or AdAttributionKit.
Example (hypothetical)
A food delivery app gets 50,000 installs in September: the MMP credits 30,000 to ads and 20,000 to organic. In October the marketing team cuts the budget in half. Installs from ads fall to 15,000, but organic installs also drop, to 16,000. About 4,000 “organic” installs disappeared along with the ads, which shows the ads were pulling in part of the organic installs. A team that looked only at the MMP’s organic number would undervalue its ads.
Frequently asked questions
Are organic installs free?
Not quite. No ad cost is attached to each install, but you still pay for store page content, PR, review management and keyword optimization.
How do you get more organic installs?
Start with ASO: app name, keywords, screenshots and ratings. Then track your store page conversion rate by source to see at which step users drop off.
If you need to separate the installs your ads generate from the ones that are truly organic, see our App User Acquisition solution or talk to Adtek through the contact page.
