{"id":6950,"date":"2026-10-20T21:49:01","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T14:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/glossary\/organic-install\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T21:49:01","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T14:49:01","slug":"organic-install","status":"publish","type":"mona_glossary","link":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/glossary\/organic-install\/","title":{"rendered":"Organic Install"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

What is an organic install?<\/h2>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

For a mobile measurement partner (MMP), that qualifying condition is the attribution window<\/a>. 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<\/a>).<\/p>\n

App stores and MMPs count organic installs differently<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Tool<\/th>\nClosest group to “organic”<\/th>\nWhat to watch for<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
App Store Connect<\/td>\nApp Store search, App Store browse<\/td>\nApp Store search also includes views and downloads from ads in search results<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Google Play Console<\/td>\nPlay Store (Organic), split into Search and Explore<\/td>\nInstalls from the play.google.com website also count as Play Store (Organic); traffic from Google Ads is counted separately<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MMP (AppsFlyer, Adjust and others)<\/td>\nOrganic<\/td>\nEvery install that can’t be matched to an ad touchpoint within the window<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Sources: App Store Connect Help, Acquisition, accessed October 2026<\/a>; Play Console Help, Measure your app’s acquisition and retention, accessed October 2026<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Why do organic installs spike on iOS?<\/h2>\n

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<\/a>). 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<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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<\/a> or AdAttributionKit.<\/p>\n

Example (hypothetical)<\/h2>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n

Are organic installs free?<\/h3>\n

Not quite. No ad cost is attached to each install, but you still pay for store page content, PR, review management and keyword optimization.<\/p>\n

How do you get more organic installs?<\/h3>\n

Start with ASO<\/a>: app name, keywords, screenshots and ratings. Then track your store page conversion rate by source to see at which step users drop off.<\/p>\n

If you need to separate the installs your ads generate from the ones that are truly organic, see our App User Acquisition<\/a> solution or talk to Adtek through the contact page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_title":"Organic Install: What It Is and How It Is Counted","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"What is an organic install? How MMPs, App Store Connect and Google Play count organic installs differently, why they spike on iOS and how ads affect them.","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-image":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-image-id":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-image":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-image-id":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"category_glossary":[58],"class_list":["post-6950","mona_glossary","type-mona_glossary","status-publish","hentry","category_glossary-o"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOrganic Install: What It Is and How It Is Counted<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is an organic install? How MMPs, App Store Connect and Google Play count organic installs differently, why they spike on iOS and how ads affect them.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/glossary\/organic-install\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Organic Install: What It Is and How It Is Counted\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What is an organic install? How MMPs, App Store Connect and Google Play count organic installs differently, why they spike on iOS and how ads affect them.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/glossary\/organic-install\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Adtek Growth Marketing Agency\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/101888089257566\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/og-default.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/adtek.agency\\\/en\\\/glossary\\\/organic-install\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/adtek.agency\\\/en\\\/glossary\\\/organic-install\\\/\",\"name\":\"Organic Install: What It Is and How It Is Counted\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/adtek.agency\\\/en\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-10-20T14:49:01+00:00\",\"description\":\"What is an organic install? How MMPs, App Store Connect and Google Play count organic installs differently, why they spike on iOS and how ads affect them.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/adtek.agency\\\/en\\\/glossary\\\/organic-install\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/adtek.agency\\\/en\\\/glossary\\\/organic-install\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/adtek.agency\\\/en\\\/glossary\\\/organic-install\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/adtek.agency\\\/en\\\/homepage\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Glossary\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/adtek.agency\\\/en\\\/glossary\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Organic Install\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/adtek.agency\\\/en\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/adtek.agency\\\/en\\\/\",\"name\":\"Adtek\",\"description\":\"Adtek was founded in 2021 to help brands grow their businesses from branding building to revenue growth.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/adtek.agency\\\/en\\\/#organization\"},\"alternateName\":\"Adtek Growth Marketing Agency\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/adtek.agency\\\/en\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/adtek.agency\\\/en\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Adtek\",\"alternateName\":\"Adtek Growth Marketing Agency\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/adtek.agency\\\/en\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/adtek.agency\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/adtek.agency\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/03\\\/logo-adtek.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/adtek.agency\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/03\\\/logo-adtek.png\",\"width\":440,\"height\":369,\"caption\":\"Adtek\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/adtek.agency\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/101888089257566\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/company\\\/adtek-growth-marketing-agency\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tiktok.com\\\/@adtek.growth.marketing\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.google.com\\\/search?kgmid=\\\/g\\\/11x7pm71mh\"],\"email\":\"contact@adtek.agency\",\"telephone\":\"+84932349434\",\"legalName\":\"C\u00f4ng ty C\u1ed5 ph\u1ea7n Adtek Technology\",\"foundingDate\":\"2022-05-05\",\"description\":\"Adtek l\u00e0 growth marketing agency t\u1ea1i Vi\u1ec7t Nam, gi\u00fap th\u01b0\u01a1ng hi\u1ec7u t\u0103ng tr\u01b0\u1edfng t\u1eeb x\u00e2y d\u1ef1ng th\u01b0\u01a1ng hi\u1ec7u \u0111\u1ebfn doanh thu: Brand Commerce, qu\u1ea3ng c\u00e1o hi\u1ec7u su\u1ea5t, SEO v\u00e0 AI Search, d\u1eef li\u1ec7u v\u00e0 CRM, th\u01b0\u01a1ng m\u1ea1i \u0111i\u1ec7n t\u1eed.\",\"taxID\":\"0317120810\",\"address\":{\"@type\":\"PostalAddress\",\"streetAddress\":\"146 Bis Nguy\u1ec5n V\u0103n Th\u1ee7\",\"addressLocality\":\"Ph\u01b0\u1eddng T\u00e2n \u0110\u1ecbnh\",\"addressRegion\":\"TP. H\u1ed3 Ch\u00ed Minh\",\"addressCountry\":\"VN\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Organic Install: What It Is and How It Is Counted","description":"What is an organic install? How MMPs, App Store Connect and Google Play count organic installs differently, why they spike on iOS and how ads affect them.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/glossary\/organic-install\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Organic Install: What It Is and How It Is Counted","og_description":"What is an organic install? How MMPs, App Store Connect and Google Play count organic installs differently, why they spike on iOS and how ads affect them.","og_url":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/glossary\/organic-install\/","og_site_name":"Adtek Growth Marketing Agency","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/101888089257566","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/og-default.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/glossary\/organic-install\/","url":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/glossary\/organic-install\/","name":"Organic Install: What It Is and How It Is Counted","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-10-20T14:49:01+00:00","description":"What is an organic install? How MMPs, App Store Connect and Google Play count organic installs differently, why they spike on iOS and how ads affect them.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/glossary\/organic-install\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/glossary\/organic-install\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/glossary\/organic-install\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/homepage\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Glossary","item":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/glossary\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Organic Install"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/","name":"Adtek","description":"Adtek was founded in 2021 to help brands grow their businesses from branding building to revenue growth.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/#organization"},"alternateName":"Adtek Growth Marketing Agency","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/#organization","name":"Adtek","alternateName":"Adtek Growth Marketing Agency","url":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/logo-adtek.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/logo-adtek.png","width":440,"height":369,"caption":"Adtek"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/101888089257566","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/adtek-growth-marketing-agency\/","https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@adtek.growth.marketing","https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?kgmid=\/g\/11x7pm71mh"],"email":"contact@adtek.agency","telephone":"+84932349434","legalName":"C\u00f4ng ty C\u1ed5 ph\u1ea7n Adtek Technology","foundingDate":"2022-05-05","description":"Adtek l\u00e0 growth marketing agency t\u1ea1i Vi\u1ec7t Nam, gi\u00fap th\u01b0\u01a1ng hi\u1ec7u t\u0103ng tr\u01b0\u1edfng t\u1eeb x\u00e2y d\u1ef1ng th\u01b0\u01a1ng hi\u1ec7u \u0111\u1ebfn doanh thu: Brand Commerce, qu\u1ea3ng c\u00e1o hi\u1ec7u su\u1ea5t, SEO v\u00e0 AI Search, d\u1eef li\u1ec7u v\u00e0 CRM, th\u01b0\u01a1ng m\u1ea1i \u0111i\u1ec7n t\u1eed.","taxID":"0317120810","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","streetAddress":"146 Bis Nguy\u1ec5n V\u0103n Th\u1ee7","addressLocality":"Ph\u01b0\u1eddng T\u00e2n \u0110\u1ecbnh","addressRegion":"TP. H\u1ed3 Ch\u00ed Minh","addressCountry":"VN"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/mona_glossary\/6950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/mona_glossary"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/mona_glossary"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/mona_glossary\/6950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category_glossary","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_glossary?post=6950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}