Traffic sources

The Traffic Sources report reveals the complete story of your customer acquisition - tracking merchants from their first interaction with your App Store listing through to becoming a paid subscriber. By connecting pre-install behavior with conversion data, you can identify exactly which channels bring your most valuable customers.

Traffic source data syncs automatically with your App Store listing, giving you a complete picture of your acquisition funnel. More than just visitor analytics, Mantle helps you turn traffic insights into actionable marketing strategies across your entire business.

Understanding your sources

Shopify URL parameters

After you’ve set up analytics for your app listing, Shopify passes additional URL parameters when a merchant clicks on your app listing from the Shopify App Store. These parameters provide detailed information about how merchants found your app, including:

• The language selected by the merchant

• The type of page they came from (home, search, category, etc.)

• The specific section of the page where they found your app

• The exact position of your app within that section

These parameters give you valuable insights into your app’s visibility and discoverability in the Shopify App Store.

For a complete reference of all URL parameters and their possible values, see the official Shopify documentation on tracking listing traffic.

Campaign tracking: In addition to these automatic Shopify parameters, you can add UTM parameters to any external links pointing to your app listing (ads, social media, emails) to track your marketing campaigns in this report.

Traffic dimensions

Each dimension reveals different aspects of your acquisition:

Surface inter position: The numbered section on the page where the merchant found your app (e.g., if your app appears in both section 1 and section 2 of the page, you can see which section drove more traffic)

Surface intra position: The position within a section, numbered left to right and top to bottom starting at 1 (e.g., position 1 is top left, position 4 starts the second row)

Understanding (direct) traffic

When you see (direct) as a traffic source, it means Google Analytics couldn’t detect a specific referrer or UTM tag for that visit. The system couldn’t attribute the traffic to a known source like Google, Shopify, Facebook, etc.

This usually happens when visitors:

• Type your app’s URL directly or use a bookmark

• Click a link in an email without tracking parameters

• Come from a private browsing session

• Arrive from a site that strips out referrer information

So, (direct) traffic represents untracked or organic visits where the original source couldn’t be identified.

Performance metrics

Available funnel events

The Traffic Sources report tracks customer journey events from discovery to revenue. Available events depend on your integrations:

Pre-Install Events

Require Google Analytics 4 with BigQuery integration

Post-Install Events

Available to all customers

Installation & Setup

Trial & Conversion

Subscription Management

Revenue Events

Account Management

Event selection nuances

Adding Events

• Choose from the funnel events dropdown to add events to your chart

• Events automatically appear based on your app configuration (e.g., trial events only show for trial-enabled apps)

• This report requires Google Analytics 4 + BigQuery integration to function - without it, no traffic source data will be available

Event Order Matters

• Use “Change event order” to reorder events in your funnel

• Order affects conversion rate calculations (each step converts from the previous step)

• Pre-install events automatically appear first when available

• Recommended order for apps with trials: Installed → Trial Started → Subscribed → Trial Converted

  • Why: Subscribed = subscription activated (often at install while the trial is still running). Trial Converted = trial ended and rolled into paid. Placing Subscribed after Trial Converted can yield 0 because the subscription usually happens before conversion.

Chart Display

• Events appear as columns on your chart in the order you’ve selected

• You can switch between “Count” and “Conversion rate” views

• Conversion rate shows the percentage converting from one step to the next

• You must have at least one event selected (can’t remove all events)

Traffic categories

Your acquisition channels typically fall into three groups:

App Store organic

External sources

Website referrals:

Campaign traffic

Marketing initiatives:

Referral programs:

Paid advertising:

Making the most of traffic data

Report filters and pivots

The report offers powerful filtering and pivot capabilities:

The extensive pivot options include Source, Source medium, Search term, Affiliate, Referrer site, Traffic source name, Campaign, Page/Surface type, Surface detail, Surface inter position, and Surface intra position.

The Affiliate pivot is particularly valuable for identifying which affiliate partners drive the most valuable traffic to your app, enabling you to optimize your affiliate relationships based on both conversion metrics and MRR impact.

Performance analysis

The breakdown table provides actionable insights:

• Source-specific conversion rates - see exactly how many visitors from each source become paying customers

• Full funnel progression tracking - watch how visitors from different sources move from discovery to subscription

• Visual trend identification - spot patterns with color-coded bars that make changes easy to spot

• LTV by traffic source - understand which channels bring your highest-value customers, not just the most visitors

• Revenue attribution - use the MRR column to identify which sources generate the most revenue, with both active and total MRR metrics shown as “active MRR / total MRR”

• Multi-dimensional analysis - leverage the extensive pivot options to uncover deeper insights, such as which search terms perform best with specific affiliates

• Individual customer journey details - click through to see the actual customers behind the numbers and explore their complete path

Smart analysis

Common ways teams leverage traffic data:

• Time period analysis: Establish baselines with 30-day windows and track seasonal patterns to identify growth trends

• Source impact: Track platform-specific conversion rates and monitor performance across search engines and social media

• Channel performance: Compare how different traffic types convert - from steady organic growth to campaign-driven spikes

• Search insights: Analyze search terms to understand merchant discovery patterns and identify listing optimization opportunities

• Referral quality: Identify which sites send your best-converting visitors and measure the impact of partnerships

• Revenue impact assessment: Use the MRR metrics to determine which traffic sources contribute most to your revenue

• Affiliate program optimization: Pivot by affiliate to monitor partner performance and better manage your affiliate relationships

• Campaign tracking: Compare marketing initiative effectiveness and optimize spending based on customer lifetime value

• Store presence: Track performance across different App Store sections and understand how listing position affects conversion

These insights help teams identify their most effective acquisition channels and optimize their marketing strategy for both immediate results and long-term growth.

Advanced traffic source optimization

Ready to take your traffic analysis to the next level? Our comprehensive guide on mastering your traffic sources shows you how to move beyond basic reporting to double down on what drives real growth. Learn advanced techniques for LTV analysis, affiliate optimization, and strategic budget allocation.

Setup and Data