Important: We won’t delve into technical issues related to incorrect tracker integration.

Different time zones

Yandex Direct displays data in Moscow time (UTC+3), while your tracker’s dashboard might use a different time zone. As a result, Yandex Direct and the tracker may attribute conversions to different days.

To remove this discrepancy, change the tracker’s time zone to UTC+3. For example, in AppsFlyer, you can do this in the app settings, and in Adjust, in the report settings.

Differences in conversion attribution

Yandex Direct attributes installations based on click time. Tracker reports usually show the time when the app was first opened. This difference stems from the unique functioning of each service. To align statistics, export raw data from your tracker and calculate the total conversions on the click date. Compare this sum with the number of installations in your Yandex Direct account.

Filtering out fraudulent and low-quality traffic

Yandex Direct doesn’t display conversions attributed to fraudulent or accidental clicks. According to Yandex, fraudulent and repeated clicks can account for up to 30% of all traffic, so Yandex Direct filters them out. This way, the system protects your budget. Learn more about Yandex anti-fraud mechanisms here.

Trackers offer additional anti-fraud features. However, these features often come at an extra cost. Moreover, the anti-fraud methods used by trackers differ from those employed by Yandex Direct. As a result, the ratios of fraudulent and accidental clicks differ from those in Yandex Direct.

Impression attribution

In the new App Campaigns interface, you can enable impression-based attribution when adding a tracking link. These installations will appear as a separate metric in the Report Wizard. However, tracker dashboards may display all installations together (both click-based and impression-based).

To ensure consistency between Yandex Direct and your tracker, configure Yandex Direct to track installations by both clicks and impressions. Then compare the total installations in the Report Wizard with your tracker.

Conversion modeling

When running campaigns on Android and iOS, Yandex Direct may not receive ad IDs from tracker data in some cases. This is because users can restrict the sharing of GAID for Android and IDFA for iOS, especially on devices with iOS 14.5 and above. This hinders attribution and traffic quality assessment.

However, even such conversions can be attributed correctly. Yandex Direct employs modeling techniques based on the entire set of installation data. Such conversions will also appear in the Yandex Direct account but won’t be shown in your tracker dashboard. In such cases, the discrepancy may reach up to 10%.

If the discrepancy between mobile app install counts in Yandex Direct and your tracker exceeds 10%, contact their respective support teams for further assistance.