What marketplace are App Installer ID (not set) downloads coming from?
I'm still trying to get my free game app discovered, and notice that most of my new downloads are coming from '(not set)' according to Google Analytics/Aquisition/App Marketplace. And this despite a 'This report has been filtered to include only data where there are values for "App Installer ID" dimension' message on the page. According to the docs:
"A marketplace must support the App Installer ID to be recognized by Google Analytics. Not all marketplaces support the App Installer ID, which is what Google Analytics needs to recognize a marketplace. Traffic that comes from a marketplace that Google Analytics can’t identify appears in the report as (not set)."
I've only submitted my app to Google Play. Should I be concerned about these apparent rogue downloads? What marketplace are they coming from?
Several sites offer direct APK file downloads, one of the biggest being 'Apkmonk' where I found my free game app posted. As reported from the updated Google Analytics 'Acquisition/App Marketplace' graph, I now get 50-350 new user downloads a day from unidentified markets, compared to about 1-5 a day from Google Play (com.android.vending). I had to adjust the support code provided in the docs and examples (i.e. Trivial Drive) for InApp purchases and Google Play Services (particularly the IabHelper file) to support players who had neither Google Play Services nor Google Play Store installed on their devices. They all appeared to get null pointer exceptions on starting the app before I adjusted the code. I experimented uninstalling Google Play Services and turning off Google Play Store on my test device to find null pointer and other crash points in the support code.
As far as app performance in non-Google acquistion markets, I get banner and interstitial ad serves, but that's it. No leaderboard or achievement posts, promo redemptions or InApp purchases, which makes sense. I only get .00-.02 cents per banner or interstitial ad click in these markets, with demographics mostly US and India.
