Traffic Hub
The Traffic hub is where all data about how merchants discover and install your app comes together. It draws on two sources: your BigQuery/GA4 export (sessions, events, attribution) and your uploaded Shopify Ad Performance reports (spend, impressions, clicks). Use the tab bar at the top to move between views.
Prerequisite: Connect BigQuery
All Traffic hub tabs require an active BigQuery connection. Session counts, channel attribution, conversion funnels, and keyword traffic come from your GA4 BigQuery export. See Connect BigQuery or Connect BigQuery via Service Account if you haven't set this up yet.
App Store Ads data additionally requires uploading your Shopify Ad Performance CSV. See App Store Ads.
How the Traffic hub is structured
| Tab | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Traffic Sources | Sessions and installs by channel with a conversion funnel |
| Attribution | Multi-model attribution across five models |
| Campaigns | UTM campaign performance |
| GA4 Analytics | Raw GA4 event data and user metrics |
| App Store Ads | Ad spend, keyword ROI, cannibalization analysis |
Traffic Sources
The Traffic Sources tab (the hub landing) shows where your sessions and installs come from, broken down by traffic channel.
Traffic channels
Ranksy maps GA4 traffic_source_type values to named channels:
| Channel | Meaning |
|---|---|
| App Store (organic) | Organic search within the Shopify App Store |
| App Store Ads | Paid sponsored placement in the App Store (search_ad surface) |
| Category Ads | Sponsored placement in App Store categories |
| Direct | Direct URL visits with no referrer |
| Organic Search | Google/Bing search referrals |
| Organic Social | Social media referrals |
| Paid Search | Paid search ads (Google Ads etc.) |
| Paid Social | Paid social media ads |
| Email campaign referrals | |
| Referral | Referrals from other websites |
Conversion funnel
The funnel shows the stages from first visit to install for the selected date range:
- Pageviews — unique sessions that viewed your app listing
- Add App Clicks — sessions that clicked the "Add app" button
- Installs — sessions that completed installation
Funnel conversion rates show the step-by-step drop-off percentages.
Date range and comparison
Use the date picker to select your analysis period. Enable Compare to overlay the equivalent prior period on charts and the channel table.
Attribution
The Attribution tab applies five attribution models to your install data and shows how credit is distributed across channels depending on which model you choose.
Attribution models
| Model | How credit is assigned |
|---|---|
| First Touch | 100% credit to the first channel in the conversion path |
| Last Touch | 100% credit to the final channel before install |
| Linear | Equal credit split across all touchpoints |
| Time Decay | More credit to touchpoints closer to conversion |
| Position Based | 40% first touch, 40% last touch, 20% split among middle touchpoints |
What the Attribution tab shows
- Channel attribution — installs credited to each channel under the selected model, with share percentage
- Keyword attribution — installs attributed to specific keywords
- Conversion paths — the most common multi-step paths users take before installing (up to 500 user paths are sampled)
- Model comparison — side-by-side view of all five models for the same period, so you can see where the models agree or disagree
- Performance metrics — overall funnel metrics for the attribution window
Install reconciliation
BigQuery event counts are reconciled to your Partner API install count (the ground truth). If BigQuery and Partner API totals differ, Ranksy distributes the difference across channels proportionally using the largest-remainder method so the total always matches your actual install count.
Campaigns
The Campaigns tab breaks down traffic by UTM campaign parameters. It shows sessions, installs, and conversion rate per campaign, medium, and source combination.
This is useful for tracking paid marketing (Google Ads campaigns, newsletter links, social posts) that drive traffic to your App Store listing with UTM-tagged URLs.
GA4 Analytics
The GA4 Analytics tab gives you a direct view of your GA4 event data without writing SQL. It shows:
- Event counts by event name for the period
- Users, sessions, and engagement metrics
- Geographic breakdown of sessions
- Device category breakdown
Data is sourced directly from your BigQuery GA4 export.
App Store Ads
The App Store Ads tab is covered in detail in its own guide: App Store Ads. In brief, it lets you upload your Shopify Ad Performance CSV reports and compares your paid keyword performance against your organic rankings, classifying keywords as cannibalized, essential, additive, or irrelevant.
Data freshness
Traffic data is ingested from BigQuery daily. GA4 exports to BigQuery with a typical lag of 24–48 hours, so Traffic hub data is generally 1–2 days behind real time. Intra-day data is not available.
FAQ
Q: Traffic Sources shows no data — what's wrong? A: Confirm your BigQuery integration is connected and the historical import has completed. Check Settings → Integrations for the import status. BigQuery data takes 1–4 hours on the first import.
Q: Why do my session counts differ from what I see in GA4? A: Ranksy reads from your BigQuery export, which processes GA4 data daily. Very recent sessions (last 24–48 hours) may not yet appear. Minor differences in session definitions between the GA4 UI and BigQuery exports are also normal.
Q: The Attribution tab shows "Organic Search" as my top channel but I know most traffic is from the App Store.
A: Check your GA4 setup. App Store organic traffic should appear as OrganicShopping / "App Store (organic)". If your GA4 is not correctly receiving Shopify App Store traffic data, the source may be miscategorised. See your BigQuery dataset and verify traffic_source_type values.
Q: Can I see attribution across more than 500 user paths? A: The conversion paths section samples up to 500 users to keep the analysis fast. Channel-level attribution (the main table) uses all users without sampling.
Next steps
- App Store Ads — ad spend, True ROAS, cannibalization analysis, and bid recommendations
- Connect BigQuery — connect your GA4 export if you haven't already
- ASO → Keywords — organic keyword ranking alongside traffic data