Leveraging Google Play Custom Store Listings

Google Play allows you to create up to 50 distinct versions of your app's store landing page, known as custom store listings (CSLs). This powerful feature enables marketers to tailor promotional content and app features to specific user segments, driving them from targeted ads to the most relevant Play Store experience.

1. Defining your Custom Store Listing URL

To direct users to a specific custom store listing, Google Play requires a unique identifier for that listing. This identifier is a value you define.

Format The value must consist of lowercase alphanumeric characters and the following specific symbols:

  • dot (.)
  • hyphen (-)
  • underscore (_)
  • tilde (~)

URL Structure The Google Play custom store listing URL follows this format: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=[package-name]&listing=[custom-listing-identifier]

Where:

  • [package-name] is your app's unique package name (e.g., com.example.app)
  • [custom-listing-identifier] is the unique value you've defined for that specific custom store listing (e.g., spring.promo_v1)

2. Linking to Custom Store listings with Adjust

Adjust uses the platform-specific Adjust redirect parameter, adj_redirect_android, to send users to your desired Google Play custom store listing. The value assigned to adj_redirect_android must be the URL-encoded version of your full Google Play custom store listing URL. While the Adjust UI often handles encoding automatically when you paste a URL, it's crucial to ensure it is correctly encoded if constructing links manually.

Illustrative Examples:

Let's assume:

  • Your app's package name is com.example.app

  • Your unique custom listing identifier is spring.promo_v1

  1. Google Play Custom Store Listing URL (Standalone): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.example.app&listing=spring.promo_v1

  2. Adjust Link with adj_redirect_android (Unencoded redirect URL - for clarity only, not for use): https://example.go.link?adj_t=abc123&adj_redirect_android=https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.example.app&listing=spring.promo_v1

  3. Adjust Link with adj_redirect_android (Correctly URL-encoded redirect URL - this is what you should use): https://example.go.link?adj_t=abc123&adj_redirect_android=https%3A%2F%2Fplay.google.com%2Fstore%2Fapps%2Fdetails%3Fid%3Dcom.example.app%26listing%3Dspring.promo_v1

Note : You can also use the unbranded app.adjust.com domain with the redirect_android parameter: https://app.adjust.com/abc123?redirect_android=https%3A%2F%2Fplay.google.com%2Fstore%2Fapps%2Fdetails%3Fid%3Dcom.example.app%26listing%3Dspring.promo_v1

3. Measure custom store listing performance (Optional)

To analyze the effectiveness of different custom store listings, you can pass the [custom-listing-identifier] to Adjust through your tracking links. This allows you to segment your performance data based on which listing the user was directed to. There are two primary approaches:

  1. Use Campaign-level parameters:

How it works: When setting up your Adjust link, you append the [custom-listing-identifier] as the value for your chosen campaign-level parameter (e.g., &creative=[custom-listing-identifier]).

Pros: Data is directly visible and filterable in Adjust Datascape under the chosen dimension (Campaign, Adgroup, or Creative).

Cons: You cannot use the chosen parameter for its original intended purpose (e.g., if you use creative for the CSL identifier, you can't also use it to pass the actual ad creative's name or ID for that link).

Best Suited For:

  • Custom/owned media links where you have full control over parameter usage.
  • Scenarios where visibility in Datascape dashboards is a high priority and you can spare one of the campaign-level parameters.

Example: If your [custom-listing-identifier] is black.friday.deal and you choose to use the creative parameter:

https://example.go.link?adj_t=abc123&adj_redirect_android=https%3A%2F%2Fplay.google.com%2Fstore%2Fapps%2Fdetails%3Fid%3Dcom.example.app%26listing%3Dblack.friday.deal&creative=black.friday.deal

In Datascape, you would then filter by "Creative" and look for black.friday.deal to see its performance.

  1. Dynamic callback parameters:

With dynamic callback parameters you can pass custom parameters on an engagement, giving you more options over the information you receive. Data received via dynamic callback parameters is only available in your raw data reports (real-time callbacks or CSV uploads) and not in Datascape.

By implementing custom store listings and leveraging Adjust's tracking capabilities, you can significantly enhance the relevance of your user acquisition funnels and gain deeper insights into the performance of your tailored store pages.