One of the most critical yet often overlooked decisions when launching paid campaigns is where your traffic should land first. Should users go to your website or directly to the Steam store page?
Some teams believe that skipping the website minimizes friction and simplifies the user journey. While this intuition makes sense, the reality of data-driven performance marketing in video gaming is more nuanced.
This comparison outlines the key differences between using a dedicated gaming website and sending traffic directly to the store page—not just in terms of user experience, but also attribution quality, budget efficiency, and long-term audience growth.
Note: This comparison assumes that TRACKS is used as the core attribution and analytics solution, and that all recommended setup elements (e.g., telemetry integration, UTM tagging, Measurement API) are correctly implemented.
Landing Page Comparison Table
| Feature | Dedicated Website LP | Store Page as LP |
|---|---|---|
| Attribution Quality | ✅ Full attribution using click IDs, cookie consent, GTM & JS snippets across the user journey. | ❌ Decreased |
| Ad Platform Feedback (Postbacks) | ✅ Sends back install data to platforms (Meta, TikTok, Reddit, etc.) → fuels better targeting, less waste, lower CPI. | ❌ Decreased |
| Signal Strength | ✅ Tracks full funnel: scrolls, CTA clicks, time on page, bounce rate. Closer to the ad click meaning platform doesn’t have to wait for a purchase to happen for like 5 days but simply can optimize towards a more considerate audience immediately. | ❌ No mid-funnel signal. Only “yes” or “no” at install stage. |
| CPI Optimization | ✅ Platforms improve targeting by learning who installs → eCPI drops over time. | ❌ Decreased learning |
| User Journey Friction | ⚠️ One extra click to reach Steam, but trackable and analyzable. Tracking won’t require potential players to click to go to the Steam button, capturing acquisition source information on the web page immediately. | ⚠️ Web browser version of Steam won’t be the first choice of the player and majority of the players will launch the Steam app on desktop or mobile → friction happens anyway. |
| First-Party Data Collection | ✅ Collect emails, segment UTMs, retarget engaged visitors, build community. | ❌ No ownership of user data; everything belongs to Stores. |
| Content & Messaging Control | ✅ Full creative freedom (video, quotes, trailers, FAQs, roadmap, reviews, DLC updates etc.). | ❌ Fixed layout, limited creative space to convince user. |
| Conversion Signal Insights | ✅ You can see how many users clicked “Buy Now” → Compare with installs to understand friction or trust issues. | ❌ No way to see intent vs outcome. |
| Behavioral Diagnostics 1 | ✅ E.g. If Web Conversions (“Buy Now” clicks) are high but installs low → possible Steam review barrier → improve product/positioning. | ❌ No insight into decision-making gaps. |
| Behavioral Diagnostics 2 | ✅ E.g. If installs are much higher than Web Conversions (“Buy Now” clicks), you can deduce Word of Mouth or influencer effect. | ❌ You can’t identify organic vs paid momentum. |
| Long-Term Brand Building | ✅ SEO boost, direct traffic growth, newsletter list, owned audience. | ❌ No brand memory — everything flows through Stores’ ecosystem. |
| User Review | ❌ No user review option | ✅ For successful games, very positive user reviews can influence decision making process. |
This comparison framework has revealed consistent patterns across multiple paid media campaigns. In several cases, channel-level data has shown that “Buy Now” click volume on game websites can significantly exceed the number of resulting installs. This kind of delta often highlights underlying issues—such as trust signals, store page friction, or mismatched targeting—that would be invisible without a dedicated landing page.
Conversely, other channels have demonstrated a strong correlation between web engagement and installs, pointing to highly efficient traffic sources. These patterns are only visible when the full user journey is measurable, from the first click to the final conversion.
In broader campaign analyses, transitions from a website-based landing experience to a direct store link have not consistently shown improvements in install volume or cost efficiency. Instead, these shifts often result in a loss of mid-funnel visibility, making it more difficult to assess campaign performance or optimize based on user behavior.
By maintaining a dedicated landing page as the initial touchpoint, publishers preserve their ability to analyze, adapt, and build long-term value from each campaign. The data continues to show that even a single click—when properly tracked—can make the difference between making decisions with clarity or operating in the dark.
In game marketing, visibility equals power. Your website isn’t just a traffic gateway—it’s a full-funnel optimisation engine. With TRACKS enabling attribution, postbacks, and storefront analytics, the website becomes an essential part of your campaign—not an optional one.
Learn how TRACKS enables full-funnel attribution and storefront-level insights at secondstage.io/tracks.
