SKAdNetwork and Private Click Measurement let advertisers attribute their advertising across multiple sources — all while maintaining user privacy. SKAdNetwork 4.0 includes enhanced attribution information and support for web-to-app based campaigns, allowing advertisers to better optimize their efforts across more sources.
The SKAdNetwork API lets registered advertising networks attribute app installations to a particular campaign by receiving a signed signal from Apple. SKAdNetwork supports multiple advertising formats, including static images, videos, audio, and interactive ads. This enables advertisers to verify how many installations came from an ad and measure which campaigns were most effective, without tracking individual users or devices across other companies. SKAdNetwork accomplishes this by limiting the data included in the attribution postback.
SKAdNetwork attributes installations based on clicks or views. Click-through attribution occurs when someone clicks or taps an ad that goes to an app’s product page, and installs the app within 30 days. View-through attribution occurs when someone views an ad and installs the advertised app (without a link in the ad) within 24 hours of viewing the ad.
When an app installation occurs, advertisers and developers (if they’re opted in) can receive a postback within 24-48 hours of a user launching the app. In SKAdNetwork 3.0 or later, a postback is sent to up to five ad networks, so they can understand when an ad they presented qualified for attribution but didn’t win (on iOS 14.6 and iPadOS 14.6 or later). A winning postback includes attribution information, including:
Advertising networks can use the SKAdTestSession class in the StoreKitTest framework to test and validate portions of their SKAdNetwork implementation (including advertising impression signatures and parameters), as well as receive test postbacks.
SKAdNetwork 5 makes it possible for ad networks to measure how successfully ad campaigns drive downloads of your app, while preserving privacy. In addition to measuring how advertising drives downloads of your app, SKAdNetwork 5 measures when users reengage with your app after they’ve downloaded it. As a result, you and the ad network receive up to three postbacks when a user opens your app by tapping an advertisement.
Ad networks and developers will receive additional data in the attribution postback as more installations are attributed to an advertisement. Apple performs a real-time check for a particular download to determine the postback data tier and the level of information that will be included in the postback.
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No. SKAdNetwork allows advertising networks to attribute app installations while preserving user privacy, so you don’t need to use the AppTrackingTransparency prompt. However, if your app includes any instances of tracking, you’ll need to receive the user’s permission through the AppTrackingTransparency framework to track them or access their device’s advertising identifier.
Up to 64 signals of user value can be shared with your advertising network on an SKAdNetwork install notification.
In order to maintain user privacy, conversion-value and source-app-id are conditional values that are only included in SKAdNetwork postbacks when certain thresholds are met. In the absence of a conditional value, your network (or any advertising partner’s networks you work with) might represent the value as “null.”
Yes. You can use multiple advertising networks as long as they are registered with SKAdNetwork. Contact your advertising networks of choice to understand whether they are integrated with SKAdNetwork.
An app installation is attributed when a user launches the advertised app. If a user saw more than one advertisement, the attribution will go to the most recent interaction with the highest fidelity.
All transactions that are tied to an SKAdNetwork event are cryptographically signed and verified by Apple in order to prove the postback is attached to a known conversion event by Apple. The postback also includes a unique transaction ID (a unique identifier for a transaction such as a purchase or redownload) in order to detect replays of valid conversion events.
No. Per the Apple Developer Program License Agreement, you may not derive data from a device for the purpose of uniquely identifying it. Examples of user or device data include, but are not limited to: properties of a user’s web browser and its configuration, the user’s device and its configuration, the user’s location, or the user’s network connection. Apps referencing SDKs, including but not limited to Ad Networks, Attribution services, and Analytics, are prohibited under the Apple Developer Program.
Apple supports Private Click Measurement for iOS and iPadOS apps, in addition to mobile websites. Advertising networks can measure the effectiveness of ad clicks within iOS or iPadOS apps that navigate to a website. This information can be used to understand which ads drive conversions (such as purchases or signups) — while maintaining user privacy. Private Click Measurement accomplishes this by limiting the data included in attribution reports.
You can also use Private Click Measurement to measure any conversions that occur when someone taps an ad that directs to your website within an app in SFSafariViewController. Private Click Measurement is available in iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5, and Safari 15.4, or later.
Private Click Measurement includes: