What Is SKAdNetwork? A Complete Guide

Apple published documentation for the upcoming version of SKAdNetwork, which includes a few new features that developers and mobile measurement providers have been requesting, at its 2022 Worldwide Developers Conference, despite holding off on releasing any privacy-shaking news that would have affected the ad tech industry in early June.

A popular form of direct install attribution is SKAdNetwork API, also known as StoreKit Ad Network. We will provide you with an overview of SKAdNetwork in this article. Please keep reading.

What Is SKAdNetwork?

The SKAdNetwork (StoreKit Ad Network) software and protocols were developed by Apple to give marketers deterministic but aggregated attribution of mobile app marketing campaigns.

This means that marketers are aware of which advertising campaigns were successful and which marketing channels are producing the best results while maintaining privacy: they don’t get device-level data on what individual people are doing.

More than two years ago, in May 2018, Apple introduced a new concept and API called SKAdNetwork. With respect to privacy, that API would enable mobile app install attribution.

The future of mobile attribution on iOS and the role of SKAdNetwork were both hot topics back then. SKAdNetwork hasn’t been adopted, though, largely because of its limited capabilities and lack of any real incentives.

The AppTrackingTransparency framework and new privacy guidelines, which were announced by Apple yesterday, represent their new updates to iOS app tracking.

Unsurprisingly, these updates are prompting the sector to look into alternatives. SKAdNetwork is one of these alternatives, which has also undergone a covert makeover.

Singular has been getting ready to use SKAdNetwork for a while, and as we work to make those plans a reality, we receive numerous inquiries from interested customers and partners.

This entry serves as the introduction to a blog series that will examine the operation of SKAdNetwork, the types of data it offers, and how it can be applied to marketing measurement. We’ll try to keep things on a high level in this post, and then we’ll get more specific in the one after that.

What Is The Process Of SKAdNetwork?

  1. The publishing ad begins the three-second timer once the advertisement is displayed inside of it and sends a report to SKAdNetwork once it has finished.
  2. Additionally, if an advertisement is displayed for 3 seconds or longer, the publishing app notifies SKAdNetwork. This action is recorded as a successful view.
  3. The advertised app StoreKit is rendered if this view is followed by further user interaction with the advertisement. SKAdNetwork records the verified successful StoreKit rendering once it has been displayed.
  4. The user’s expected next move is to download the target app. The user can download the app without leaving the publishing app, provided that StoreKit was successfully rendered. The install is credited to the advertising network that receives the install postback from the device when the user launches the newly downloaded app directly from the SKAdNetwork attribution window. Additionally sent to the advertiser is a copy of the install postback.
  5. There may be a long attribution window (up to 30 days) between tapping the ad and an install as opposed to standard postbacks, which are sent right away after an app is launched.
  6. Additionally, the timer mechanism, which delays postback for at least 24 hours, should be mentioned. When the developer calls the updateConversionValue() method, the timer begins. This timer delay ensures privacy and prevents user identification, along with the absence of user- or device-specific information in a postback.
  7. In the event that an iOS app publisher collaborates with a third-party mobile measurement partner (such as AdColony, AppLovin, Vungle, Everflow, or Firebase), this MMP can directly receive postbacks provided that they are designated as an endpoint by the advertiser. Additionally, you can use specialized dashboards and APIs to report the postback to a mobile measurement partner of your choosing.
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Limitations Of SKAdNetwork

Compared to the data advertisers are currently used to receiving from their attribution providers, SKAdNetwork presents new functional challenges for advertisers:

  • Minimal ROI/LTV – Both in terms of the level of event granularity and the window time of events that can be measured, SKAdNetwork post-install measurements are severely lacking.
  • Granularity – Only campaign-level data is presented, and there is a cap of 100 campaigns per network, per app.
  • Postback delay – For advertisers to optimize on the go, there will be a delay of at least 24 hours between when installs happen and when they are reported.
  • Mistrust from advertisers – Ad networks, who essentially “grade their own homework,” own the data and report it. Currently, advertisers are used to having their data provided to them by unbiased organizations working on their behalf.
  • Ad fraud risk – The risk of fraud may increase due to the manipulation of data.
  • No re-engagement attribution support — The only action that SKAdNetwork considers to be attributable is the act of downloading. Deep linking and view-through attribution are not currently supported.

What To Expect When Using SKAdNetwork Install Attribution?

What you get is as follows:

  1. Ads that are displayed in mobile apps that track click-throughs.
  2. The publishing app’s Publisher ID supports complete visibility and transparency into publishers.
  3. Any additional campaign information (outside of the publisher) such as campaign, creative, and placement can be coded using the Campaign ID, which can hold a maximum of 100 values.
  4. If the user is downloading the app again, SKAdNetwork will let you know if this is their first installation.
  5. Basic post-install tracking is made possible by Conversion Value, a number between 0 and 63 that the advertiser can set after a conversion occurs (for instance, it can be used to display the highest level the user reached on the first day of playing). The goal of that value is to provide some estimates of the quality of the users.
  6. Apple’s unforgeable, cryptographic verification of the parameters and attribution. This is crucial because it ensures that user privacy is not jeopardized while allowing anyone to confirm that an install actually occurred.
  7. precise and largely fraud-free attribution.

Here’s what you don’t receive, then:

  1. View-through attribution isn’t supported, an ad needs to be clicked for the process to start
  2. Click-through attribution for ads displayed in a browser, email campaigns, and any other media apart from native ads
  3. Real-time data is sent to the network after 24 to 48 hours; notifications are sent immediately. The notification would be delayed by any subsequent changes to the conversion value. (notifications are sent 24 to 48 hours after the app opened or the latest update to the conversion value). Apple is taking this action to thwart attempts to link app activity with notification data in order to identify users.
  4. Notifications only contain user-level data; user identifiers are not included.
  5. Information about small campaigns or publishers: Apple would only send notifications when a specific number of conversions occurred for the same publisher app and campaign ID.
    We are unsure of the thresholds and the methodology used to conduct this count at this time.
  6. Deferred deep linking and long cohorts/LTV are examples of advanced attribution services.