Today, we’re announcing our transition to fully-SKAdNetwork based billing. Since the launch of iOS14.5, the industry has adjusted to a new way of measuring and attributing installs. Several months in, we have seen a significant gap between installs reported by SKAdNetwork versus installs reported by MMPs on our network. We’ve seen SKAdNetwork attributing 20-30% more installs than MMPs.
SKAdNetwork is the safest, most accurate way to attribute installs because the framework guarantees that the install will be attributed to the last network that showed the StoreKit rendered ad.
It’s clear that the methodologies MMPs have created to deal with Apple’s policies have succeeded in attributing a big portion, but not the whole portion of installs. MMP attribution is being determined not by which network showed the StoreKit, but who was the last to report a click. A 20-30% difference towards Apple attribution is a problem which must be addressed, especially since MMPs continue to be an integral part of marketing measurement for our advertisers.
Bridging the Gap
It’s important to note that within the SKAdNetwork framework, the StoreKit becomes a much more integral part of the ad creative experience. Anything before then is considered an ad trailer, and therefore a typical creative flow, today, includes both an ad trailer and a StoreKit rendered ad.
Over the last few months, we’ve engaged in extensive experiments to try and address this gap between what MMPs are attributing and what SKAdNetwork is attributing. To do this, we report a click to the MMP when a user engages with a StoreKit for enough time to demonstrate intent.
These experiments succeeded in bridging a part of the gap that we’re seeing - 10% - but we’re still seeing approximately 20% more installs on SKAdNetwork. As a result we plan to transition to fully-SKAdNetwork based measurement and billing by May.
Having said this, many of our advertisers continue to use MMPs as their main source of marketing analytics. For that reason, we will continue working on ways to address this gap so that advertisers get the most accurate picture of their installs from their chosen MMP partner.
