SKAN / AdAttributionKit

SKAN / AdAttributionKit lives in the Marketing area of the dashboard, under Attribution.

At a glance#

What it does#

SKAdNetwork is Apple's privacy-preserving attribution for iOS. This page manages your conversion value configuration — including the coarse low / medium / high mapping — and reports the postbacks received.

The whole model is different from ordinary attribution, and understanding that difference is the point of this page. Apple does not tell you which user installed from which campaign. It sends an aggregated postback with a small conversion value, sometimes delayed by days, sometimes deliberately withheld, and never with a user attached.

When to use it#

Before spending on iOS, and it is not optional. Without a conversion-value configuration, iOS install data carries almost no signal — you get installs and nothing about their quality, which means you cannot optimise a campaign.

Workflow#

1. 1

   Decide what a conversion value means to you

   You get a very small number of values to encode everything you care about. Encoding revenue bands is the common choice; encoding an activation milestone is often better for early optimisation.

2. 2

   Use the coarse mapping when volume is low

   Fine-grained values are withheld below Apple's privacy thresholds. Coarse low/medium/high survives at volumes where fine values are simply not sent.

3. 3

   Freeze the configuration while a campaign runs

   Changing it mid-flight makes the before and after incomparable, and you cannot re-derive the old encoding.

4. 4

   Read postbacks as aggregates only

   There is no user behind a postback. Any analysis that requires one cannot be done with this data.

Permissions and prerequisites#

iOS only. Requires the SDK to register conversion values, and networks that participate in SKAdNetwork.

Limits and edge cases#

• A null conversion value is not a failed install. It is an install whose value was suppressed.

• Reconfiguring resets comparability.

• Android has its own model entirely — see Android install referrer.

Troubleshooting#

Postbacks arriving with no conversion values. Volume is below Apple's threshold. Switch to coarse values.

Numbers do not match the ad network. Expected and unfixable. Both are correct about different things.

No postbacks at all. Conversion values are not being registered by the SDK, or no participating network is running.

Where the data comes from#

From the SDK

• Methods reference

Served by

• Attribution

Related#

• Attribution

• Campaign landing perf.

• Click fraud

• Self-attributing networks

• Postbacks

• Partner event mapping

• Marketing overview