“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media.
Today’s column is written by Katie Madding, chief product officer at Adjust.
The greatly anticipated SKAdNetwork (SKAN) 4.0 was released last month and there’s a lot to be optimistic about. But there’s also complexity to unpack. While Apple has focused on bringing more measurement into their framework, it could further fragment our ecosystem, too.
With SKAN 4, there are more opportunities for channels to develop their own interpretation of how to use these new methods. As we already saw with SKAN 3, some networks set timing limits for conversion values. Others have their own campaign conventions. While there’s now an avenue for networks to customize, optimize and define best use cases, it’s possible that every channel will be using a different methodology.
However, the move to SKAN 4 will not happen overnight. Industry-wide adoption will take time as it depends on app developers, publishers, partners and measurement providers. This shift is a huge technical undertaking for all parties and will have to be prioritized against existing critical projects.
Here are the top five changes to be aware of:
1. Source identifier: Previously named campaign ID, the reporting dimension for ad networks can now be extended from two digits (0-99) to four digits. Two digits will always be received, and the additional two are contingent upon Apple’s privacy threshold and crowd anonymity. Essentially, the more installs you have on a given campaign, the more likely you’ll be to get the two additional dimensions in the postback.
With two more digits, you might receive two more dimensions for measurement, like location, keyword, creative, etc. But, with the new tiering system, more campaign granularity may come at the cost of crowd anonymity.
Tip: The first two digits are guaranteed. Use them for critical campaign data. Use the second two for nice-to-have dimensions.
2. Coarse values: In addition to fine grain conversion values, SKAN 4 introduces coarse grain conversion values. Essentially, conversion values can now be assigned to a “grain” of low, medium or high, which should reduce the number of null values. Anything is better than the dreaded null.
Tip: Use coarse values to focus on specific events or retention/to relate to distinct in-app activities for actionable reporting.
3. Three postbacks: Up until SKAN 3, advertisers only received one postback. As of SKAN 4, there are now three postbacks with windows of 48 hours, 3-7 days, and 8-35 days, respectively.
With more conversion information, you will have a better idea of which channels bring higher quality users. However, the three postbacks are disparate and cannot be tied together.
Tip: You’ll only receive coarse values for postbacks two and three. Try to tie coarse values to key lifetime value (LTV) activities.
4. lockWindow: There’s an option to apply lockWindow within each of the three postbacks, allowing you to shorten and customize the windows by locking them at specific times. For instance, within the 3-7 day window, you might choose to lock on day 5, meaning postback two will have measured user behavior/contain a conversion value based on activity up until day five.
To gather the most rich insights, trigger postbacks after key LTV driving events occur.
The caveat is that this still could be up to 48 hours for the first postback and 144 hours after the event for the second and third postback. Further, networks may set their own standards for what these windows can be.
Tip: Standardize how you measure LTV by applying the lockWindow at moments where key events in the user journey occur.
5. Web support: Web-to-app attribution/measurement for web traffic is finally available for SKAN. However, this is for Safari traffic only. But Safari does account for more than 90% of iOS traffic.
SKAN 4 represents a significant opportunity for the mobile advertising ecosystem. Each of the advantages and limitations, however, must be equally analyzed.
Yes, the new features provide new ways for advertisers and developers to measure user behavior and gain insights, but there are implications that are critical to your overall iOS strategy. Overall, there is much to be excited about as industry-wide adoption rolls out.
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