SKAdNetwork

Apple abandoned its ad network; Did Cannes Lions abandon its creators?; and CMOs decide how much to abandon creative budgets.

When Apple launched AppTrackingTransparency (ATT) in 2021, access to deterministic identifiers fell sharply as roughly 80% of users opted out of tracking. User-level feedback loops became sparse and biased, and iOS performance marketing shifted into a different measurement environment under SKAdNetwork (SKAN). Apple’s AdAttributionKit (AAK) later delayed postbacks, compressed conversion values and set privacy thresholds that made signal availability dependent on campaign structure and scale.

If there’s one thing that makes advertising measurement consultant Andrew Covato roll his eyes and shake his head, it’s the endurance of last-click attribution. Last click may seem “simple” and “tidy,” Covato says, but it doesn’t reflect the full funnel.

In today’s newsletter: Why Apple’s SKAdNetwork 4.0 is a bust; advertisers are irked by Google’s optimization-driven demand for different creative formats; The Trade Desk releases a baffling list of top 100 publishers.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Looking For ADvice No one likes cruddy TV ads. But how much of a problem are they, really? Enough for Comcast-owned FreeWheel to unveil The Viewer Experience Lab at Cannes in partnership with research company MediaScience. The lab will test consumer responses to […]

As AppsFlyer’s anti-fraud evangelist, it’s Naumann’s job to educate clients and the industry in general on the threat of ad fraud and on potential solutions.

Advertisers are turning to programmatic solutions that were purpose-built with SKAN’s methodology in mind to make sense of SKAN4’s attribution signals and optimize iOS ad campaigns.

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 the advertising ecosystem, too. Katie Madding, chief product officer at Adjust, offers five key changes to be aware of.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Unfluential  Meta claims to have taken down a Chinese political influence operation that used fake accounts to agitate and misinform Americans. The China-backed ring of accounts focused on hot-button issues, such as gun control and abortion, from both sides. This was about China […]

At this year’s WWDC, Apple announced updates to SKAdNetwork, its privacy-adjusted mobile measurement framework. For marketers, embracing, understanding and developing a robust strategy for SKAdNetwork is essential for user engagement and measurement on iOS. From there, the key will be maximizing the value of first-party data and designing long-term acquisition and measurement strategies – based on user consent for targeted advertising, writes Katie Madding, chief product officer at Adjust.

Although Apple held off on dropping any ad tech industry-shaking privacy news at its Worldwide Developers Conference last week, it did publish documentation about the next version of SKAdNetwork – we’re up to 4.0 now – which includes a handful of new features that developers and mobile measurement providers have been asking for.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. So Sue Me One of the myriad sticking points standing in the way of a US federal privacy law is the question of whether people will be able to sue tech companies in open court. Terms of service often stipulate that signatories give […]

Probabilistic attribution is a “stopgap,” says newly appointed Adjust CEO Simon “Bobby” Dussart. Using it for now is fine, but SKAdNetwork is the future of measurement on iOS – take it or leave it. Also in this episode: Remaining independent under parent company AppLovin.

In September, Meta (then still Facebook) alerted advertisers that Apple’s privacy changes were causing Facebook to undercount web conversions on iOS by around 15%. Meta now says it’s been able to close its measurement gap by nearly half, from 15% to roughly 8%.

The recent bonanza of mobile M&A has more to do with the maturity of the market than it does with any defensive measures related to Apple’s new privacy features, according to Paul Müller, CEO and co-founder of mobile measurement company Adjust. Müller knows a little something about M&A. He sold his company for roughly $1 […]

Mobile advertising companies are being snapped up at eye-popping valuations. But wait … isn’t Apple torpedoing the ability to target and measure app advertising with its AppTrackingTransparency framework, SKAdNetwork and other privacy-focused policies? We untangle that contradiction on this week’s episode of The Big Story, where the editorial team is joined by special guest John […]

It’s a post-ATT world, and Facebook is still figuring out how to live in it. On Wednesday, Facebook shared an update about what it’s doing to triage its data signal losses due to Apple’s AppTrackingTransparency framework, including the release of several new measurement-focused products. Facebook needs to make moves like these pronto. Formerly immutable truths […]

Developers have been reporting allegedly strange behavior from AppLovin’s MAX Unity SDK. At least one developer discovered that MAX, AppLovin’s in-app monetization solution, appears to have been capturing iOS 15 postbacks for installs generated by other ad networks automatically and without permission. The tip was shared anonymously with the mobile ad industry forum Mobile Dev […]

Facebook has been selling itself short. A bug in Facebook’s measurement system caused Facebook to undercount app install campaigns on iOS 14 via SKAdNetwork (SKAN) for nearly seven months. The bug, which Facebook identified on August 20, only impacted iPhone 12 users that were using the Facebook app. Instagram users and Audience Network partner apps […]

Sayonara self-attribution. Apple is making a tweak to SKAdNetwork in iOS 15 that will strip the big ad platforms, including Facebook, Google and Twitter, of their status as self-attributing networks. Starting with the next version of iOS, slated for release sometime this fall, advertisers will be able to opt in to get copies of the […]

AppTrackingTransparency enforcement officially began in late April. But advertisers, publishers and mobile ad tech vendors are still grappling with a lot of head scratchers – and the dust is far from settled. Until the release of iOS 14.5 last month, among the biggest unknowns consuming the mobile ad ecosystem was the agita-inducing question of timing […]

Today’s column is written by Maor Sadra, CEO and co-founder of INCRMNTAL. After this exclusive look for subscribers, the story will be published in full on AdExchanger.com tomorrow. Facebook CFO David Wehner has noted on multiple company earnings calls that investors should expect a revenue dip related to ad targeting headwinds, aka, Apple’s AppTrackingTransparency. But what […]

It’ll be hard to beat the drama that surrounded the release of iOS 14.5 on Monday. But the beat goes on, and the beta of iOS 14.6, which includes a feature update for the third version of SKAdNetwork, is waiting in the wings. SKAdNetwork is Apple’s limited (and therefore privacy preserving) solution for attribution on […]

Most advertisers and ad networks aren’t ready to support Apple’s AppTrackingTransparency (ATT) framework or SKAdNetwork despite an impending “early spring” deadline. [If Apple is a stickler, the first day of spring is March 20.] Based on an internal audit of its clients and partners, mobile measurement provider Branch found that just 1.05% of advertisers are […]

Apple appears to be providing its homegrown ad network with more granular measurement functionality that what everyone else will get through SKAdNetwork. Specifically, the Apple Ads Attribution API payload field will include two parameters that are important for optimization – creativeSet ID and keywordID – but totally absent from SKAdNetwork postbacks. Without creativeSetID, advertisers won’t know which […]

SKAdNetwork is entering its final form, though details are scant. Apple recently updated its page dedicated to user privacy and data use to reflect its plan to add support for view-through attribution for video, audio and interactive ads in apps by “early spring” 2021. Apple will tie these attribution capabilities to creative measurement, so developers […]

So few publishers and advertisers are ready for Apple’s forthcoming IDFA changes that mobile DSP Jampp had to develop its own app just to run live tests of SKAdNetwork. SKAdNetwork is Apple’s privacy preserving attribution API for iOS 14. Once Apple implements its AppTrackingTransparency (ATT) framework, which will require advertisers and publishers to get an […]

“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 Joel Meyer, Chief Architect at OpenX.  While there’s no clear cut answer around what the future of audience targeting will look like, practically every proposal is supported by one of two […]

“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 Barak Witkowski, general manager at AppsFlyer. SKAdNetwork has been a hot topic following Apple’s recent privacy announcements, driving both hope and concern for advertisers about the future of their marketing strategy. […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. All About Antitrust Facebook and Google’s legal woes are expected to get worse as federal and state antitrust authorities prepare to file new lawsuits against the tech giants. The Wall Street Journal reports that authorities are readying as many as four more cases targeting […]