SkAdNetwork FAQ

Currently, we do not provide the SSOT product for iOS. Our assessment has shown that SSOT estimates are not reliable souce for essential UA decisions (as they create too many false positives) and could be interpreted as a violation of Apple’s privacy and data usage policies.

What is SSOT? #

SSOT takes SKAdNetwork data and combines it together with deterministic attribution in attempt to de-duplicate users and provide an estimate for campaign performance.

There is no such thing as certification by SKAdNetwork. In Apple’s documentation, attribution partners are not mentioned as part of SKAdNetwork.

First, you need to release an update of your iOS app compatible with iOS 14 using the latest Tenjin SDK, and make sure you are sending us your conversion value. App developers have the flexibility to decide the Conversion Values. If you need ideas on what to map to conversion value, Tenjin can provide you with trainings.

Next, you need to make sure your apps are linked to the SK Apps in order for us to correctly process and assign their SK Ad Network data. To do this, on your Tenjin dashboard go to Configure -> Apps -> Your app, and click on “Verify Ownership” under SK Ad Network Status (screenshot below). You will get a confirmation from Tenjin once the request is reviewed.

Yes, app + country data will still be available during the phases of our Attribution Modeling solution.

With iOS 14, as you are not FB MMP, will it become completely impossible for you to attribute FB installs? #

It’s the opposite; under iOS 14 there is no exclusivity of data access for FB MMPs. The Facebook API with SKAN is open to everyone. The only benefit for a FB MMP is to sync the conversion value mapping between FB and MMP dashboard. However, you can do this manually and Tenjin can provide you with specific documentation. Please contact support@tenjin.com for these instructions.

Yes, you can decide on the timing to show the popup, but in the context of attribution we will collect the IDFA at the first app open so the popup should be at that moment to increase the rate of attribution based on IDFA.

Yes, if you monetize via ads, your app will be a “source-app” as per Apple language, and you need to add to the list file the SKADnetwork ID of each monetization channel you are working with. See this page for further details.

(1) registerAppForAdNetworkAttribution(): (This method is already deprecated, so it only applies if you use the old version of SDKs). This method should be called at first launch and register the user for attribution. If the user is from a signed ad, a postback will be fired in the following hours notifying the ad network of this app install.

(2) “meets Apple’s privacy threshold” – Irrespective of what happens in condition (1) above, Apple can decide to set CV=NULL in the postback. Initially, a single campaign for an app will have ALL postbacks with CV=null. After about 50-100 postbacks for that app+campaign, the CV can be non-NULL. At this point the privacy threshold is met, and condition (1) is the only reason future CVs for this campaign may remain NULL.

The count of conversion value from the SK Ad Network tab in Data Exporter will reflect the number of installs attributed by SK Adnetwork. This number of SKAd installs is not directly comparable to tracked or reported installs because:

Not all network are using SKAd attribution in parallel with traditional attribution. SKAd installs are reported with a delay due to Apple timer, so the date in Tenjin SK Ad Network tab(data exporter) is the date when the SK postback from Apple was received, not the date of the install. In Tenjin User Acquisition tab, the date is the date of install.

The only comparison you can conduct would be by ad network, for a network that you know is running both SKAd and URL attribution in parallel and measure the discrepancy of installs. Some level of discrepancy would be normal:

If you are running UA on 10 different channels but only 3 of them run SKAd campaigns, SKAd installs tends to attribute more installs to the 3 channels due to less competition. Aligning the date of SK postback receipt with the install date will always be approximative.

Tenjin’s tracked_installs and SKAd installs are not based on the same attribution methodology, so those two numbers won’t be always aligned. In our experience, SKAd installs is usually higher than tracked_installs by 20-30%. Here are the common causes:

• Attribution window: Tenjin’s default click attribution window is 7 days, and SKAdnetwork uses 30 days click attribution as instructed here. You can change Tenjin’s attribution window from here, if you want to match the attribution window.
• Re-installs: SKAdnetwork counts re-installs(Users install the app, deletes it and re-install later) as well. For iOS, we use developer_device_id as an unique device identifier, so unless developer_device_id is reset, we don’t count re-installs as new installs. developer_device_id is reset only when ALL apps developed by the same vendor are deleted from the phone. You can see the breakdown of first installs and re-installs in SKAdNetwork dashboard as below. If you see a large percentage of installs coming from re-installs, it is likely the cause of the discrepancy.

• Networks not adapting SKAd Network: Not all networks adapts SKAd Network. If you run campaigns with two ad-networks at the same time for the same app, and one network doesn’t adapt SKAd Network, you will see more SKAd installs attributed to another network since there is less competition.

Tenjin will receive IDFA only if the user opts-in after the ATT popup. So if the ATT popup is not shown right after the app install, Tenjin will not be able to attribute the install and it will register as an organic install. In the event the ATT popup is shown at a later stage, even if the user opts in, the install would already have been attributed to organic and that won’t change.

For tracking, tenjin connect() can be called at the app install, which would allow Tenjin to track the app events. However, the events will be tracked without an IDFA.

In either case, we will register a user using IDFV. So if a user opts in at a later point and now we are receiving the IDFA as well, the user will not be registered as a new user as we have seen the IDFV before.

Deterministic Attribution is the best case scenario in which ATT popup is shown right after the install and user opts in. We know the IDFA immediately. We can attribute the user right away to an Ad Network.

If not, we will default to the SKADNetwork Attribution. As long as the Ad Networks have SKADNetwork integrated on their side, we will receive the Attribution data through the SKADNetwork postbacks (SKPB) from the Ad Network. This data will be available in the Tenjin Dashboard. In all cases where the user opts out or the ATT popup is shown at any time other than right after the App Install, SKADNetwork Attribution will take effect. So even if the IDFA is known at a later point, the user is already attributed as organic using the IDFV. We will get the SKPB even if the user opts in, meaning that both the Deterministic Attribution and SKADNetwork Attribution are happening in parallel, provided we have enough data to make a deterministic attribution, i.e. user opts in right after the the install. It is important here to understand that the data received from SKPB is aggregate data and does not have user-level granularity. Therefore, all the user level cohort metric are also unavailable in case of the SKADNetwork Attribution. You can see a list of metrics available on the SKAd Network dashboard here.

Apple SKAN metrics are winning install postbacks that a developer can receive directly from Apple for iOS 15 users which Tenjin ingests and reports on the SKAdnetwork report on the behalf of the Advertiser. For you to see Apple SKAN metrics on the dashboard, make sure your app has been claimed. With this new feature launch, you can now see various Apple SKAN metrics on the dashboard such as installs, redownloads, and total conversions to name a few. You can compare SKAN metrics reported by Ad Network vs SKAN metrics reported by Apple. With this launch, you own your data and get more information to make informed advertising decisions.

• Validate Ad Network SKAN metrics using Apple SKAN metrics
• Identify fraud if discrepancies exist
• Apple always sends source app ids. So if ad network postbacks don’t contain the source app id, you can always rely on the Apple SKAN postbacks.

『SKAdNetwork: Error while updating conversion value: Error Domain=SKANErrorDomain Code=10 "(null)"』

This SKAdNetwork error is most likely occurring because you are running your app in a test or sandbox environment, such as directly from Xcode or via TestFlight. You can ignore it.