AdAttributionKit and how it relates to SKAdNetwork

What is AdAttributionKit?

It is Apple's newer framework for telling an ad network that its ad led to an install or a return visit, without identifying the person. Apple's wording is that AdAttributionKit helps advertisers measure the success of ad campaigns while helping maintain user privacy.^[1] It attributes installations based on clicks or views in iOS 17.4 and iPadOS 17.4, or later.^[2]

If you already know SKAdNetwork, the shape is familiar. The device decides which ad wins, waits, and sends a postback. Apple says the system provides three conversion windows if the ad network meets the criteria for conversion.^[1]

What does it add over SKAdNetwork?

Alternative marketplaces. AdAttributionKit covers in-app ads in the App Store and alternative app marketplaces.^[1] If your app is only on the App Store, this point changes nothing for you today.

Re-engagement. This is the larger change if you run ads to existing users. A reengagement conversion occurs when someone already has the advertised app installed and taps a custom rendered ad, or taps the Open button on a StoreKit rendered ad.^[5] In iOS 18 and later, publisher apps can pass a reengagement URL.^[5] Two limits apply: Apple describes this for click-through attribution, and the system does not create reengagement postbacks from view-through ads.^{[2, 5]} The general idea is covered in re-engagement attribution.

How do the two frameworks work together?

They share one contest. If an app has both AdAttributionKit and SKAdNetwork impressions, the system sorts both of them and decides the winner. Only one impression can win for a conversion, whether it comes from AdAttributionKit or SKAdNetwork.^[3]

The practical result is that you do not count the same install twice across the two frameworks, and you do not choose one at the expense of the other. Which framework an ad uses depends on the ad network that serves it. Your reports may contain postbacks from both for some time.

What should an app team do?

1. Ask each ad channel which framework its ads use. This decides which postbacks you will receive.
2. Ask your attribution provider whether it reads both. You want one iOS report that includes postbacks from either framework.
3. Keep your conversion value mapping. Both frameworks report through conversion windows.^{[6, 1]} Ask your provider how your SKAdNetwork mapping, described in fine and coarse conversion values, carries over to AdAttributionKit.
4. Decide whether you run re-engagement ads on iOS. If you do, check the iOS 18 requirement against the system versions your users run, and plan for click-based measurement only.^{[2, 5]}
5. Do not add the ATT prompt for this. Neither framework needs it.^{[4, 2]} What the prompt does control is on the App Tracking Transparency page.