SKAdNetwork (SKAN)

How it works

The matching happens on the device, inside the operating system. An ad network signs the ads it serves. When a user installs the advertised app and opens it, the system decides which ad wins the attribution. After a waiting period it sends that network a postback.

The postback can include a conversion value that your app set, which is how a little post-install behaviour reaches the report. With ads signed using SKAdNetwork 4 or later, a winning attribution can produce up to three postbacks across three conversion windows.^[1] The windows and their delays are set out in SKAdNetwork postbacks and their three windows.

When it matters

It matters for every iOS user who has not allowed tracking, because apps can call SKAdNetwork APIs regardless of their tracking authorization status.^[2] For those users it is one way a paid install still gets credited to a campaign.

Expect limits. Data arrives late, it names no user, and Apple may reduce the detail in a postback to protect crowd anonymity.^{[1, 2]}

How it relates to attribution

An attribution tool does not perform the SKAdNetwork match. Apple does. The tool's job is to help you define conversion values, collect the postbacks from your ad channels and show them next to your device-level data. Apple now points developers to its newer framework for app ad campaigns, and the two work side by side.^{[2, 3]} See AdAttributionKit and how it relates to SKAdNetwork.