Network Performance and Arbitration

Overview

When analyzing campaign performance, understanding how your numbers compare to what ad networks report is critical for identifying discrepancies and resolving them quickly. Equally important is understanding how Branch decides which network wins credit when multiple partners claim the same conversion.

Network performance and arbitration give you visibility into both sides of this equation. Network performance surfaces the install, reinstall, and open counts that ad networks report in their own systems. Arbitration shows you how many of those conversions each network claimed and why a particular network won or lost the attribution decision.

Benefits

Visibility into network-reported performance and arbitration decisions helps you:

Identify discrepancies between Branch-attributed conversions and network-reported conversions.
Understand why a specific network won or lost an attribution decision.
Diagnose unexpected changes in conversion counts by comparing Branch and network data side by side.

Network performance

Network performance refers to the install, reinstall, and open counts that ad networks report in their own ad manager systems. These are not Branch-attributed numbers. They represent what each network independently reports as conversions it drove.

Branch pulls these network-reported counts when they are available and surfaces them as three new events:

Network Installs
Network Opens
Network Reinstalls

These events are available as column selections in Ads Analytics > Activity only.

Available dimensions

Network-reported data includes the following dimensions:

Ad partner name
3p
Ad account ID
Campaign
Campaign ID
OS

Network-specific considerations

Not all networks report the same set of events. The table below summarizes which network-reported events are available for each partner.

Network	Network Installs	Network Opens	Network Reinstalls
Meta	Yes	Yes	No
TikTok	Yes	Yes	No
Apple Search Ads	Yes	No	Yes
Snap	Yes	Yes	No
Google Ads	Yes	Yes	No

Note
Meta and TikTok don't distinguish between installs and reinstalls. Meta reports both as mobile_app_install, and TikTok reports both as app_install. If you map reinstalls to the install event in your event config, combine your Branch-reported installs and reinstalls when comparing against the network install count.

Arbitration

Arbitration shows you how many conversions each SAN (Self-Attributing Network) claimed out of the events Branch sent to them. When Branch sends an install, reinstall, or open to a SAN, the network responds with whether it drove that conversion. This response is the network's "claim" or "ad event."

Branch surfaces arbitration data through three new events and two new fields, all available in Ads Analytics > Activity.

Arbitration events

The following events represent the number of conversions each SAN claimed:

Arbitration Installs
Arbitration Reinstalls
Arbitration Opens

These events are available as column selections in Ads Analytics > Activity.

Arbitration fields

Branch also introduces two new fields available as dimensions in Ads Analytics > Activity:

Field	API field name	Description
Arbitration Win-Loss Reason	`attributed_false_reason_code`	Describes why a network won or lost the attribution decision.
Arbitration Winner	`attributed_false_winner`	Identifies the network that won the attribution decision.

Win-loss reason values

The "Arbitration Win-Loss Reason" field contains the following possible values:

Value	Description
DID_WIN	The network won the attribution decision.
NOT_LAST_TOUCH	The network lost because it was not the last touchpoint before the conversion.
OUT_OF_ATTRIBUTION_WINDOW	The network lost because its touchpoint fell outside the attribution window.

Arbitration winner values

The "Arbitration Winner" field identifies the network that won the attribution decision. Possible values include:

PERSONA
GOOGLE_AD_WORDS
TIKTOK
SNAP
GOOGLE_MARKETING_PLATFORM
FACEBOOK
APPLE_SEARCH_AD
TWITTER
OATH
SAN

FAQ

What is the difference between Branch-attributed data and network-reported data?

Branch-attributed data reflects the conversions Branch credits to a network based on its own attribution logic. Network-reported data reflects the conversions the network independently reports in its own ad manager. These numbers often differ due to differences in attribution methodology, windows, and deduplication.

Why don't Meta and TikTok show network reinstalls?

Meta and TikTok don't distinguish between installs and reinstalls in their reporting. Meta groups both under mobile_app_install, and TikTok groups both under app_install. Because of this, Branch can only surface network installs and network opens for these partners.

How do I compare Branch installs to Meta's network installs if I have reinstalls mapped?

If you map reinstalls to Meta's mobile_app_install event in your event config, add your Branch-reported installs and reinstalls together before comparing against the Meta network install count. This ensures an apples-to-apples comparison.

What does it mean when a network's arbitration win-loss reason is NOT_LAST_TOUCH?

This means the network claimed the conversion, but another network had a more recent touchpoint. Branch uses last-touch attribution, so the network with the most recent qualifying touchpoint wins.

What does OUT_OF_ATTRIBUTION_WINDOW mean?

This means the network claimed the conversion, but its touchpoint occurred outside the configured attribution window. The touchpoint was too old to qualify for credit.