Overview

SKAdNetwork (SKAN) is Apple’s attribution framework on iOS, providing accurate attribution data to help marketers understand and refine mobile ad campaigns. By concealing details like user-level identifiers that could cause other companies to exploit that data without user consent, SKAdNetwork is the leading attribution framework prioritizing user privacy and security.

Ad Network Support

SKAdNetwork Data for Common Ad Partners

Benefits of SKAN

Developers have several different options for integrating SKAN. You can either integrate SKAN natively or use the Branch SDK to take care of all of the SKAN-related methods for you. Both of which have their own benefits

Supported Platforms

The Branch SDK versions below automatically handle SKAdNetwork in-app functionality. If you do not integrate Branch in the platforms below, please Enable SKAdNetwork Natively.

How does it work?

1. Ad network serves an ad to the Publisher App
2. The user clicks on the ad.
3. A Click is sent from the Publisher App to the App Store client on the device.
4. The user installs the app and performs in-app conversion events.
   • A 24-hour looping timer initates after the app is installed and resets with every new higher conversion event.
5. The event data is sent from the Advertiser App to the App Store Client on the device.
   • For SKAN 3.0 and earlier, the rolling timer expires, and the App Store Client sends a signal postback with campaign information (network, publisher, and campaign ID) to the ad network after an additional 0-24 hour delay. After the rolling timer expires,
   • For SKAN 4.0, SKAN sends up to three postbacks to the winning ad network at pre-defined intervals with a random delay of 24-48 hours for the first postback and 24-144 hours for the second and third postbacks.
6. For the events, Apple reports a conversion value from 0-63, which the advertiser can set to give some estimates on the users' quality; SKAN 4.0 can send additional granularity.
7. The Ad network forwards the postback to Branch.

Note: To avoid an unnecessarily long wait for the postback to be sent to the ad network, Branch has implemented a default cutoff to the looping timer at 24hr. This is to ensure the ad network has what it needs for you to optimize your campaigns more quickly. This is configurable if you’d like it to keep it restarting for longer if you have a longer install to conversion time

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SKAdNetwork with Self-Attributing Networks

SKAdNetwork works a little bit differently based on the Self-Attributing Network (SAN). See the individual SAN guides here:

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