Apple on SKAdNetwork and Private Click Measurement: What you need to know

As the industry gears up for iOS 14’s privacy changes, Apple released more details last week on its implementation. Key to its announcement was giving developers a clearer timeframe for when App Tracking Transparency (ATT) will be rolled out. While there’s still no exact date, ATT will launch “soon” as part of Apple’s next beta update, and be implemented across the board in early spring - meaning all apps will need to request permission from users before tracking their users data. The UX team at Adjust has spent months researching the best practices to secure user consent on iOS 14 and you can find those best practices shared here.

Apple also shared more details when it comes to SKAdNetwork (SKAN) and Private Click Measurement.

Apple announced SKAdNetwork will soon support view-through attribution, allowing advertisers to “measure which creatives are most effective, while preserving user privacy”. For Adjust, this means we receive a very similar dataset as we currently do, likely detailing what is a view rather than a click.

Adjust has been working hard to build out its support for SKAdNetwork, and our framework allows clients to easily set up SKAdNetwork conversion and event mapping. SKAdNetwork leverages App Store download data to perform attribution, meaning there is no device-level data tracked or shared, and that your SKAdNetwork data is separate to your Adjust-measured data - you can learn more via our Help Center.

As more networks begin to support SKAdNetwork, we’re also working rapidly to integrate their solutions into our product. To date, we count integrations with ironSource, Vungle, TapJoy, Smadex, Unicorn, Liftoff, Lifestreet and Appier, and the list is growing every week. This means clients are able to view their SKAdNetwork data in their Adjust Data Canvas or raw data and get the key insights they need to optimize your campaigns.

Apple also announced their plans to introduce a new concept, Private Click Measurement, to measure the effectiveness of ad clicks in-app that then navigate to web, all while maintaining data privacy.

Private Click Measurement is a concept introduced by WebKit, a browser engine developed by Apple. About their solution, they say it is “a modern way of doing ad click attribution that doesn’t allow for cross-site tracking of users but does provide a means of measuring the effectiveness of online ads. It is built into the browser itself and runs on-device which means that the browser vendor does not get to see what ads are clicked or which purchases are made.”

While we’re yet to see how this will translate in-app, this is another step in the right direction towards heightened privacy in the ecosystem. We’re keeping a close eye on this and will of course keep clients updated of any further developments.

With a couple months to go until the changes are introduced, we’ve been focusing all our efforts into helping clients adapt with the most innovative, privacy-centric solutions available. If you haven’t done so already, we recommend updating to the latest version of our SDK, which includes robust support for both SKAdNetwork and ATT, as well as Apple Search Ads attribution support - learn more about it here.

Want to know more about how Adjust can help you succeed in a post-iOS 14 world? Visit our iOS 14 Resource Center, reach out to your dedicated Adjust rep, or contact us here, for more information.