Apple’s privacy updates have dramatically changed how marketers measure mobile app performance. User-level tracking was not possible, and advertisers had to develop a new approach to determine which campaigns were effective. Enter SKAN Analytics and skadnetwork – tools specially designed to assist marketers in understanding app installs and conversions with privacy in mind for their users’ data.
For many app developers, figuring this new world out is confusing, which is why it is a great option to come to work with a mobile measurement partner like Apptrove. Apptrove will assist you in tracking performance, analyzing SKAN postbacks, and creating reliable reports, all while remaining compliant with Apple’s very strict privacy standards.
Let’s dive into SKAD’s meaning, how SKAD Network works, and what SKAN 4.0 is to ensure you feel confident in using these systems to measure your campaigns.
SKAD Meaning: What Does It Mean?
Before we dive into Skan Analytics, let’s get a clear understanding of Skad’s meaning. The term SKAd stands for StoreKit Ad Network, which is Apple’s privacy-oriented framework for mobile app attribution.
In simple terms, SKAdNetwork (SKAN for short) lets marketers know there was an ad that resulted in an app install, yet shares nothing verifying “who” that user is. Rather than sharing device identifiers or user data, skadnetwork sends an anonymized version of data.
This change was introduced to protect user privacy while still allowing advertisers to measure ad performance. So, when you hear people talk about “SKAN” or “SKAd,” they’re referring to Apple’s controlled, privacy-safe system for measuring app installs.
How SKAdNetwork Works
To understand SKAN Analytics, you must first understand how Skadnetwork works behind the scenes. Here is the flow in its essence:
- A user clicks on your ad to the app.
- Apple’s skadnetwork logs the click and observes whether the user later installs your app.
- If it happens, Apple sends a post back to the ad networks with some campaign information, while containing no user identifiers.
- When you see the post back, you will see some campaign information, like which campaign drove the install, conversion values, and time stamp.
Post backs let you understand how successful your ads were (when compared to what you are able to understand with traditional platforms and user-level attribution), and help you articulate your ad performance to your stakeholders. This provides a nice feedback loop where you start to get in the habit of doing something instead of nothing at all with Skan!
And this is the basis for why Skan Analytics tools are used by many marketers to make sense of these signals. The Skan Systems are aggregation tools that allow you to look at post backs and notice patterns to analyse and report on your ad campaign performance, and advise them on where they might want to allocate their ad budget.
Why SKAN Analytics is Important
Because Skadnetwork has limited advertisers on how much data you can receive, tracking and reporting are not what they used to be. Skan analytics helps fill the void for advertisers by:
- Aggregating postbacks from Apple into visual dashboards.
- Measuring the performance of campaigns across networks.
- Assisting marketers model conversions and revenue within privacy constraints.
- Identifying and creating trends without exposing sensitive and personal information.
What Is SKAN 4.0 and Why Is It Important?
So, what exactly is SKAN 4.0? It’s Apple’s significant upgrade to SKAdNetwork – which was released in iOS 16.1 – that tackles many of the previous pain points.
What is new and why it matters:
1. Multiple Postbacks
Pre-SKAN 4.0, Apple only sent one postback per install. Now, you can receive a maximum of 3 postbacks at different times (for example: day 1, day 7, and day 35). This allows you to track behavior and understand the impact of campaigns over time.
2. Coarse and Fine Conversion Values
SKAN 4.0 introduces two types of conversion values:
- Fine values – more detailed, if the privacy thresholds are met.
- Coarse values – basic “low”, “medium”, or “high” indicators.
This allows you to receive at least some feedback when data is limited.
3. Web-to-App Attribution
Previous versions could not track if a user saw an ad on the web and then installed your app after doing so. SKAN 4.0 now includes limited web-to-app measurement capabilities, improving cross-channel measurement.
4. Improved Privacy Management
The new version also expands the “hierarchical source ID”, which gives you more campaign structure while maintaining anonymity.
Long story short, SKAN 4.0 bridges the gap between privacy and measuring performance – an important development for marketers who depend on proper attribution.
In summary
- The skad meaning centres on Apple’s privacy-first ad attribution.
- SKAN Analytics helps you interpret anonymised SKAN data.
- SKAN 4.0 introduces multiple postbacks, coarse/fine values, and web-to-app support.
- Apptrove helps you connect all these dots effortlessly.
By understanding how Skadnetwork works and embracing Skan Analytics, you can confidently measure success in a world where privacy and performance must work hand-in-hand.
