What’s new in the iOS SKAdNetwork 4.0 update?
In their latest World Wide Developers Conference, Apple revealed many new eye-catching updates that will be available to users in the latest iOS update. Whilst this escaped the attention for many casual users, one of the most eye-catching announcements for advertisers from WWDC2022 was the upcoming launch of SKAdNetwork 4.0.
WHAT IS SKADNETWORK?
SKAdNetwork is Apple’s privacy-preserving install attribution system, which means that Apple, rather than a 3rd party, control the attribution of the installs of their Stores apps and send this information back to the relevant advertiser whilst removing selected identifying pieces of user information.
WHAT’S CHANGED AND WHY IS SKADNETWORK’S LATEST UPDATE SO IMPORTANT FOR OUR INDUSTRY?
Apple have announced a number of new features which address some of the threshold, transparency and inventory issues advertisers have been facing since SKAdNetwork’s initial adoption in early 2021.
HIERARCHICAL ID’S
Previously, there were 100 Campaign ID’s available for advertisers to define the targeting and creative information within a campaign. This is now changing to a 4 digit range (up to 9999), opening up the possibility for advertisers to have significantly more targeting and creative information available if the right thresholds are met.
The threshold will be split into three subsections with the following splits:
· 2 digits – the lowest crowd anonymity
· 3 digits – enough crowd anonymity to pass back slightly more data
· 4 digits – the highest crowd anonymity requirement is met
One of the three splits will be passed depending on the crowd anonymity met as decided by Apple. The improvement to the newly coined ‘source identifier’ means advertisers have more visibility into what is working from a targeting and creative perspective which can only help to improve efficiencies.
CONVERSION VALUE
The initial 6-bits conversion (fine grained) value SKAd offered as a solution is remaining a feature for the future, but a new additional component is being added. There will now be a 3 values (coarse grained) options available that will require a lower crowd anonymity. The addition of this new feature will provide advertisers with more consistent conversion data feedback allowing for an improvement in optimisations away from just an install.
MULTIPLE CONVERSIONS
The advertiser will now be able to receive three postbacks, increased from the original single postback. Where the advertiser previously selected an optional ‘engagement’ window for a postback to be sent, there are now definite times the three postbacks will be sent (1st = 0-2, 2nd 3-7, 3rd 8-32 Days). The fine-grained value will only ever be sent in the 1st postback whereas the 2nd and 3rd postbacks can receive the coarse-grained conversion values. The additional information will provide the advertisers with more data to assess the quality of the installs they’re achieving.
WEB INVENTORY
SKAd conversions are now available via Web inventory. This is potentially Apples most important update as it opens the door for Web to App attribution and considerably expands the scale and types of inventory available to advertisers. Like apps, the websites in question will need to update their site to enable embedding the ad links provided.
The SKAdNetwork 4.0 updates are a considerable improvement to Apples current product and will likely see an increase in investment from advertisers and an improvement in efficiencies based on more conversion and postback feedback alongside a likely reduction in App inventory pressure with the introduction of Web to App tracking.
If you’d like to learn more about how we can help deliver results for you across the ever-evolving climate of digital advertising, feel free to get in contact with our team here
