Our wishlist for SKAdNetwork 3.0 🎄

How Jampp is working with SKAdNetwork

SKAdNetwork is here to stay. Since Apple’s announcement that iOS 14 will come with an IDFA opt-out by default in June, our team has been working relentlessly with our partners and advertisers to start running campaigns with SKAdNetworks and make the most of it.

While Jampp’s machine learning algorithms have been adapted to run flawlessly with SKAdNetwork 2.0, we all know SKAdNetwork 2.0 is currently a very limited framework to work with.

All I want for Christmas is you and SKAdNetwork 3.0

Many of us were quick to note that in their last release, Apple added a version identifier that suggests there may be a 3.0 version in the future. Together with our industry friends, we’ve come up with a list of asks which, if implemented 🙏, should add more granularity for app marketers, whilst still maintaining privacy for users.

1. More transparency. While Apple is randomizing data to prevent advertisers from implementing fingerprinting and reverse-engineering to identify users, growth experts need more information to fine-tune their targeting capabilities in the post-IDFA world.
   
2. String instead of an integer. It’s simpler than it seems: an integer is a variable holding a numerical value, while a string holds a range of characters. Apple’s SKA currently relies on an integer with up to 100 variables, leaving a lot of value on the side. However, having a string instead of an integer would make it possible to match a specific impression to a specific conversion, providing further room for campaign optimization.
   
3. [If not strings, then] more integers. As mentioned, Apple’s SKA currently supports only 100 integers, which is very limiting compared to the millions of variables available today. Our wish would be for this token to support more granularity, or to be dynamic: Why is it only 100? Could some advertisers have 200 or even 1000 variables?
   
4. Less delay in the postback. Advertisers will receive only one postback from Apple, and with a big trade-off delay: the postback with the conversion will normally take between 48-72 hours—and in some cases, up to 7 days, depending on how the conversion value is configured on the advertiser’s end. This has a huge impact on the effectiveness of advertising: the longer the delay, the lower the quality of the postback signal, making campaign optimization less efficient.
   
5. Ability to deduplicate. From an attribution perspective, advertisers will see SKA and IDFA conversions separately, but without a consistent identifier between those two values, they won’t be able to deduplicate. A solution would be for the SKA postback to contain users’ IDFV (Identifier for Vendors), which would make it possible to match that conversion to its IDFA counterpart.
   
6. Support mobile web. SKA currently doesn’t allow advertisers to track campaigns from mobile web to apps. If Apple allowed browsers to run the SKA tracking mechanism, the framework could be used to access mobile web traffic that wouldn't otherwise be leveraged to the fullest.
   
7. Deferred Deep Linking (DDL). Supporting DDL would allow for a much more personalized onboarding experience. With at least 5 DDL options, users who open an app for the first time will be redirected to the content and products that resonate the most with their interests and needs.
   

And… since we’re still in the ✨festive✨ mood, we might as well go beyond SKAdNetwork 3.0 and into the world of IDFA to add one more item to the list:

1. Further message customization. As we all know, IDFA will be an opt-out system by default, but it will still feature a message asking the user for permission. At the moment, there’s not much room for personalization at this stage, but having greater flexibility would allow publishers to test new alternatives to get more users to opt in.

Learn more

The wishlist below has been compiled based on the lively discussion we had with experts from Bamboo, Dataseat, and Singular. Watch the full video podcast here, or browse all the complete App Marketers Unplugged agenda.

If you have questions, or if you just want to be part of the discussion, be sure to join the Mobile Attribution Privacy Slack Group. It’s free, it’s open for everybody and it’s a good resource for marketers to learn more about implementation and strategy.

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