By admin 
When you hear about Skadnetwork for the first time, it may seem like a complicated product of tech talk. Essentially, it is Apple’s solution for app marketers to measure whether the ads they are running are successful while keeping their users’ privacy intact. However, Skadnetwork is imperfect, and app marketers need to understand the limitations of this tool in its proper context in order to be able to make informed decisions.
Before we get into more details, it is also worth mentioning that you will find that once you start using Skadnetwork, mobile measurement partners (MMPs) will make the experience much better. MMPs such as Apptrove will act as a trusted MMP, allowing app businesses to simply gather, clean, and understand SKAdNetwork data properly, and turn unique privacy-safe signals into actionable insights that lead to sustainable, scalable business growth.
What Is SKAdNetwork?
Skadnetwork is Apple’s privacy-centric framework to measure app installs from ads. SKAdNetwork does not provide personal user data but slightly anonymised reports to measure if ads led to an install. For example, if you are running an ad for your mobile game, you will know the ad led to an install; however, you will not know anything personal about that user, including whether it was a male or female.
Conceptually, you retain the user anonymity, which is a positive thing from the privacy perspective, but a negative thing for marketers. Since you are working with the limitations of Skadnetwork, you have less visibility and simplicity about where installs are coming from and how users behave after downloading from their devices.
The Main SKAdNetwork Limitations
While Skadnetwork does a good job of maintaining user privacy, there are a few limitations that can create difficulties for advertisers. The following are the most significant.
1. Privacy Thresholds Hide Some Data
One of the biggest drawbacks of using Skadnetwork is the privacy threshold. Apple will only share conversion data when there are enough installs within a campaign for more detailed reporting. If there are not enough installs, your data may be “coarse” or disappear completely. This obviously limits our ability to tell which ad performed best at times.
2. Delayed postbacks
Unlike traditional analytics that get updated in real-time, Skadnetwork reports delayed postbacks. Postbacks can take 24-48 hours to deliver the first conversion event, with subsequent postbacks potentially taking up to 144 hours. This obviously inhibits on-the-fly optimisation when advertising.
3. Limited Campaign IDs
The previous versions of Skadnetwork were limited to 100 campaign IDs per app per network. This does not allow for very much testing of creatives and segmentation of audiences. This limitation forced marketers to hedge towards a simplified campaign structure and ultimately lost the granularity of targeting.
4. Only One Postback (Before 4.0)
Before Apple’s recent update, the Skadnetwork offered a single postback action per install. The marketer had to determine what action mattered most – did the user make a purchase, did the user reach level 5, or did another measurement determine success? Everything else would be lost, which meant there were limited amounts you could learn about the user’s behaviour.
5. No Re-Engagement Tracking
Another drawback of Skadnetwork is the inability to track re-engagement. If someone already has the app and clicks an ad to return, it simply doesn’t count the action. First-time installs are the only data the SKAN framework tracks, which means there is also no information on in-app actions.
6. Source Identifiers are Masked
Apple masks part of the campaign identifier in the form of initials to provide privacy. Instead of seeing the full four-digit ID from your campaign, you might see just two digits, and the rest is any guess as to the ad group or source.
7. Limited Support for Web to App
In previous versions of Skadnetwork, web-to-app tracking did not exist at all. Currently, web-to-app tracking is limited to Safari click-based ads. If you are running a promotion across websites, your tracking data may still be incomplete.
The Future of Privacy-Safe Marketing
Apple’s strategy prioritizing privacy for users is a program, and marketers need to pivot too, using better measurement partners like Apptrove – as well as creative tools and data modelling to ‘fill the gaps’ Skadnetwork creates.
As privacy becomes more of a priority, learning the limitations of skadnetwork will soon be a ‘must-have skill.’ Frameworks, such as SKAN 4.0, and tools, such as the SKAN App, are the beginning of that compromise – where the advertisers receive insights they need, and the users feel safe and anonymous.
The future of app-marketing won’t be about tracking everything: it will be about tracking what matters- responsibly.