The mobile-first world is more than a mere trend, it’s the new normal. A recent analysis by Grand View Research shows that the global mobile application industry is expected to reach a projected revenue of US$ 567,190.0 million by 2030.
In such a competitive landscape, you would want to optimize your ad marketing spend through accurate measurement, analytics, and smart use of data.
Mobile attribution is at the core of app marketing success. We have this detail ed guide that will walk you through mobile attribution, the best practices involved, and the role of MMP in the success of your marketing efforts.
Let’s get started.
What Is Mobile Attribution?
Mobile attribution is vital to online marketing, enabling businesses to trace user interactions and optimize their marketing ROI. It empowers marketers with granular insights to guide their decisions in adapting and enhancing their marketing strategies.
Mobile attribution is about ‘attributing’ or ‘offering credit’ to a channel that caused customers to act – download an asset or purchase a product in your app. Thus, with a mobile attribution tool like Apptrove, you can determine which marketing channels are the most effective and the ones that can be ignored. This makes sure you spend your resources wisely, getting the most out of your advertising spend.
A Quick Example of Mobile Attribution
Your user may have multiple interactions with your app before finally downloading and using it. A traditional tracking tool will tell you that your landing page caused them to download the app.
However, in reality, the user may also have read a blog about your app or seen a video ad on Facebook. What if a retargeting email influenced them?
A mobile attribution tool will tell you precisely which channel ad could have influenced them to make a decision.
What Mobile Attribution Aims to Achieve
To understand this, let’s look at how mobile attribution influences the marketing funnel.
Consider this scenario:
Here, you can see that the funnel is as broad as 2000 and narrows down to 4. Mobile attribution offers information for each acquisition channel, enabling you to improve the drop-off rate between the funnel stages.
For instance, you can use levers like, a tweak in the ad copy, implementing drip notifications, sending retargeting ads to users who uninstalled the app, and more.
In this context, here’s what mobile attribution aims to achieve.
- Understand user behavior: Mobile attribution allows marketers to determine how a user came across their ad and engaged with the app. It offers insights into the top campaigns and channels contributing to desirable user behavior, like an app install or in-app purchases.
Simply put, mobile attribution offers useful insights into the user journey, stating the factors that influenced the app installation. - Optimal use of marketing channels: If the social ad outperforms the static ad on the App Store, in a split-testing scenario, you can increase your ad spend on social.
Even if you wish to diversify your marketing channel mix, you can assess the cost per channel and make an informed decision as per your budget. - Smart retargeting: Consider a scenario where a user has downloaded the free version of your app but has expressed interest in the monthly subscription (they engaged with the paywall). Now, some time has passed but they haven’t purchased it.
Mobile attribution analytics reveals such users, enabling you to retarget this user with an offer to persuade them to make the decision. - Improved product experience: Mobile attribution metrics like engagement rate share insights on the optimal or suboptimal app experience.
For instance, if the app engagement rate is low, it’s a sign that some technical issue is hindering user experience. Based on this you can make a list of fixes to be made. Similarly, you can spot other areas of improvement and optimize and personalize content to offer an engaging app experience through the buyer stages in the funnel. - Accurate ROI measuring: Mobile attribution enables mobile marketers to calculate campaign ROI by comparing the acquisition cost per channel with the revenue generated.
How Mobile Attribution Works?
With over 5M apps listed in the two largest and most popular app stores, the top priority for mobile marketers, advertisers, and developers is boosting their app visibility.
To achieve high visibility, your first step would be to build and implement a robust App Store Optimization strategy (ASO) that could include leveraging the right keywords and placing them in strategic spots, creating impressive app previews, crafting compelling descriptions, and more.
Mobile attribution answers the following questions during this journey:
- Where did your users come from?
- Did they download the app after viewing an ad?
- When and how did they use your app? Did they take action on seeing the app listing page or when browsing the app store?
The success of mobile attribution depends on two specific elements:
So, when you have a clear understanding of the channel they come from, you can tweak your efforts to maximize the outcomes.
Here’s how mobile attribution works:
- Setting up the mobile attribution tool or mobile measurement partner.
- User interaction with the app: It could be them viewing a video ad on social or a purchase made on the app.
- Each touchpoint comes with a unique ID. When triggered, it sends data points like the user’s IDFA (Identifier for Advertising) or GAID (Google Advertising ID), the internet browser, the device ID, IP address, phone operating system, timestamp, and more to the attribution tool.
Such information allows the attribution tool to determine if it’s an existing user or a new one. If it’s a new user, the tool will attempt to match the install to how they engaged with a particular ad.
This happens by integrating the attribution tool’s SDK (software development kit) into the app’s code. SDK allows communication between the app and the attribution tool, thereby providing data in real time.
Apptrove’s Web SDK is open-source and lightweight. It is a refined version of cookieless tracking that can be easily generated from the panel by following a few simple steps. Our SDK attributes app installs and post-install events to the user acquisition source and the campaign without hampering its performance.
You can access Apptrove MMP SDK on GitHub. - Crossreferencing: Another unique ID is generated if the user downloads the app or makes an in-app purchase. Here, the mobile attribution tool cross-references the data gathered the second time.
The process goes on for new users interacting with the app. - When enough data is collected for a set time, the marketer receives data that can be analyzed to optimize strategies. This data chain allows you to gain granular insights into the areas that impact campaign efficiency and marketing spending.
The Mobile Attribution Models You Should Be Aware of
Mobile attribution has various models depending on the specific user behavior insights you aim to gather. Each model described below has distinct capabilities to drive mobile marketing analytics.
- First Click Attribution
In first-click attribution, the first interaction (click or touch by the user to your app) gets 100% credit. This model disregards the entire buyer journey.
Pros: This model is easy to implement and allows marketers to determine the first touchpoints for a sale.
Cons: Marketers can only assess the impact of touchpoints for the first ad click. Due to this limitation, first-click attribution is only used when they want to determine the type of interaction users had with the app. - Last Click Attribution
This model offers credit to the last click or touch or the final point of interaction of the user with the app while performing the desired action (app installation).
For instance, the user may have interacted with a Facebook ad but if an email persuaded them to make the decision, the attribution credit will go to email.
Pros: It’s a popular model among marketers wanting to understand the precise driver for the sale or app installation.
Cons: This model doesn’t offer insights about the user nurturing journey. For instance, a lot would have gone into helping the user make up their mind – email ads, social media ads, or even good content. - Position-Based Attribution or U-Shaped Attribution
The position-based attribution model takes into account the first and final user interactions before the conversion. It ignores all other interactions in between. When visualized as a chart, the shape sort of resembles the letter “U”, hence the name.
Pros: The model offers insights into the best channels for reaching your target audience.
Cons: The emphasis is only on the first and last touchpoints, thereby increasing the risk of oversimplifying the customer journey.
This model is not for SMBs with limited resources. Its setup and execution are quite complex, increasing the need for comprehensive data tracking, advanced analytics tools, and a good understanding of how to assign credit to the touchpoints.
- Linear Attribution
The linear model considers every interaction the user has had with the app and assigns equal value to them, regardless of the significance. Whether the user has opened an email, visited the app landing page, or downloaded the app, all the touchpoints are considered during the attribution.
Pros: The linear attribution helps in tracking the customer conversion path and understanding where your marketing efforts are paying off. It offers a balanced overview of how all your channels are performing.
Cons: As is the case with all multi-touch models, it’s difficult to know which channels a customer has interacted with. And the privacy laws and the ‘cookieless world’ don’t make it any easier.
Moreover, linear attribution assumes all touchpoints are equally influential, which is not the case. - Time-Decay Attribution
This model is similar to linear attribution but the recent touchpoints receive more value than the earlier interactions. So, the highest percentage is given to the most conversion-driving touchpoint.
Pros: The model considers all the touchpoints with a bias to the latest one having the decision-making influence.
Cons: This may not work for all campaigns as in some cases, the top and middle may have more influence than the bottom touchpoint. - Multi-Touch Attribution
The multi-touch attribution model shows the complete picture of the user journey by recognizing all the advertising channels involved during the journey. Thus, some degree of value is assigned to all interactions by the user with the app.
Pros: It shows all the channels involved in making a conversion.
Cons: This model is complex and time-consuming to implement. - View-Through Attribution
This model shows that ad exposure can influence user action, even if they don’t interact directly with the ad.
Pros: The model offers extra data points that go beyond clicks. It reports impressions that didn’t get a click but delivered a conversion.
Cons: The large attribution window provided may over-emphasize the significance of a few channels that don’t yield conversions and a narrow window will eliminate viable channels.
Mobile Attribution Best Practices
To optimize your marketing campaigns effectively and maximize ROI, you need to get mobile attribution right. Here are a few best practices we recommend.
- Establish Clear Goals and Campaign KPIs
Determining clear goals and KPIs for your campaign is the first step when setting the stage for successful mobile attribution. This will help you opt for the right attribution model and suitable tools to achieve your goals.
Be clear on your app’s value proposition and it should reflect in your analytics goals and KPIs.
Besides, define the objectives when integrating mobile attribution with analytics. Look for specific metrics depending on the insights you aim to extract from the integrated data. - Select a Suitable Mobile Attribution Model
When opting for a mobile attribution model that suits your business, you should ask a few questions:
- What is your marketing goal? Is it to drive revenue or user acquisition? Is it for improving lead generation? Or do you want to improve brand awareness?
- What is your mobile attribution window? This refers to the time frame during which the marketer expects to receive the desired effect from the campaign – clicks or downloads.
- What part of the funnel do you need to target? And what channels to use?
- What is the nature of your business? Is it B2B or B2C?
For B2B, a linear model may work best because it leverages omnichannel marketing. While for B2C the last-touch model would work as it’s less diverse. - What is the lifecycle of your conversion funnel?
The time-attribution model works well for long-term lifecycles while single-touch attribution works well for short lifecycles.
- Validate the Data
The data being used for the attribution model needs to be validated. Start with quality data to get accurate insights and ensure integrity.
While previously, validating sample datasets or large volumes of data was done manually or through scripting, now we have automated tools that make the process quick and easy.
Here are a few points to remember –- Cleanse the data by removing duplicates, correcting errors, and standardizing formats.
- Establish data standards – criteria for what constitutes valid data. This includes data type checks, range checks, format checks, and referential integrity checks.
- Assess the data against rules. The data should be compared against defined rules. It should be flagged as invalid if it falls short.
- Deal with invalid data through automated correction. If invalid data is spotted, send a notification to the relevant team for manual review/ correction.
- Incorporate Deep Linking (for accurate attribution)
Deep linking aims to foster engagement and retention and measure the effectiveness of campaigns across various touchpoints. The technique directs users to specific content in the mobile app that is relevant to their interests. It facilitates cross-platform and cross-channel tracking.
It links to specific, commonly-searchable/ indexed content, rather than the app’s home page. Hence, incorporating deep linking can elevate the attribution of your mobile app while enhancing UX.
Here are a few quick tips for you –- Implement contextual deep links leading directly to the campaign content for a seamless transition and in-app experience.
- Plan fallback mechanisms for users who haven’t yet downloaded the app. For instance, redirect them to the app store.
- Make sure the conversions attributed to the deep-linked campaigns are reflected in the user interactions – for proper attribution.
- Regularly track and monitor deep links to address issues promptly. This can be done by integrating your deep-linking campaign with an analytics platform.
- Integrate Mobile Attribution with Analytics
Integrating your mobile attribution efforts with analytics platforms allows you to access insights that give a holistic view of user behavior through the journey – from the first touchpoint to conversion and beyond.
We have a few tips for you.- Conduct routine data audits of the integrated data to spot discrepancies and rectify them on time. This will improve the accuracy of insights.
- Keep a tab on the updates and new features for your mobile attribution and analytics platforms to optimize the performance of your data integrations.
- Opt for a Suitable Mobile Measurement Partner (MMP)
A mobile measurement partner can prove to be an ideal companion to attribute, gather, and organize data, offering you a comprehensive overview of the campaign’s performance. It is a third-party entity that employs a combination of cutting-edge technologies to measure mobile events.
An MMP usually offers an SDK (software development kit) that can be integrated into the mobile application. The primary purpose is to establish a link between the ad engagement interactions, installs, and in-app events. It attributes the installs and post-install events to the acquisition source, offering insights about the campaign.
We will understand in detail how to choose the right MMP for your business in the latter half of the post.
First, let’s see what challenges you need to overcome in mobile attribution.
The Challenges Involved in Mobile Attribution
Despite all these best practices, mobile attribution can be tough. Here’s why!
- Lack of agile attribution methods
A mobile user includes multiple devices and the traditional tracking tools (cookies for one) cannot track users when they switch devices. Publishers like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Google Adwords perform attribution on their traffic, leaving out several data points. - Lack of industry-wide standards
Ad networks have their own criteria for attribution, making the situation complex. A majority of mobile marketers use multiple networks. So, if there’s a case where the attribution window setting differs between these networks and there’s an install, multiple sources will claim the install.
This leads to the marketer paying multiple sources for the same install. - Tracking user journeys across multiple devices is challenging
Tracking the ever-so-complex customer journey is tough because interactions occur on different devices and channels. The Marketing Rule of 7 asserts that a potential buyer uses almost 7 touch-points on the buying journey before making a decision. This makes it tricky to attribute a conversion to a specific channel. - Privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA
Mobile attribution in the age of privacy regulations like GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) is challenging. These regulations are making it tough for marketers to collect relevant data needed for content personalization. - Widespread fraud
Fake installs and organic poaching are among the most common supply-side fraudulent practices seen in mobile marketing. In fake installs, fraudsters use Tor networks, proxies, or VPNs to hide emulated installs in “incentivized” campaigns.
In organic poaching, attributions are poached from an app’s organic users. Thus, fraudsters receive credit for an install through click spamming. This scenario makes it even more important to invest in a MMP platform like Apptrove equipped with a robust fraud detection and protection suite that helps you detect discrepancies and deceptive installs.
Investing in an MMP can help you overcome the above challenges and simplify the process of following the user from the first engagement to their last in-app purchase and the data procured.
The Need for a Mobile Measurement Partner (MMP)
A mobile measurement partner is central to tracking and analyzing mobile app user acquisition, engagement, and monetization. MMPs are a third-party service provider that offers tools and services that support app developers and marketers:
- Understand user behavior: MMP allows marketers to examine historical campaign data, past user behavior data, and transactional data to predict future outcomes.
- Accurately attribute the app installs: MMP accurately tracks and attributes app installs and in-app user actions.
- Optimize the marketing ad spend and improve ROAS: The granular data offered by MMPs allows you to measure the effectiveness of campaigns and allocate the marketing budget to the best channel.
- Overcome the built-in limitations of Google and Apple Analytics: These apps track app installs but don’t offer any way to provide accurate attribution to the source. For instance, the iOS and Android reporting cannot tell if the traffic came from a paid or organic source.
- Prevent fraud: MMPs possess advanced tech capabilities that help prevent fraud.
- Saves time and effort: Since MMP offers real-time insights at your fingertips, your team doesn’t waste time on the low-performing channels.
How Does MMP Work?
When an app marketer, publisher, or developer works with an MMP, the platform integrates its SDK (a piece of code) into its app to track installs and in-app data.
When you implement the SDK, your app allows you to link ad contacts to app installs and in-app events. This offers deep insights into the campaigns. You can see where the conversions are coming from and tie it directly to the user actions in the app.
10 Considerations When Investing in an MMP versus How Apptrove Performs
#1 Unified Analytics and Reporting
The MMP you choose should have the capability to crunch data across mobile, web, CTV, and PC and Console campaigns in one place. Plus, it should be able to offer you granular insights into the ad spending.
Apptrove offers granular reports to track every dollar and maximize returns. The platform lets you identify the media channels, partners, and ad formats that draw the highest installs to place your buck where it pays the most.
Our unified campaign dashboard offers deep insight into campaign performance, allowing you to make an informed decision. Thus, you can drive higher ROAS, scale user acquisition, unify customer journeys, and boost user engagement.
The reporting covers all insights into your campaigns including, acquisition trends, audience segmentation, retention reports, and multi-layered anti-fraud shields.
Apptrove ensures accurate attribution of app installs and user activities to specific ad campaigns or sources.
#2 Customization Capabilities
The MMP you opt for should give you unparalleled flexibility to integrate features into your app’s ecosystem. It should allow you to customize your reporting and analytics workflows based on your business needs. Such flexibility streamlines processes and ensures a comprehensive analysis across various data sources.
A modular mobile measurement partner like Apptrove comes with enhanced customization capabilities. You can segregate organic and paid installs with customizable attribution windows.
The platform allows you to measure and compare acquisition rates across every channel and partner to identify the most profitable campaigns. Moreover, you can set up validation rules to block installs generated from suspicious traffic sources.
#3 Deep Linking Suite
As we saw earlier, deep linking streamlines user experiences by directing them to specific in-app content or offerings targeted to them.
An ideal MMP offers configurable deep linking capabilities that make every touch count and personalize experiences with Unilinks.
Apptrove’s deep linking suite allows you to create unique experiences across platforms and channels with sharp ROAS analytics. It ensures advanced retargeting unlinks with in-built de-duplication.
#4 Advanced Audience Segmentation
The advanced audience segmentation feature ensures that every install translates into an invested user with hyper-targeted campaigns that take them lower in the funnel.
Apptrove’s granular filters let you segment the user base based on their intent, app behavior, and preferred mode of communication. Thus, you can create contextual experiences that drive higher LTV.
The platform allows you to –
- Bulk import/export audience segments in the desired format
- Track audience KPIs for deeper insights into user behavior
- Custom cohorts as per acquisition source, region, and device
#5 Technologically-Advanced Measurement Solutions
An MMP that’s up to date with recent technologies, regulations, and industry trends can offer progressive measurement solutions that propel your mobile attribution efforts.
Apptrove leverages next-gen technologies to get the insights you need to increase app installs, improve campaign ROI, enhance user LTV, and optimize ad performance.
- Probabilistic modeling and deterministic aggregation for attributing installs and in-app activities in Android and iOS devices.
- Dedicated dashboard for SKAN analytics solutions to map user journeys, and identify bottlenecks in your conversion funnel.
- Predictive analytics to help you predict your campaign success, personalize app onboarding and in-app experiences, and spot and fight fraud sooner.
- SDK integration is wired to get triggered by custom events set by developers.
- Advanced retargeting unilinks with in-built de-duplication
- Dynamic deep links for every campaign and partner
- 7-layered fraud settings to suit each campaign, network partner, and channel. The platform secures your data against any errors – from duplication to misattributed installs and everything in between.
#6 Integration Options
Compatibility with popular ad networks, attribution providers, and third-party tools that are used for mobile app marketing is key. Your app performance mustn’t suffer while your team is busy juggling with SDKs and multiple platforms.
Apptrove seamlessly integrates with Global Ad Networks, SANs, SRNs, and DSPs so that you easily find and work with your campaign partners. You can also add new partners to your dashboard without much fuss.
#7 Fraud Prevention
A report by Juniper Research revealed that 22% of all digital advertising spending in 2023 was attributed to fraud. That’s almost $84/year lost for mobile marketers. The report goes on to say that the number is expected to reach $172 billion by 2028.
Hence, your chosen MMP must have a robust fraud prevention feature to make sure your marketing budget isn’t wasted. It should be able to combat frauds like SDK spoofing, click injection, device farms, and click spamming among others.
Apptrove offers configurable fraud shields that allow you to tailor your fraud prevention strategy with custom rules for each partner/campaign.
Our multi-level fraud protection protects your ad spend and safeguards against various threats like app version mismatch, duplicate IPs, emulator devices, and more.
Moreover, our Validation Rules Admin Console optimizes all fraud prevention rules from a centralized hub.
The custom alerts warn app owners about new-age fraud tactics and campaign losses to frauds. You also receive automated email alerts for tracking campaign and partner KPIs.
#8 iOS Attribution
Attribution in the age when mobile marketers deal with ATT and SKAN on the iOS side isn’t easy. Hence, you need an MMP that ensures effortless, accurate, and transparent iOS attribution.
Apptroves offers a dedicated dashboard for real-time SKAN Analytics to help you map user journeys, identify bottlenecks in your conversion funnel, optimize ad spend, and compare channel performance.
The platform also offers real-time fraud and uninstall reporting for precise ROI measurement.
#9 Dedicated Customer Support
Look for an MMP that not only offers 24/7 support but also dedicated account personnel for quickly setting up your account and offering you the knowledge needed to get going.
An ideal MMP will have solid customer support for onboarding, feature introduction, language support, and listening to customer feedback.
Apptrove offers –
- Guided onboarding with in-app guidance and an up-to-date knowledge base of all the information you.
- 24X7 email, phone, and chat support for guidance whenever you need it.
- A dedicated customer success manager who helps keep the transition smooth and quick and is with you every step of the way.
- With a presence in several regions and a diverse talent, we offer services in over 11 languages.
#10 Compliance with the Security and Privacy Regulations
In the modern digital world where privacy is hugely important to safeguard you from legal fees, penalties, and loss of customer trust. An ideal MMP should navigate the complexities of data protection. The platform must comply with GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA, and other international compliance laws.
Apptrove uses industry-standard encryption to safeguard your data. We go beyond routine audits and penetration testing to spot and address vulnerabilities before they blow out of proportion.
- We comply with all the international data privacy e.g. ISO/IEC 27001 and GDPR-CCPA to name a few.
- Our platform guarantees optimal performance – 99.9% uptime
- We use AES256 encryption to safeguard your data.
- We limit data access to ensure zero risk of leaks.
- We have a disaster recovery protocol in place. If one location experiences an issue it doesn’t impact other locations.
- Our audit logs and notifications allow you to view the complete record of team actions, API usage, and integration changes in one place.
Apptrove’s Feature-Rich Toolkit Gets You the Data Granularity You Need
It’s tough to navigate the sea of MMPs and make a profitable business decision. Hence, we have summarized how Apptrove is the best choice versus the others.
We’ll stop talking here and let our clients share their Apptrove experience with you!
Scroll through our client case studies to learn how Apptrove is the best MMP for data-driven advertising and campaign insights.
Summing Up
Mobile attribution, when done correctly, can get you the crucial data needed to change, improve, or sustain your overall marketing strategy. We are confident that this article has given you an extensive overview of the mobile attribution framework with the methodologies, best practices, and technologies involved.
Apptrove is the best-in-class mobile measurement platform and analytics suite that well-known businesses across the globe. All our customers trust our capabilities in fetching them visibility, detailed insights, and solutions to their app marketing challenges.
Talk to our sales team now to take complete control of your mobile marketing efforts.
You can also take a guided demo to experience our feature-rich toolkit built for your app’s success.