SKAN 4.0 helps FB recovery on mobile ads

Apple announced SKAN 4.0 at WWDC 2022 and some of its additions indicate Apple is taking steps to a more usable framework to drive advertiser performance through ad networks.

These are the most notable additions:

• Coarse conversion values – Apple will send High, Medium, or Low indicators based on the conversion value tied to the user. These coarse conversions will be sent when the install threshold is too low to report fine grained values or when 2nd or 3rd conversion values on the same user (see multiple conversions) are also sent.
• Multiple conversions – Apple will send up to 3 conversion value events per user install for the cohorted 0-2 day, 3-8 day, and 8-35 day periods. Of the postbacks sent for a single user, only the first one will have a fine grained value.
• Web attributions – Apple will assign conversion values to installs that derive from web clicks/views.

For the most part, adding multiple conversions is the most useful information in the latest SKAN framework for FB and other Self Attributing Networks to optimize on. It allows SANs to understand behaviors that happen over a 35-day life of a user and change campaign delivery configurations based on that signal. This sits closer to historical optimization algorithms around $-mapped IDFA/V lifetime values and will likely reflect an incremental increase in advertiser performance. It won’t get to parity, but surely it’s a step in the right direction.

It’s important to also observe just how much control Apple wields. They will be able to measure exactly how much incremental performance benefit SANs under the new framework, and tamper things down if they get closer to dominating the adtech budgets. Not only that, Apple also is well positioned to eventually get rid of IP based tracking when they have a good anti-trust case that nears parity optimization.