What is SKAdNetwork?
SKAdNetwork is Apple's privacy-preserving system for measuring iOS app-install campaigns. Instead of sharing user-level data, Apple sends ad networks delayed, aggregated postbacks confirming that an ad led to an install, with limited campaign and conversion information. Apple added a successor framework, AdAttributionKit, in 2024, and both work without the user-level IDFA.
SKAdNetwork / AdAttributionKit became essential after Apple's App Tracking Transparency made the IDFA opt-in in 2021. Its postbacks include coarse "conversion values" that advertisers use to infer quality, plus random delays and privacy thresholds that prevent identifying individuals.
Marketers combine it with MMP modeling, marketing mix modeling and incrementality tests. Its cryptographic signing also makes classic install fraud harder, though fraud has shifted toward manipulating conversion values and low-quality supply.