Mobile & app · also called Mobile measurement partner, mobile attribution provider
MMP (mobile measurement partner)
An MMP (mobile measurement partner) is an independent company that attributes app installs and in-app events to the ads and ad networks that drove them, and detects mobile install fraud.
An app developer might advertise through a dozen ad networks, each wanting credit for installs. An MMP acts as a neutral referee. Its SDK in the app reports installs and events, and it matches them to ad clicks and impressions recorded from each network, deciding which network gets credit according to attribution rules. Well-known MMPs include AppsFlyer, Adjust, Branch, Kochava and Singular.
MMPs also provide deep linking, audience tools, cost and ROAS reporting and, importantly, fraud protection. They detect click injection and click spamming through click-to-install time distributions, flag device farm and emulator farm traffic through device-ID resets and hardware signals, and combat SDK spoofing with signed SDK messages and receipt validation, rejecting fraudulent installs before networks are paid.
On iOS, App Tracking Transparency limited user-level matching, so MMPs now also decode and aggregate SKAdNetwork and AdAttributionKit postbacks and use modelled methods. On Android, the GAID and Google Play Install Referrer remain central.
Think of it like this
An MMP is like the photo-finish camera at a race: it decides which runner crossed the line first, and disqualifies anyone who jumped the gun.
An example
A gaming studio in Finland runs install campaigns across 10 networks. Its MMP attributes 200,000 installs in a month and rejects 14,000 as fraudulent, so those are not paid for.
Related terms
Attribution
Attribution is the process of assigning credit for a conversion, such as a sale, sign-up or install, to the ads, channels or touchpoints that a customer encountered beforehand.
Install fraud
Install fraud is faking app installs, or stealing credit for real ones, so that advertisers pay cost-per-install fees for users who do not exist or would have installed anyway.
SKAdNetwork / AdAttributionKit
SKAdNetwork and its successor AdAttributionKit are Apple's privacy-preserving frameworks that tell advertisers which ad network drove an iOS app install, without revealing user-level identity.
App install campaign
An app install campaign is advertising designed to get people to download and install a mobile app, usually optimised and often paid per install or per post-install action.
Click injection
Click injection is mobile ad fraud where a malicious app detects another app being installed and fires a fake ad click just before the install completes, stealing the credit.
SDK (software development kit)
An SDK (software development kit) is a package of pre-built code developers add to apps to provide features, such as showing ads, measuring installs or analytics, without building them.
Sources: AppsFlyer glossary: click injection, AppsFlyer glossary: SDK spoofing, Apple Developer: SKAdNetwork