What’s the Best Mobile Attribution Partner for Your App?

To learn more about the mobile app marketing industry and best practices, like finding perfect mobile attribution partner, sign up for the AppAgent newsletter here.

What’s the Best Mobile Attribution Partner for Your App?

To learn more about the mobile app marketing industry and best practices, like finding the perfect mobile attribution partner, sign up for the AppAgent newsletter here.

There comes a crucial moment in the production process of an app with growth ambitions when you need to expand your marketing efforts beyond the Facebook and Google advertising duopoly. This is precisely when you need to choose and implement a mobile attribution tool. Such a tool, also known as a mobile measurement partner (MMP), is fundamental for understanding your user acquisition channels and optimizing your marketing spend.

Choosing the right MMP can save you a significant amount of time, resources, and, most importantly, ensure the accuracy of your marketing data. But, do you know which mobile attribution partner is the best fit for your app’s unique needs? How will you determine whether to go with a big, established brand or explore a more cost-effective offer? Understanding mobile ad attribution, analytics, and tracking principles is key to making an informed decision. Read on to find out more about the leading players in the market.

Market Leading Quartet

The major attribution platforms are Appsflyer, Adjust, Kochava and Branch. This 2022 update to the article also includes the addition of a rising star – Singular. While there are other solutions available—from self-made Firebase tweaks to smaller companies like Tenjin—we are focusing on the more common and robust solutions that offer comprehensive features for mobile app growth

With any of them, you can:

1. Measure the initial click that leads to an app interaction.
2. Accurately attribute that click to the resulting install.
3. Notify advertising partners of installs and crucial in-app events through server postback URLs for campaign optimization.

Let’s take a closer look at each of them.

Specifics of Mobile Attribution Tools

AppsFlyer

AppsFlyer is a mobile app analytics & marketing software that enables businesses to track and optimize their acquisition funnel.

BASIC FACTS

• The platform is primarily developed for marketing professionals, providing them with attribution data for strategic decision-making and all the necessary tools to maximize their marketing activities.
• It provides flexible reporting, deep analytics, and comprehensive performance metrics, allowing marketers to gain granular insights into their campaigns.
• With established external integrations, it is possible to attribute campaigns from a diverse pool of media sources, including traditional channels like TV broadcasts.
• Raw data is available for a fee (organic data requires an extra fee), and a free trial for one month is typically offered.

MAIN ADVANTAGE

• Features like Protect360 and Audience Builder allow users to run audience-based user acquisition (UA) campaigns while mitigating the risk of fraudulent installations. AppsFlyer claims you don’t have to worry about fraudulent installations, providing an essential layer of security for your ad spend. Fraud protection is increasingly vital in the mobile ad ecosystem.

OUR RECOMMENDATION

• You will definitely not make a mistake with this choice. AppsFlyer is a robust, industry-standard solution. While the price of such a tool might not be as attractive as its functionality, we understand why smaller companies are always searching for better deals. However, for serious growth-oriented apps, the investment often pays off in data quality and actionable insights.

Adjust

Adjust is a tool for tracking mobile app events that can be used as both app analytics and attribution platform.

BASIC FACTS

• Adjust is one of the leaders in the industry, boasting a client roster that includes major players such as Zynga, Spotify, and Tencent Games.
• It is a comprehensive tool for mobile attribution, app analytics, store statistics data, campaign tracking, cohort analysis, and monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) for apps.
• They support a large number of different media channels, including non-digital ones, offering broad reach for your campaigns.
• After the acquisition of Acquired.io and Unbotify in late 2018 – early 2019, the company significantly reinforced its automation and anti-fraud capabilities. This demonstrates a strong commitment to data integrity.
• Raw data (including organic traffic) is available in the second tier or higher, and they also offer a free trial for one month.
• After being acquired by AppLovin in 2021, we have observed many game developers drawing their attention to that conglomerate, often leveraging the integrated ecosystem.

MAIN ADVANTAGE

• Adjust utilizes its own private cloud infrastructure, distinguishing itself from some competitors (like AppsFlyer, which uses Amazon Web Services). This can offer advantages in terms of data security, performance, and customization for high-volume users.

OUR RECOMMENDATION

• Another solid solution for teams of all sizes. Adjust is especially useful for projects that want to test the viability of user acquisition (UA) and prefer not to commit to annual contracts. It is highly versatile, but like other top-tier solutions, the price can grow quickly with scale. This flexibility makes it an excellent choice for businesses adapting their mobile app growth strategy that actually works.

Singular

Although previously focusing mainly on its analytics offering, Singular has rapidly joined the big league of MMPs with its robust attribution offering, thereby completing the triumvirate of the three main attribution providers alongside AppsFlyer and Adjust.

BASIC FACTS

• Singular supports all essential features, including cost data attribution, cross-device attribution, deep linking, SKAdNetwork Conversion Schema management, data transformation, fraud protection, and compliance with all essential regulatory requirements. Its strong focus on SKAdNetwork is particularly relevant in the post-IDFA landscape.
• It offers easy access to certain campaign metadata properties, such as bids and ROAS goals, providing immediate insights for campaign managers.
• Singular facilitates easy data ingestion into your existing analytics systems and allows for easy movement of analytics data into Singular itself, promoting a flexible data environment.

MAIN ADVANTAGE

• Learning from the competition and drawing from its extensive experience in analytics, Singular makes it exceptionally easy to study the performance of UA campaigns and tailor reporting precisely to your needs. This analytical strength is a significant differentiator.

OUR RECOMMENDATION

• This is a solid tool for scale-ups and more established companies. With its inherent analytic mindset, Singular makes it easy to pivot, transform, and extract data, which is invaluable for comprehensive analysis. This will make both developers and UA experts feel at home when working with it. It’s particularly strong for those who frequently need to read mobile ad creative performance data and adjust strategies.

Kochava

Kochava provides a holistic and impartial analytics platform, which helps marketers during all stages of their work: from initial research to ongoing campaign optimization.

BASIC FACTS

• Kochava allows for the integration of data with a wide selection of third-party tools, enabling companies to build a unique and highly customized analytic stack.
• Raw data (including organic traffic) is available for free users, and they also offer a free trial. This access to raw data is crucial for deep analysis and cracking the complexity of lifetime value in mobile games. Here’s a LTV calculator that can help you.

MAIN ADVANTAGE

• Kochava stands out by offering a full version of its platform for free if you agree to share your aggregated data. If you’re an indie developer or a smaller company, this can be an incredibly valuable option for gaining access to powerful tools without a significant upfront investment.

OUR RECOMMENDATION

• This is a solid tool for smaller companies, who are just starting to get their heads around the attribution and marketing analytics. It is cost-effective, organics data goes for free and has all the necessary integration to get up and running with UA.
• Please note, that Kochava is a US-based company with a support team located there. From our experience, even though their support is really good, it can take some time for them to get back to you if you are located on the other continent.

Branch 

They help mobile apps to grow with deep links that power paid acquisition and re-engagement campaigns, referral programs, content sharing, deep linked emails, smart banners, custom user onboarding, and more. Branch entered the world of attribution by acquisition of TUNE.

BASIC FACTS

• This platform is fundamentally different from all other attribution partners mentioned, as it is primarily focused on people-based attribution. This means it aims to connect user activity across different devices and platforms.
• It utilizes automatic cross-platform identifiers to help marketers recognize users across both web and app environments, enabling more effective retargeting across both platforms. This is particularly useful for complex user journeys.
• Raw data is available for paid users.

MAIN ADVANTAGE

• Branch is highly recommended for e-commerce companies that have a truly intertwined customer journey. It allows them to consistently see all the channels users interacted with before converting, providing a complete omnichannel view.

OUR RECOMMENDATION

• Unfortunately, we have very little experience with this mobile measurement partner to date, and we rarely recommend it to our clients due to its pricing model. The pricing model is based on Monthly Active Users (MAU), rather than acquired installs, which has not been a good fit for our clients’ typical needs and budget structures.

Comparison of Mobile Attribution Providers

Here is a quick summary of what these attribution providers offer:

A comparative analysis of mobile attribution providers typically highlights key features such as fraud protection, deep linking capabilities, raw data access (including organic data), global network support, and pricing models. Each MMP tends to excel in certain areas, making the “best” choice highly dependent on specific app needs and scale.

One final, critical point for comparison is the number of ad networks supported. Whenever you decide to proceed with one of these MMPs, always double-check if all your key ad networks are connected with the chosen partner. This ensures seamless campaign tracking and optimization.

Below is AppAgent’s decision tree built for our clients that should help you to quickly decide which solution is the best for you. You can download a high-definition version of the tree here. Note: We would treat Singular similarly to Adjust and Appsflyer in this case. At the end of the day, it’s all about finding the best deal between the three of them.

Note: Appsflyer offers organic data for extra fee

Let’s see how this chart can be applied to real cases.

EXAMPLES FROM APPAGENT’S CLIENT PORTFOLIO

Starting app – Pockethunt

A career & recruitment platform that makes job search easier by having private casual talks between job seekers and employers. It is based on a Tinder-like matching idea, where your skills are appraised and compared to the desired skill set of a recruiter. For an app like Pockethunt, a cost-effective solution with good basic attribution and raw data access (potentially Kochava’s free tier) would be highly beneficial to accurately calculate Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) during its initial growth phase. Here are some deeper level information on CAC to refer to.

Mid-sized app – Board by Budgetbakers

A mobile-first business management platform that combines business planning, sales tracking, and cash flow management. Board allows tracking sales, monitoring due dates, planning profitability, and enabling entrepreneurs to always be up to date with their business. A mid-sized app like Board, with a focus on business metrics and potentially subscriptions, would benefit from an MMP that offers robust cohort analysis and strong LTV tracking, making Adjust or AppsFlyer strong contenders. They might also explore how to scale a subscription app profitably.

Top brand app – Kiwi.com

A low-cost flight booking engine with an extensive database of budget flights in Europe. The company also works with a diverse set of partners to bring special deals on things such as car rentals, travel insurance, and hotels. For a top brand like Kiwi.com, with high UA volumes and complex user journeys, the advanced fraud protection, extensive integrations, and deep analytics capabilities of AppsFlyer or Adjust would be paramount to ensure data integrity and optimize large-scale campaigns.

As you can see in this article, the choice of the right attribution platform is dramatically influenced by the specific needs, timeframe, expected UA volumes, and Monthly Active Users (MAU) of the app. We hope that our examples will allow you to make proper decisions in a timely manner.

If you have any doubts or would like to get support during the integration of a selected partner, AppAgent can help. AppAgent also offers custom product and marketing analytics providing a full-funnel view on your mobile business for an affordable price. Contact us for details at hi@appagent.com.

How to choose the right Mobile Measurement Partner for my App?

Choosing from one of many mobile measurement partners is dramatically influenced by the needs, timeframe, expected UA volumes and MAU of the app. See the decision tree in the article to find the perfect match.

Once you’ve made your decision, don’t forget to check if all your key ad networks are connected with the chosen MMP.