SKAdNetwork (SKAN)

SKAdNetwork (SKAN) is Apple's privacy-preserving attribution framework that credits iOS app installs to the ad campaign that drove them without exposing user-level identifiers. Apple manages the match itself: when a user taps an ad and later installs the app, the device sends Apple a validated install signal, and Apple returns an aggregated, delayed conversion postback to the ad network. This design deliberately limits the granularity that traditional marketing attribution depended on, trading user-level detail for privacy.

SKAN became central after Apple's App Tracking Transparency restricted access to the device advertising identifier. Without that identifier, the deterministic attribution that matched a click to an install at the user level often is not available on iOS, so SKAN provides a campaign-level alternative. Its postbacks are aggregated, time-delayed, and capped in how much conversion detail they carry through a small encoded conversion value, which means operators see which campaign worked but not which individual user converted.

For affiliate and app acquisition this reshapes how iOS results are read. A mobile measurement partner typically ingests SKAN postbacks, models the limited signal, and blends it with any deterministic matches available, then forwards events through a server-to-server postback for reporting. SKAN is one of the clearest drivers of the wider move to cookieless tracking, pushing operators toward aggregated measurement and first-party signals on Apple platforms.