Mobile app measurement and attribution
Just getting started with App Ads on X? Check out our Mobile app advertising guide.
In order to bid in your app installs campaign, you must have one of our approved Mobile Measurement Partners (MMPs) configured to your X Ads account. Once set up, the measurement capabilities of App ads allow you to view your mobile app engagement and conversion metrics, and optimize towards cost-efficiency and return on investment.
We also support Apple’s SKAdNetwork, which enables you to attribute and measure the impact of your iOS campaigns, even if a user has opted out of tracking via the App Tracking Transparency prompt. For more information on App Tracking Transparency related to X, visit this page.
Our Mobile Measurement Partners
To track conversions down to the app installs or re-open level, advertisers must integrate with one of X’s chosen Mobile Measurement Partners. App measurement is typically done via a tracking SDK, which is a code package that's installed in your mobile app. The tracking SDK enables you to measure events related to app installs.
Note: our Mobile Measurement Partner’s support both Mobile App Conversion Tracking attribution, which allows you to attribute device-ID based results (such as IDFA based results), and SKAdNetwork attribution, which allows you attribute device-ID and non-device-ID based data on iOS.
Our mobile measurement options are:
Setting up your Mobile Measurement Partner
To enable measurement of the number of people that perform a desired action after viewing or engaging with your X Ads, you must set up a Mobile Measurement Partner.
After you've selected your third-party Mobile Measurement Partner, you'll set up your app to track app installs and events to send to x's system. For information on how to do this, consult your Mobile Measurement Partner's support documentation. Once this is complete, the SDK in your app will send the X Ads system conversion events through to your X Ads account.
The X Ads system completes conversion attribution on your conversions based on the attribution window you set. Both post-engagement and post-view attribution are available on X. You can select attribution windows for each (i.e. 1, 7, 14, 30 days). To ensure matching conversions, make sure to configure your mobile measurment partner dashboard to the same attribution windows you set in your X conversion events.
Managing your conversion events
After you created your mobile app events in your Mobile Measurement Partner's dashboard, input your X Ads account ID to configure the events. This will send the data to X, and you'll see your mobile app conversion events automatically appear in your Tools > Events manager tab*.
If they're successfully sending information from your tracking partner, your event will show as "tracking". If your event is showing as "dormant", contact your tracking partner to troubleshoot.
You can customize the attribution window you want to view your mobile conversions on by clicking "Edit" under each event in the "Event Status" column.
We have also added a column to view the last recorded event for each respective event. This can help when managing or troubleshooting events.
*We recently made an update that moved app event management from the now deprecated “Conversion tracking” tab to the “Events manager” tab. Moving forward, create, manage, or delete events within the “Events manager” tab.
You can set the following attribution windows:
- Post-engage: Choose the time window for crediting X with conversions that happen after someone engages with your ads. You can change this setting at any time and your conversion data will retroactively update.
- Post-view: Choose the time window for crediting X with conversions that happen after someone views (but does not engage with) your ads. You can change this setting at any time and your conversion data will retroactively update.
To ensure the conversions in your X Ads account match those in your Mobile Measurement Partner's dashboard, set the attribution windows the same for each event.
Measuring app conversions on non-app objectives
There may be cases where you want to advertise your mobile app without using an app objective—for example, if you are driving awareness of your app through a Reach campaign. In order to measure installs and in-app conversions that occur as a result of a non-app campaign, turn on App Conversions measurement in the Delivery section of the campaign form. This makes it possible to measure the “halo effect” of your brand campaign.
Frequently asked questions
At this time, X Ads mobile conversion tracking is only available with the above mentioned partners.
Make sure you've properly setup your Mobile Measurement Partner's dashboard. You'll have to send the events to your X Ads account ID in order for them to appear.
If they're still not appearing, please file a support ticket.
The most common reason for a discrepancy between your X Ads UI and your mobile tracking partner is your attribution window. Ensure that you've set the same attribution window in both your tracking partner dashboard and your X Ads account conversion manager.
X reporting is finalized within 24-48 hours of when impressions are served. Before that time, we estimate data to provide real-time feedback, but the data is subject to change. The X conversion reporting UI has two process pipelines to display data. First, a streaming job directly collects page visits and purchase events from live log data and pulls metrics into reporting. Then, an ongoing batch process removes duplicate tag fires, adjusts conversion attributions, and handles identity merging for multi-device conversions.
Please contact your MMP Account Manager to request this setup.
Through the AMM Program, advertisers may receive expanded device-level data after granting X the right to perform an audit to ensure that X data is being used exclusively for measurement purposes. This is consistent with common practices throughout the industry.
To apply, DM @AdSupport here.
