Top Mobile Attribution Platforms (2024)

This guide will walk you through what a mobile attribution platform is, how they work, and how to choose the best one for you.

A mobile attribution platform is a tool that helps app developers track and analyze the performance of their marketing campaigns.

The platforms allow developers to see which marketing channels are driving the most app installs and user engagement, as well as measure the return on investment (ROI) of their marketing efforts.

Essentially, a mobile attribution platform helps developers make data-driven decisions about their marketing strategies and optimize their campaigns for bigger impact–you can find the best mobile attribution platforms in our directory below.

What is mobile attribution?

Mobile attribution refers to the process of tracking and analyzing user behaviour across various mobile channels, such as apps or mobile web.

It allows businesses to understand which campaigns, channels, or strategies are driving the most engagement, installs, or revenue on their platforms.

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Using mobile attribution enables businesses to optimize their marketing efforts, improve their user acquisition, and increase their overall revenue.

Types of app attribution tools

Several types of app attribution tools can help you to optimize your campaigns. They can be categorized into the following main groups:

First-click attribution–A digital marketing strategy that gives credit to the first interaction a customer has with a brand on a mobile device for any subsequent conversions. It helps companies better understand the customer journey.
Last-click attribution–Last-click attribution credits the last interaction a customer has with a brand before making a conversion. This approach is commonly used by companies to gauge the effectiveness of their marketing channels.
Multi-touch attribution (MTA)–Multi-touch attribution (MTA) offers a more comprehensive view of the customer journey compared to last-click attribution. MTA takes into account all touchpoints a customer interacts with before making a conversion, providing a more accurate picture of how marketing efforts are contributing to revenue.
Linear attribution–Linear attribution is a more straightforward approach to measuring the effectiveness of your marketing channels compared to multi-touch attribution. With linear attribution, each touchpoint in the customer journey is given equal credit for a conversion, regardless of whether it was the first or last touchpoint.
View-through attribution–View-through attribution is a method of measuring the impact of mobile display advertising on conversions. It tracks users who were exposed to an ad but did not click on it; later on, they will have converted to your website.

The best type of app attribution will depend on your specific goals and needs. Each approach has its own benefits and drawbacks, so it’s important to consider your options and choose the one that best aligns with your business objectives.

Top Mobile Attribution Platforms

What is a mobile attribution platform?

A mobile attribution platform is a tool that helps businesses track the effectiveness of their mobile advertising campaigns.

These platforms allow companies to monitor user behaviour and measure the impact of their marketing efforts across various channels, including mobile apps, websites, and social media.

Using the platforms, brands gain insights into user engagement, conversion rates, and other key metrics and are able to optimize their marketing strategies as well as increase their return on investment.

What are the benefits of mobile attribution?

Mobile attribution provides businesses with valuable insights into the effectiveness of their mobile marketing campaigns.

Businesses can determine which campaigns are driving the most engagement and revenue and optimize their campaigns in real time, making adjustments to targeting and messaging to improve overall performance.

We’ve listed some of the other key benefits of mobile attribution below.

Insight into campaigns

By identifying which campaigns are driving the most engagement and revenue, companies can optimize their messaging and targeting to improve performance in real time.

Accurate attribution data allows businesses to make informed decisions about how to allocate their marketing budgets and maximize ROI, ultimately helping them better understand their mobile audiences and create more effective, targeted campaigns.

Improve user engagement

By creating more effective and targeted campaigns, brands can better understand their mobile audiences and ultimately improve user engagement.

Companies can identify which campaigns are resonating with their audiences and can optimize their messaging and targeting accordingly.

Mobile attribution platform example

Source: Airbridge

Enhance budget allocation

Using mobile attribution allows you to identify which mobile campaigns are having an impact on your audience, and you can allocate your budget in response to your findings.

Accurate attribution data also helps you make informed decisions about where to invest your marketing dollars for stronger ROI.

Increase revenue

Analyzing user behaviour and interaction with your ads is crucial to increasing your revenue.

By creating more effective, targeted campaigns, you can better understand your mobile audience and improve your overall engagement, ultimately leading to increased revenue.

What do mobile attribution platforms do?

Mobile attribution platforms help businesses analyze their user behaviour and interaction. Specifically, they’re able to perform data analysis, device fingerprinting, offer data dashboards and a lot more.

We’ve listed the key features of mobile attribution platforms below.

Provide insight into app installs

With a better understanding of their mobile audience, businesses can create more compelling, targeted campaigns that improve engagement and drive more users to install their apps.

Track where engagement came from

This includes analyzing and detailing the channels, devices, and ad networks that make up your campaigns.

It’s essential you track where mobile engagement is coming from to better understand your audience and tailor your marketing efforts.

Unique identifier matching

It’s important to use a unique identifier matching system to accurately attribute interactions to specific individuals. By using unique identifiers such as customer IDs or email addresses, you can track a user’s journey across multiple channels and gain valuable insights into their behaviour.

Device fingerprinting

Device fingerprinting is another useful tool in your arsenal. This involves collecting information about a user’s device, such as their browser type and version, screen resolution, and operating system.

By using this information, you can create a unique “fingerprint” for each device and track how it interacts with your website or app.

Google Play Referrer

It’s important to utilize the Google Play Install Referrer to track the effectiveness of your Google Play Store campaigns. This tool allows you to see where your app installs are coming from, whether from a specific campaign, website, or search query.

Probabilistic matching

To improve the accuracy of your data analysis, mobile attribution platforms use probabilistic matching. This technique allows you to match data points from different sources even when they’re not an exact match.

Assigning a probability score to each potential match enables you to choose the best match and reduce the risk of errors in your analysis.

Offer data dashboards

These dashboards provide a visual representation of your data, making it easy to monitor and analyze your performance activities over time. Remember to prioritize user privacy when working with sensitive data.

What to look for when choosing mobile attribution platforms

When choosing a mobile attribution platform, there are several key factors to consider, from reliable data and tracking to the level of support and services offered by the platform.

We’ve detailed the key areas to look for below.

Quality data

You’ll want to look for a platform that provides accurate and reliable data. This is essential for understanding how your app is performing, where your users are coming from, and what actions they are taking within the app.

If a platform doesn’t get this part right, then it’s not going to be worth your time and commitment, so choose wisely.

Flexible and efficient tracking tools

When considering a mobile attribution platform, it’s important to look for tools that provide flexible and efficient tracking capabilities. This will help you better understand how your app is performing, where your users are coming from, and what actions they are taking within the app.

Additionally, you’ll want to consider the level of customization and integration offered by the platform, as well as its reporting and analytics capabilities.

Customizable reporting

Another important factor to consider is the level of customization and flexibility offered by the platform, specifically with regard to reports.

Look for platforms that include the ability to set up custom events and conversion goals, as well as the ability to integrate with other marketing and analytics tools and those which emphasise different metrics.

Mobile attribution platform example

Source: AdTrace

Duration (of attribution process)

You’ll need to take into account the duration of the mobile attribution process, as that can dictate your marketing strategy.

An attribution window (also known as a conversion window) is the set amount of time a platform measures from. For example, a click lookback window with AppsFlyer has a default duration of 7 days. After the iOS14 update, it takes up to seven days for iOS data to be attributed.

There is almost always a click attribution window, which is typically up to 28 days, meaning the mobile download and installation must take place within that time.

Security features and fraud protection

When it comes to mobile attribution, it’s important to prioritize security features and fraud protection.

Look for mobile attribution platforms that offer security features such as cluster analysis, personalized validation rules, in-app fraud rules, post-attribution fraud detection, as well as in-app and CPA fraud protection itself.

Multi-channel integration

The best mobile attribution platforms offer multi-channel integration.

How many integrations the attribution platform has is a key deciding factor, and generally, the more, the better. Specifically, think about what tools you need a platform to be able to integrate with and go from there.

Work with top mobile attribution platforms and tools

Mobile attribution platforms provide an array of advanced features and capabilities for tracking and measuring the performance of mobile marketing campaigns, including user acquisition, retention, and engagement.

With access to these powerful tools, businesses can continually improve the effectiveness and ROI of their mobile marketing efforts and take their campaigns to the next level.

You can find the top mobile attribution platforms and tools below.