Measurement Explained Through Basketball

Measurement explained by Mike Thomas through a Golden State Warriors basketball analogy

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TL;DR: Last touch attribution ignores direct causation of factors that contribute to successful conversion. MMM offers a more complete understanding of all contributing touchpoints including ones not attributed by last touch. One easy way to describe this is through an analogy of the Golden State Warriors where we compare basketball to marketing. Effective measurement requires the unification of MMM, experiments and last touch to derive the purest source of truth within your marketing campaigns.

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Many performance marketers gravitate towards last touch attribution as a reliable method of measurement. Increased confidence in last touch stems from the security in its output. Last touch provides a definite numeric value that gives marketers a sense of security or comfort in properly allocating budget and ad spend. However, the numeric value of last touch has been proven to be incorrect. Psychologically speaking, one can see why some choose last touch as their measurement method because our human nature seeks reliability in a world where we use constant judgment biases to make key decisions. However, marketers need to realize that last touch is flawed. The output generated by last touch is an assumption that is NOT based on mathematical or scientific reasoning. Last touch fails to correctly credit all channels that led to an effective marketing campaign. It ignores more obscure secondary channels that contribute to successful conversions. It also ignores that a channel can have effects on organics.

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Let’s consider a basketball analogy to illustrate the fallacies of last touch. Imagine you are the manager of the Golden State Warriors. There is an upcoming game versus the Sacramento Kings. The starting lineup consists of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green and Kevon Looney with a reserve of seven additional bench players.

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After an intense game, the Warriors end up beating the Sacramento Kings, 110-107 in a close head-to-head game. Stephen Curry hits the game-winning 3-pointer that seals a solid victory for GSW. After the completion of the game, the stat line for the Warriors starting five appears as follows:

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• Steph Curry: 45 points, 4 assists, 4 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block
• Klay Thompson: 22 points, 4 assists, 11 rebounds, 0 steals, 2 blocks
• Andrew Wiggins: 25 points, 7 assist, 8 rebounds, 3 steals, 0 blocks
• Draymond Green: 5 points, 10 assists, 10 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block
• Jonathan Kuminga: 0 points, 7 assists, 10 rebounds, 4 steals, 4 blocks

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Only accounting for baskets is an impractical and flawed way of keeping track of performance in basketball. Last touch would only credit the player who scores a basket, ignoring other crucial actions by other players such as assists, rebounds, steals, and blocks. Last touch measurement would only credit Steph Curry (gold trophy with star) for the made basket in the diagram above. Players like Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins and Johnathan Kuminga would not receive any credit despite them making valuable contributions that led to the basket. The last touch approach fails to capture all touchpoints (the steal, then the pass, then the drive, then another pass) that led up to Curry shooting the scored basket.  The overall impact of each player on the game is simply ignored to arrive at a convenient but over-simplified and flawed conclusion.

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In contrast to last touch, MMM (Media Mixed Modeling) would credit the entire team for not only the made basket by Steph Curry but the win over Sacramento. Players like Jonathan Kuminga who didn’t score any baskets but contributed significantly with 7 assists, 10 rebounds, 4 steals, and 4 blocks would receive appropriate credit. MMM is comprehensive in accurately factoring the true contributions and performance of each player, even those who didn’t score points.

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Just like basketball, marketing success relies on collective contributions. Marketing effectiveness requires a comprehensive measurement approach that delivers incrementality through a causal learning agenda. This is exactly what MMM is designed to do. MetricWorks has a far superior proprietary version of MMM that is also the only daily cohorted MMM on the market. This means that you can make decisions on a daily basis rather than having to wait for another month or quarter to make a decision. MetricWorks also offers higher accuracy via triangulation that combines the strengths of MMM, experiments and last touch to deliver one trusted source of truth. Change the trajectory of your marketing campaigns today and leave the competition in the dust! It all starts with you scheduling a demo with MetricWorks: https://www.metric.works/demo/

MetricWorks enters into strategic partnership and establishes joint venture with UNICORN to provide unified measurement in Japan

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In recent years, as ad technology has evolved and advertising contact points have become more complex, it has become difficult to accurately analyze and understand advertising effectiveness. In particular, when evaluating the results of last-touch measurement using view-through conversions, the accuracy and standards for each medium are ambiguous, there is a lack of consideration for user privacy, and it is difficult to make an integrated evaluation that includes offline advertising. It is believed that there are many issues.

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POLARIS, developed by MetricWorks, is a completely new mobile measurement platform that combines last-touch measurement, marketing mix modeling (MMM)*, and verification functions. In addition to not requiring user data such as device IDs, POLARIS enables more accurate performance evaluation than existing evaluation methods, and multiple companies, mainly in Europe and the United States, are currently implementing POLARIS.

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“POLARIS” can visualize advertising effectiveness using the same KPI as traditional last-touch measurement in apps, and is also equipped with highly real-time evaluation measurement technology and unique verification functions that increase measurement accuracy, allowing advertising evaluation. While maintaining accuracy, it is possible to perform more essential evaluation analysis, maximizing the effectiveness of marketing and promotions. Additionally, “POLARIS” is the industry’s first platform that can visualize MMM evaluation through daily cohort analysis, facilitating prompt decision-making and operations.

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UNICORN has been using POLARIS for some time, but has now entered into a strategic partnership with MetricWorks in order to accelerate efforts to support advertising evaluation in marketing and perform essential advertising evaluation from an advertiser’s perspective. We have established a joint venture company, MetricWorks Japan.

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Going forward, we will further strengthen these efforts and contribute to the revitalization of domestic and international promotion and marketing businesses.

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UNICORN reduces the time advertisers and advertising agencies spend on “detailed human operations and numerical analysis,” which has traditionally been done, and creates an environment in which they can concentrate on “work that only humans can do.” We will continue to develop services with the mission of further expanding sales of our products and services.

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The Adways Group will respond flexibly to market needs, strive to further expand its services, and realize the development of efficient and practical advertising and marketing services in countries around the world.  

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MetricWorks Japan Co., Ltd. can be reached at: contact@metric-works.jp

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*MMM (Marketing Mix Modeling) is a method for quantitatively analyzing the extent to which marketing measures have had an impact.

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About UNICORN

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Japan’s largest fully automated marketing platform for mobile apps with over 1.5 trillion impressions of monthly purchasable traffic. We predict the value of impressions in real time during RTB transactions with SSPs and automatically bid at the optimal price for each campaign developed on UNICORN. https://uni-corn.net/

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About MetricWorks Inc.

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Developed the industry’s first and only daily cohort MMM tool “POLARIS”. POLARIS provides mobile marketing and has a track record of increasing clients’ ROAS by an average of 36%. We partner with global companies such as Meta, Google, TikTok, Mobilityware, and Kabam. https://www.metric.works/

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About UNICORN Co., Ltd.

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Established in 2013 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Adways with the mission of developing new services in the ad tech field. We will develop new services that lead the times with free ideas that are not bound by existing services or stakeholders. https://uni-corn.net/

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About Adways Co., Ltd.

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Established in 2001. Listed on TSE Mothers in 2006 and on the TSE First Section in 2020. Moved to the TSE Prime Market in 2022. Including agency business that supports comprehensive marketing of apps and web, Japan’s largest affiliate services “JANet” and “Smart-C”, smartphone ad distribution service “AppDriver”, fully automated marketing platform “UNICORN”, etc. Develops ad platform business. In addition, we are involved in a variety of businesses such as planning, developing, and operating apps and content. We are also expanding overseas to countries around the world, mainly in Asia, including Japan. https://www.adways.net/

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The full press release in Japanese can be found here: https://www.adways.net/press/adways602.html

Since we are seeing severe impacts around privacy and the ability to measure, we decided to put together a five-part series, together with our friends at GameMakers, to help advertisers really understand the measurement crisis, and explore the different tools and measurement signals available.

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GameMaker’s 5-Part Series On The Measurement Crisis

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Within a 5-part series, the GameMaker’s podcast with MetricWorks examines effective strategies to address the challenges of measurement in a privacy-first world. The following topics will be discussed:

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• an overview of the measurement crisis
• the real state of last touch examining the value it provides marketers
• implementation and use of incrementality testing in a privacy-first world
• an in-depth analysis of MTA 2.0
• and data clean room tools that will impact last-touch attribution models
• a guided roadmap to help advertisers implement proper action measurement success

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How MetricWorks Can Help You Overcome The Measurement Crisis

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To overcome the measurement crisis, MetricWorks offers a unified measurement platform that is incrementality-based and privacy-safe. No need for device IDs to generate superior performance. Get ahead of the competition today by booking a MetricWorks demo. Empower your marketing team and boost your ROAS with MetricWorks.

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Thank you to our friends at GameMakers (including Joseph Kim), Warren Woodward, Andrew Covato and John Wright for producing this valuable content.  We hope that you also found this valuable and invite you to connect with us about any questions you may have.

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Best,

The MetricWorks Team

Embracing Change

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We often get questions about how we built our unified measurement platform, Polaris. We thought that it would be helpful to share our thinking in this blog post.

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The mobile advertising industry has always been a dynamic one that has attracted brilliant minds to embrace its constant change and bring to life businesses that wrestled with the messiness of advertising data to deliver increasing value as they evolved.  Now is no different.  So we think it is important that as we approach the privacy apocalypse and its measurement challenges, that we commit once again to center ourselves, continue to embrace change and innovate.

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Let’s begin by taking stock of the positives.  Firstly, this major industry shift offered increased user privacy.  This is in alignment with our core values as end users ourselves and as a mobile ad tech company. Secondly, it allows the industry to ditch the issues with last click attribution and forge a new chapter of measurement innovation.

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Thirdly, our unified measurement platform will ensure that you have granular visibility in order to continue to successfully optimize and execute. You will see more detail about this lower down in this post.

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Our Quest For The Future Of Measurement

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The IDFA restrictions, that rolled out in 2021, introduced a huge but welcome change to the mobile advertising ecosystem. After an Apple user upgraded to iOS 14, any iOS 14-compatible app that wants to access their device’s persistent identifier (IDFA), most often for the purposes of retargeting, user profile linking, or measurement, needs to ask for their permission (as shown in the example below).

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This presented an interesting challenge for the industry since so many players in the ecosystem rely on the IDFA to varying degrees. At MetricWorks, we’ve focused on how measurement data will flow in the post-IDFA world. Back in 2020, based on the spirit of Apple’s new terms, we decided to evaluate this challenge with the assumption that MMPs will no longer be able to send events with attributed channel, campaign, country, and publisher app information. In its current state, SKAdNetwork, Apple’s on-device measurement offering, does not seem to provide enough granularity, nor does it handle post-install events well, making retention and LTV prediction impossible.

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Early in our search for a suitable measurement solution, we identified incrementality as an important piece of the puzzle. For those not as familiar with the concept – incrementality refers to the incremental value directly caused by each advertising touchpoint in the user journey. This is impossible to measure in the last touch attribution model (Fig.1 below), which credits the final touchpoint with 100% of the value for the user without consideration to the possibility that the user could have been acquired with fewer, more valuable touchpoints or even zero advertising as an organic install.

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A methodology known as incrementality testing is an ideal solution to prove the causal relationship between advertising touchpoints (ad buys) and uplift. It prescribes a rigorous scientific process similar to randomized clinical trials used by pharmaceutical companies where a population of users is randomly split into a test group that is delivered an ad and a control group that receives a placebo (often an unrelated public service announcement or PSA). However, it can be costly since, if you’re displaying PSAs, you still have to pay for those impressions. There is an even bigger problem with the advent of iOS 14. Most forms of incrementality testing require a large list of device IDs so that the audience can be split. iOS 14 will make this difficult to accomplish.

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Another powerful tool in the measurement toolkit that also considers incrementality is media mix modeling (MMM). This technique uses regression models to find correlations between ad spend and business value. As a top-down technique (Fig. 2), versus a bottom-up (Fig. 3) approach like last touch attribution that works at the device level, it eschews device IDs in favor of aggregated data, and is therefore naturally aligned with user privacy. As you can see in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 below, both top-down and bottom-up measurement techniques attempt to allocate the same users and app activity data (installs, opens, revenue) to the same four campaign/publisher app combinations in the proper proportions, but come up with different answers.

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Key Idea: Based on the measurement output of the two different methodologies, we can see that they somewhat agree on the value of ironSource campaign B, publisher C (red). However, ironSource campaign A, publisher A (purple) didn’t get credited much in the bottom-up last touch methodology (just 1 install with little revenue) while top-down shows that, even though it might not be getting the last touch, it is providing significant incremental value. On the flip side, bottom-up attribution gives Vungle campaign A, publisher A (orange) a solid amount of credit for last touches, but statistically, it is providing almost no incremental value. We would have acquired those users either through other campaigns or organically anyway.

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Coming back to the top-down media mix modeling (MMM) technique (Fig.2), let’s look at its advantages:

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1. Requires few inputs – mostly just a time series of spend and target outcome measurements.
2. Robust to incongruities among ad channels, both online and offline, in terms of functionality and data availability.
3. Can be used to predict the change in outcomes as a function of different spend inputs which is quite handy for planning purposes including what-if analysis.
4. Can also be used in conjunction with other algorithms to optimize towards a given goal, which can be used for budget allocation optimization.

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MMM has its own problems though, which also eliminated it from contention in our quest for the future of measurement. When we attempted to apply it to mobile app advertising, some major issues became apparent including:

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1. Requires several years of data at a minimum due to aggregation at the week or month granularity.
2. Not used for quick decision making since it takes weeks or months to update a model with new data.
3. Usually custom built for an individual advertiser by very expensive specialist consultants.
4. Can only prove correlation, not causation (eating seafood may be highly correlated with personal wealth, but that doesn’t mean eating a lot of seafood will make someone more wealthy).

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While MMM wasn't a perfect fit, we recognized early on that the MMM concepts held a lot of potential. The key is that we found that most of the downsides could be mitigated through a combination of creative feature engineering and automated model validation through constant backtesting and live experimentation.

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Keep in mind that the entire measurement process including modeling and validation must be completely automated in order to be scalable. No need to worry though because our existing automation technology in UACC is being enhanced to make this a powerful reality for you.

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Our Solution For Mobile Measurement

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Thank you for bearing with us and making it this far. Let us now look at the high level overview of our solution:

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1. We believe that measurement of campaigns at the country and publisher app level (when applicable) remains critical for UA decision-making.
2. Compatibility with the current iOS14 technical specifications and alignment with the spirit of the new rules are equally crucial for any future measurement solution  including ours.
3. Regression models similar to those called for by media mix modeling can be augmented with techniques that address problems unique to mobile app advertising in order to finally deliver a measurement solution that considers incrementality.
4. Using daily data helps solve the data volume issue inherent to MMM and allows the model to be updated more quickly so it can inform the types of fast decision-making required by modern UA teams.
5. Back testing allows us to automatically evaluate a wide array of approaches and select only the most accurate models based on their ability to predict known historical outcomes.
6. Automated controlled experimentation enables live testing of incremental value predictions in the real world so that models can be validated and improved by rejecting poor models and feeding results back into the next model.
7. Our unified measurement platform, Polaris, (based on our analysis outlined above) ties aggregated cohort activity with the channel, campaign, country, and publisher app dimensions, instead of the MMP.
8. Our measurement module will be provided as an option at the app level so that advertisers can rely solely on MMP measurement for their Android apps, should they wish.

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We hope that the above was helpful and invite you to connect with us about any questions so that you have a chance to shape our solution.

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Best,

The MetricWorks Team

Following our VentureBeat launch by Dean Takahashi of MMP 2.0 (Polaris), we got to launch Polaris at one of the best mobile industry shows, MAU Vegas on May 23rd! The reception was fantastic as mobile marketers are desperate for a measurement solution that closes the three value gaps (poor accuracy, lack of privacy-safety, and limited measurement scope) in last touch MMPs (MMP 1.0) to deliver superior performance.

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In summary, we had a fantastic MAU! Thank you to the MAU Vegas team, our partners, clients, attendees and everyone who took the time to learn more about MetricWorks‘ MMP 2.0. If you missed our MAU presentation by our CEO, Brian Krebs, then do sign up for our FREE TIER to start enjoying the benefits of MMP 2.0. We’ve had a ton of signups. Make sure you don’t miss out on the solution that will help you demand more from your data.

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If you would like to learn more, submit a demo request or visit our Polaris product page.

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Reliable measurement is at the heart of decision making for the mobile business. As you can see from the diagram above, MMP 2.0 leverages multiple measurement methods (including geo lift testing and MMM), blending them to produce an output (single source of truth) that drives the business processes and delivers superior performance. Our team has worked tirelessly to continue innovating so that we can deliver a solution that:

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1. Looks like a MMP so that it is easy to use
2. Fits into your existing UA process to avoid any disruptions or productivity problems.
3. Merges the strengths of multiple measurement methods to deliver far superior accuracy than individual methods and MMP 1.0
4. Offers sophisticated algorithms that removes the guesswork and signal conflict by outputting a single source of truth the plugs into your existing business processes.

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We hope you like Polaris and find it valuable in your quest to achieve higher performance while preserving your budget.

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Best,

The MetricWorks Team

Thank you VentureBeat and Dean Takahashi for covering our launch of MMP 2.0 (Polaris) and how it closes the three value gaps (poor accuracy, lack of privacy-safety, and limited measurement scope) in last touch MMPs (MMP 1.0) to deliver superior performance.

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We are excited to launch this latest innovation in measurement which we describe as “fulfilling our mission to help marketers demand more from their data”.

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Additionally, in order to make Polaris more accessible to marketers, we are now offering the Polaris Free Tier so that you can start using MMP 2.0 for free! Sign up today. To learn more, submit a demo request or visit our Polaris product page.

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Reliable measurement is at the heart of decision making for the mobile business. As you can see from the diagram above, MMP 2.0 leverages multiple measurement methods (including geo lift testing and MMM), blending them to produce an output (single source of truth) that drives the business processes and delivers superior performance. Our team has worked tirelessly to continue innovating so that we can deliver a solution that:

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1. Looks like a MMP so that it is easy to use
2. Fits into your existing UA process to avoid any disruptions or productivity problems
3. Merges the strengths of multiple measurement methods to deliver far superior accuracy than individual methods and MMP 1.0
4. Offers sophisticated algorithms that removes the guesswork and signal conflict by outputting a single source of truth the plugs into your existing business processes.

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We hope you like Polaris and find it valuable in your quest to achieve higher performance while preserving your budget.

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Best,

The MetricWorks Team

Since our Jan 24th blog post, we continue to receive a number of questions about privacy violations in Europe and the impact on measurement. So here’s a short video by our CEO, Brian Krebs, that clearly describes Europe’s impending crackdown on measurement and what you can do. In particular, shifting to privacy preserving measurement is going to be critical. MetricWorks Polaris was designed to preserve privacy and deliver superior marketing measurement. Book a meeting to find out why.

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In summary, for most app companies, the only real options to avoid massive fines similar to those we have seen so far are:

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1. Block access to European users completely (avoid jurisdiction of European regulators).
2. Remove MMP SDKs from all apps and completely cease measurement activities.
3. Continue using MMP SDKs, but ensure no device data is collected unless consent is granted (e.g., disable fingerprinting), meaning only deterministic last touch would be available and only for the few users that the MMP has double opt-in for (this may not even be possible for many MMPs at the moment and you'd still need a custom consent dialog for Android since there's no ATT equivalent).
4. Migrate completely to measurement methods that don't require the collection of device data such as SKAN (iOS only), MMM, and geo lift testing (avoid collecting device data for the purpose of measurement altogether).

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If you'd like to discuss this topic further, feel free to book a time or contact us.

All apps are in violation of the GDPR/French DPA if they meet the following criteria:

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a. Have European users
b. Use an MMP SDK
c. Either:
  i. Are fingerprinting on iOS for users who do not consent to ATT (collecting data after an opt-out)
  ii. Have any Android users (there is no ATT-equivalent on Android, so no consent framework exists at all)

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Continue reading for the full explanation of why the above is true. Many of you may have already seen Eric Seufert’s latest and greatest Mobile Dev Memo post about Voodoo being fined by the French privacy watchdog for using the IDFV for advertising purposes without user consent. Up till now, most of the mobile industry has focused on complying with ATT. As made clear by France’s privacy regulator, CNIL, this is NOT enough, especially because complying with ATT does NOT equate to complying with any privacy law.

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But, why is that?

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Well, ATT says that you can access and do what you wish with the IDFV (assuming it’s not breaking some other Apple policy) even if the user opts out of tracking. The ATT opt out only protects the user’s IDFA. GDPR and the French DPA, on the other hand, make it clear that you cannot do anything with that IDFV without opt-in unless it is:

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1. clearly contractual (e.g., the user has already contractually agreed to be tracked) or
2. it’s in the legitimate interest of the advertiser (e.g., the advertiser must use your IDFV for tracking in order to provide the basic functionality that the user expects from the product).

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Refer to Eric’s post for more details that support the above assertions.

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Now, in terms of measurement, what does this mean for the mobile industry?

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1. Most apps use an MMP SDK for measurement.
2. MMP SDKs must collect device data in order to measure (whether that data is IP address, etc. for fingerprinting, which is against Apple’s policies, but has remained generally unpoliced on both iOS and Android, or a cross-publisher device ID like IDFA on iOS or GAID on Android).
3. GDPR and the French DPA state that device data can only be collected after clear user consent unless the company meets one of five other legal bases, the most common of which are:
    a. the company has a contractual obligation to collect that particular data (contractual basis) or
    b. it must collect that particular data in order to provide the expected functionality of the product or service (legitimate interest basis)
4. Only on iOS are MMP SDKs requesting user consent before collecting the cross-publisher device ID (IDFA), whereas on Android, the cross-publisher device ID (GAID) is collected unless the user specifically opted out, which is an option buried in the settings; on both platforms, most advertisers have the MMP SDK configured to collect other data like IP address for fingerprinting if the device ID can’t be accessed anyway.
5. Recent GDPR rulings suggest that a contractual basis isn’t applicable even when only using first-party data like the IDFV (which based on ATT, doesn’t require user consent on iOS) to target ads (the European Data Protection Board ruled that the contractual basis wasn’t applicable in Meta’s case) since users were essentially forced to agree to the contract terms in order to use the product, which is expressly disallowed.
6. Recent regulator advice suggests that a legitimate interest basis isn’t applicable even when only using first-party data like the IDFV to target ads (the Irish DPC advised TikTok to abandon their plans to use the legitimate interest basis for targeting ads with first-party data) since targeting ads ostensibly doesn’t constitute a legitimate business interest.
7. Measurement is unlikely to be interpreted differently from ads targeting in any significant way in terms of the applicability of the contractual or legitimate interest bases (e.g., measuring the performance of marketing is not necessary to fulfill contract obligations to users nor is it a part of the expected functionality of the product).

What can we conclude from this?

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1. All apps are in violation of the GDPR/French DPA if they:
    a. Have European users
   b. Use an MMP SDK
   c. Either:
        i. Are fingerprinting on iOS for users who do not consent to ATT (collecting data after an opt-out)
        ii. Have any Android users (there is no ATT-equivalent on Android, so no consent framework exists at all)
2. Even if companies only collect data from users who have consented (which would require them to create consent dialogs on Android since the platform doesn’t have a built-in framework like ATT on iOS):
   a. Fingerprinting would be rendered unnecessary since the company would already be able to collect the cross-publisher device ID
      (much more accurate than fingerprinting) with the consent (currently, it’s used as a nefarious backup if the user denies consent)
   b. SKAN, which has tons of visibility issues, would be the only viable way to measure last touch on iOS
   c. Even worse, last touch measurement on Android would be almost impossible since the MMP would need consent from each user in the publisher app
      (the app that displays the ad) and the advertiser app (the app that buys the ad) to attribute any user (often called the double opt-in problem), which as
      we’ve seen after ATT was released on iOS, is incredibly rare.

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What can you do?

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The mobile industry is approaching another watershed moment. Do you have the right measurement to succeed? Fortunately, Polaris by MetricWorks is a turnkey, privacy-centric incrementality MMP. Polaris does not need device IDs, painful migrations, heavy lifting, SDKs, or additional skills. Most importantly, Polaris will help you avoid any issues with privacy regulators because it respects user privacy.

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In summary, for most app companies, the only real options to avoid similar massive fines are:

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1. Block access to European users completely (avoid jurisdiction of European regulators).
2. Remove MMP SDKs from all apps and completely cease measurement activities.
3. Continue using MMP SDKs, but ensure no device data is collected unless consent is granted (e.g., disable fingerprinting), meaning only deterministic last touch would be available and only for the few users that the MMP has double opt-in for (this may not even be possible for many MMPs at the moment and you’d still need a custom consent dialog for Android since there’s no ATT equivalent).
4. Migrate completely to privacy preserving measurement methods that don’t require the collection of device data such as SKAN (iOS only), MMM, and geo lift testing (avoid collecting device data for the purpose of measurement altogether).
5. If you’d like to discuss this topic further, feel free to book a time or contact us.

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Photo by Marija Zaric on Unsplash

Well, it is finally the week of MAU and we are excited to meet you in Vegas! MetricWorks is proud to be a Gold Sponsor of MAU Vegas. There are many opportunities to meet our team and learn how you can close the gaps in your measurement stack with our MMM-based incrementality MMP, Polaris.

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For a full listing of what MetricWorks is up to at MAU, visit MetricWorks At MAU22. Here are the quick highlights.

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1) Don’t miss our MAU Speaking Session with our CEO, Brian Krebs on Wed, June 8th @ 11:40am in Terrace Ballroom 152. Brian will describe “Why It Is Time To Close The Gaps In Your Measurement Stack With MMM-Based Incrementality Measurement”

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2) Drop by our Booth 644 to win fantastic daily prizes! Book a time to grab a drink with us.

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3) Be among the first 50 to get an exclusive peek on our webinar at the very first Incrementality Industry Report. Sign up now for this exclusive webinar and the report that will follow.

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4) Get our FREE GUIDE on How Marketing Mix Modeling Can Fill the Gaps of Attribution.

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Hit us up with any questions or for a demo of Polaris at demo@metric.works. See you soon at MAU!

Exactly one year ago, we publicly launched Polaris on VentureBeat (thanks again, Dean Takahashi). At the time, it was the first of its kind: a measurement product pairing media mix modeling (MMM) and geo lift experiments to provide incrementality performance metrics in the same form factor as an MMP. Actually, it remains the only product of its kind, one year later.

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While we didn’t fully open up the floodgates until Q3 2021, the past year has been a wild ride. The response from the mobile industry was far greater than I could’ve imagined. Our partnership with Meta and collaboration with their world-class Marketing Science and MMM teams have helped us to continually improve Polaris and the science behind it.

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Our growth over the last 2 quarters since we went fully live is nothing short of incredible. We’re adding new people to our amazing team and expanding to new regions across the globe. We’ve onboarded so many notable customers over these months it’s been an absolute blur. None of this would have been possible without my teammates at MetricWorks. I’m humbled to be a part of this journey with all of you.

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To learn more about Polaris, submit a demo request or visit our Polaris product page.

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In the spirit of ushering in the New Year by trying new things to better ourselves, here is some info about how incrementality measurement can get you off to the right start and give you an edge:

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1) If you are just hearing about incrementality and wondering what all the fuss is about, then here’s a quick explanation: https://www.metric.works/2021/02/19/what-is-incrementality/

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2) Familiar with incrementality but want to know why incrementality can be trusted: https://www.metric.works/trusting-the-incrementality-model/

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3) Well-versed in incrementality but curious about the onboarding steps for our incrementality measurement solution, Polaris: https://www.metric.works/polaris-client-onboarding/

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Hit us up with any questions or for a demo of Polaris at demo@metric.works. May you enjoy a successful 2022!

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[Photo by Mohamed Nohassi on Unsplash]

After our Jan 26th post, we continue to receive a number of questions about privacy violations in Europe and the impact on measurement. So here’s a short video by our CEO, Brian Krebs, that clearly describes Europe’s impending crackdown on measurement and what you can do. In particular, shifting to privacy preserving measurement is going to be critical. MetricWorks Polaris was designed to preserve privacy and deliver superior marketing measurement. Book a meeting to find out why.

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In summary, for most app companies, the only real options to avoid similar massive fines are:

1. Block access to European users completely (avoid jurisdiction of European regulators).
2. Remove MMP SDKs from all apps and completely cease measurement activities.
3. Continue using MMP SDKs, but ensure no device data is collected unless consent is granted (e.g., disable fingerprinting), meaning only deterministic last touch would be available and only for the few users that the MMP has double opt-in for (this may not even be possible for many MMPs at the moment and you'd still need a custom consent dialog for Android since there's no ATT equivalent).
4. Migrate completely to measurement methods that don't require the collection of device data such as SKAN (iOS only), MMM, and geo lift testing (avoid collecting device data for the purpose of measurement altogether).

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If you'd like to discuss this topic further, feel free to book a time or contact us.

This past year was challenging on so many levels and filled with constant doubt that each of us felt at both a personal and professional level. Apple certainly didn't make things easy on us. Indeed, this was the year that Apple decided to challenge all of us in the mobile advertising space and by leading a significant change in the attribution landscape with the release of SKAdNetwork attribution.

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Still today, I do not have all the answers on how this change is going to be standardized in the future and the true impact it will have on developers from the smallest to the largest. However, to me it really is an eye opener and appears as a unique opportunity to track and attribute advertising data via incrementality to arrive at a holistic view. In this article, I share my own experience with iOS14 and how excited I am to shift from last touch to incrementality.

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SKAN’s challenges including dealing with only 100 campaign IDs

‍

When Apple announced the 100 campaign limitation, it made me anxious. It meant a limitation in deterministic data but also in the number of campaigns a marketer is able to run. So what was I going to do? No more experimentation? My first thought was what is my job going to look like and how will I still enjoy doing user acquisition?

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To me, the restriction in the number of campaigns was really perceived long term as a threat to my UA manager position. Indeed, fewer campaigns meant less fun. It also meant fewer ways to experiment and challenge my thinking, fewer ways to find new pockets of growth, fewer ways to extend my media mix, fewer ways to easily optimise on the next crazy event designed by data science, and fewer ways to get direct feedback from the market without a timer.

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This left me with the strange and disconcerting feeling that the advertising platform did not need UA managers anymore in order to set up a AAA campaign without targeting or anything similar as everything was now heavily simplified and restricted.

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SKAN does NOT offer a way to cohort KPIs by install date

‍

However, what I got from this situation was that SKAN attribution was the new rule and I was interested in the new areas that Apple wanted to innovate in. I was really keen to have that information, but for a year, it was really difficult to get a clear and comprehensive explanation from Apple. Apple made several announcements during the WWDC and each time I remember that my UA manager friends and I were really nervous about these because we did not know how things would pan out. After a year, we finally saw the first shape of SKAN and ran the first test on it.

‍

For now, the SKAN solution has  not met all of my expectations. Apple did a lot of back and forth that led in a year to the delivery of a disappointing SKAN attribution model, not at the level of the privacy promised but also disappointing from a market overview. A lot of simple things like offering daily KPIS by install date is currently really complicated with SKAN. All data is aggregated, the timer is super long and the sample size in order to receive installs post back data is still unclear to me.

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Funny enough, it made me happy that it was not perfect because it created opportunities for other smart companies to fill these gaps and they certainly did! I was happy that this complicated attribution was the real opportunity I was waiting for to push mobile companies to consider holistic marketing via incrementality and finally empower creativity in advertising!

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Critical KPIs have been replaced by a single conversion value with its own significant limitation

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Because advertisers were unhappy about the iOS14 change and all the limitations that it imposed by following only a single conversion value, I saw advertisers start to be resilient, to evolve and to innovate. People finally stepped outside of their comfort zones and challenged the status quo. The forgotten topics of creative and incrementality became the new topics everyone is now excited about to refashion their growth!

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I saw incredible growth masterminds and leaders that I deeply respect lead conferences about this topic, share resources to the entire market and open the doors to understanding incrementality. All of these people truly inspired me as a young UA manager. I could only imagine the struggle they endured everyday to explain to their high level management the change that they were implementing. At the same time, they also inspired other companies to help lead the change.

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SKAN implications for budgeting, forecasting and strategy

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SKAN budgeting is complicated at the company level and I think all leaders struggled and are maybe still struggling on how to figure it out. Investors are still unsure about the negative or positive externalities of spending heavily on iOS right now. Does it send a good signal to investors to spend heavily on iOS right now when we belong to SKAN? Or is it better to spend on Android

‍

At the company level, Apple was NOT very vocal about the changes they were making and this created a lot of uncertainty. Almost every week, Apple was updating yet another release note with new information. This made budgeting highly complicated for marketers as the day to day approach was to wait for an update prior to doing any forecast. Growth is not just a matter of days and months, it is a matter of years that involves you working with many people to be successful. Each decision can have a wide-ranging impact.

‍

Last touch is the source of the above challenges

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Last touch attribution on Apple was not an option anymore unless you had an ATT prompt where the user clicked YES. Since I worked in CRM before, I knew the optin rate would differ from one app to another and the deterministic data we get would certainly not represent 100% of the cohort. However, I was happy about it because last touch attribution has always been something I was really a fan of.

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Indeed, to me it was always a way to favor the SANs, a way to say brandformance does not exist as it did when I worked in the past with an offline user acquisition channel. I also knew the last view or click was imperfect or non-ideal data as it also attributed to paid traffic what might have been organic, and was sometimes even fraudulent. So overall, I was really happy and excited about all the sparks that came out about this topic and the innovation in incrementality and holistic marketing views in organizations.

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No need to lose hope as incrementality is real, usable and effective in overcoming the limitations of last touch

‍

Don't lose faith and adopt change! That's really what all the leaders I watched on all the webinars made me think. They really made me happy to be part of this industry! As challenging as it was in the past to pitch for incrementality ; iOS14 was now an eye opener for many to lead efforts on sustainable growth and promote incrementality! iOS14 has shown us how painful it can be to get data and that deterministic numbers are the best answer to lead investment.

‍

Many companies now finally consider getting better and better knowledge about holistic views and are pursuing incrementality as a new way to increase and maximize their real profitability. I think this change was also driven by the fact that mobile generated more revenue during the pandemic. Advertisers discovered new channels already heavily used on the web (TV, influencer etc.) and expanded their media mix. Those channels also needed to be assessed in performance and iOS14 was only another reason to go deeper into measuring those incrementalities with a proper measurement approach.

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Benefits of incrementality

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For a long time, we called user acquisition growth hacking with the famous white and black hats. In the past, we had no rules as everything was new and the legal landscape did not exist. Now it does, and I am really happy about it. I am happy that it is not legal to send IDFA by CSV file anymore. I am also happy that companies have to ask me for my consent.

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As both a user and an advertiser, incrementality is the best solution to respect my privacy and also provide the necessary and accurate information that advertisers need to ensure sustainable growth. Privacy-compliance is at the heart of incrementality as it requires no device IDs. It is simply a clean scientific means of measurement.

‍

Incrementality does not have artificially created attribution windows and prevents the over-attribution of SANs like Facebook and Google. This makes me really proud of our industry – we now can provide all channels the same chance of success. Once again, this is going to challenge how we think and what we think we know. Incrementality measurement is the only approach that now is able to show you the real impact of each channel based on fair and accurate data. I really hope this will reshape our industry and challenge the famous duopoly.

‍

The other thing that I'm really excited about is that cannibalization will now be taken into consideration. For a long time, marketers ignored cannibalization in order not to suffer a decreasing budget. I hope that cannibalization of paid and organic is going to be reduced and that incrementality's holistic view will provide a better understanding of the true paid impact on organic. Indeed, it can sometimes have a negative impact but there can also be a positive impact on organic uplift for instance, provided by an app burst that increases your ranking. What about your TV campaigns? Now everything will finally be measurable to understand the true effectiveness of all of your marketing efforts.

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Working in mobile means that learning is a day to day activity. As challenging as that is, everyday is about making our space a more advanced space. I am really proud to be part of the mobile space. Incrementality is one of the best results of iOS 14 and without it we would perhaps never have this opportunity to make measurement better for the advertiser and more importantly for the user. We can finally heave a sigh of relief because we survived!

‍

I look forward to your questions. Thanks.
Claire

‍

Claire Rozain is passionate about growth strategy. She is currently a Senior UA Manager in casual games for Gameloft. Prior to that, she was in social casino for Product Madness, in dating for Match EMEA, and in mobility for Mappy. She had opportunities to explore different verticals in the UA and CRM world and is passionate about top of the funnel paid and organic strategies to get the right users. You can follow her YouTube channel here.‍

It's been almost two months since Apple enforced the IDFA depreciation and the ATT framework through iOS 14.5. Advertisers are freaking out about the loss of attribution data for their paid media investments. Basically, all iOS numbers are looking bad and every paid acquisition channel is reporting less install and post install numbers. In some cases there are more than 50% loss in post install reports. The new reality with all of its attribution data loss does not look surprising to us. Moreover, we have already found a solution that we're pleased to share with you.

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How to deal with attribution data loss and measure success?

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What's interesting about the data that we are seeing is that most of the numbers are being attributed to organic. By looking at Organics and Paid ratio pre and post iOS14.5, we can clearly see that the paid numbers are constantly declining and organic numbers are rising. So, if you are an app owner, you shouldn't freak out about it as you are still hitting the numbers the same way you used to. However, your marketing team that manages paid channels might be concerned because of not knowing which channels or campaigns are driving the results.

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What can you do to measure your success?

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There are a couple of ways marketers are considering to identify success:

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1. Rely on historical data. For example, you know that Facebook or certain geos were constantly hitting your numbers. Therefore, unless you've made major changes in your app that caused a complete change of economy, it is fair to make the assumption that they continue to do so.
2. Use incrementality to measure your paid media success. We know that we haven't completely lost the data from iOS14.5+ because there's still a rise in organic numbers. It is important to analyze which part of the UA activity is causing the rise, and this is where incrementality comes into play. Through incrementality measurements you will be able to tell what percentage of the increase of your organic numbers are driven by specific UA campaigns that you've launched.

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Measuring KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)

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It's appropriate to aggregate both app events and marketing data at channel and country level and then measure the KPIs that each channel is driving. This way you don't have to rely on last touch attribution or IDFA to measure the KPIs. All you have to do is relate the paid activities to organic numbers. Once you have the KPIs you will be able to tell which campaign, channel or geo is working better.

‍

How to start today?

‍

It would require a heavy investment in the data science team to analyze these numbers at a very granular level. Therefore, be ready to invest a lot of time and resources to get there. However, there are some companies who are already measuring incrementality for post-IDFA deprecation and are able to split results within 24 hours. One of those companies is MetricWorks. We at Appvertiser have collaborated with them to help measure the iOS14.5 numbers for one of our clients. With help from MetricWorks, we have been able to identify the underperforming and overperforming campaigns without relying on SKAD reports. Moreover, the client was able to see the results in a short period of time. Through MetricWorks, our client was able to continue to drive their UA investments without facing any issues and measure the success of their campaigns through the incrementality approach embedded in Metric Works Polaris. It is clear to us that this new privacy wave is here to stay and we expect Google to follow a similar path with Android phones. We at Appvertiser do believe that this is the future when it comes to UA measurement. Last touch attribution will be forever gone. For any marketing team out there, we highly recommend that you invest in your data science team and give them the needed support whether it means building it in-house or contracting top product vendors such as MetricWorks.

‍

Appvertiser is a growth marketing agency for app developers and ecommerce companies. We have over ten years of experience in growth marketing and user acquisition, specializing in paid channels management, setting marketing strategies, and taking a data-driven approach to drive and unlock growth.

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You can reach us at grow@appvertiser.io. We look forward to your questions.

‍

Thanks

‍

Hagop Hagopian
CEO & Founder of Appvertiser

By now, you would have certainly encountered the deficiencies and frustration of last touch, and SKAdNetwork in particular. While the scars from those encounters make for great conversation starters, they are also important reminders that it is time to embrace change and re-examine your idea of the ideal measurement stack.

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You see, as marketers, for the longest time, we’ve become too comfortable with the simplicity and convenience of last touch. In an attempt to cling to that comfort, we’ve even accepted a very impaired remnant of last touch, SKAdNetwork and the ecosystem that supports it. In doing so, we have forsaken any attempt at realizing true marketing visibility and effectiveness. As a reminder, and please don’t flinch, here are the glaring issues with SKAdNetwork:

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1. SKAdNetwork leaves marketers with only 100 campaign IDs of granularity.
2. It does NOT offer a way to cohort KPIs by install date.
3. Critical post-install performance KPIs that are foundational to your mobile growth strategy (like retention, revenue, LTV, and ROAS) have disappeared and have been replaced by a single conversion value with its own significant limitations.

‍

Now, fortunately in order to just survive and function in a “SKAdNetwork world”, you have last touch MMPs that try to piece the fragments of this last touch signal together. While keeping your last touch MMP makes sense, it still does NOT address the glaring gap that decimates your marketing strategy. That is where an incrementality MMP comes in due to the following reasons:

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1. An incrementality MMP is fully compliant with Apple’s privacy policy because it doesn’t depend on device IDs (IDFA or GAID).
   
2. Does NOT require any changes to your marketing processes, KPIs or methods of use.
   
3. Provides you the very same KPIs (cohorted by install date) that you have grown to cherish.
   
4. The data that Polaris needs will always be around and doesn’t require any form of attribution.
5. Can provide side-by-side comparisons of last touch vs incrementality data.
6. Which is why we built Polaris, a privacy-centric incrementality MMP that does NOT need IDFAs or GAIDs. It offers the 'MMP experience', but built for incrementality, in order to overcome the deficiencies of last touch MMPs. More info about Polaris can be found here.
   
7. We know that change is difficult, but fear not, because we have built Polaris to be quick and easy for you to adopt. So easy in fact, that it is a turnkey drop-in replacement for last touch. No migrations, no extra SDKs, and no heavy implementation lift. Polaris even integrates directly with your last touch MMP to get the data it needs.
8. After having helped many leading mobile gaming companies, we are confident that we can get you started with Polaris in 24 hours. We are here for you. If you are trying to close the gaps in your measurement stack, we are offering a chance to run a POC to compare incrementality measurement to last touch. You will be astounded at how much better Polaris performs. Contact us today to get started.

‍

Submit a demo request to hear about the powerful features of Polaris incrementality MMP. We look forward to helping you.

‍

The MetricWorks Team

By now, you should have realized that SKAdNetwork is not enough for true marketing effectiveness! There is a clear gaping hole in your measurement apparatus. You’ve already invested a great deal of resources in SKAdNetwork with little to show in returns. So what should you do now?

‍

The first thing we should clarify is that SKAdNetwork is a very limited remnant of last touch and last touch does not allow you to realize true marketing visibility and effectiveness. In order to surmount this challenge, you will need to adopt incremental measurement and here’s why:

‍

1. Incremental measurement is fully compliant with Apple’s privacy policy because it doesn’t depend on device IDs (IDFA or GAID).
   
2. Our incremental measurement solution, Polaris does NOT require any changes to your marketing processes.
   
3. Polaris provides you the very same KPIs that you have grown to cherish.
   
4. Polaris uses the same app events and marketing data that you used before IDFA deprecation.
   We all know that change is difficult but fear not because we have built Polaris to be quick and easy for you to adopt. So easy in fact, that it is a turnkey drop-in replacement for last touch. After having helped many leading mobile gaming companies, we know that we can get you started with incremental measurement in 24 hours.
   
5. We, at MetricWorks, are here for you. If you are trying to close the gaps in your post-IDFA measurement apparatus, we are offering a chance to run a POC to compare incremental measurement to last touch. You will be astounded at how much better incremental measurement performs. Contact us today to get started.

‍

To learn more, submit a demo request or visit our Polaris product page.

‍

‍

Not only does Polaris help resolve your post-IDFA challenges, it is designed to help you achieve true marketing effectiveness. Contact us today to hear:

‍

• How Polaris is a ready-to-use, turnkey, drop-in replacement for last touch
• How Polaris involves zero change to your marketing or UA processes
• How you can take advantage of special Polaris subscription deals to get you started quickly even before IDFA deprecates

‍

Submit a demo request to hear about the powerful features of Polaris including that it does NOT need IDFA or GAID and can still provide you the following favorite KPIs, DAILY, in incremental form at the source by country level:

‍

1. Revenue
2. Installs
3. ROAS
4. LTV
5. Retention
6. Any other KPI we have data for that matters to your team.

‍

We’re here for you to ensure that you have the right measurement apparatus for the post-IDFA era. We look forward to helping you.

‍

The MetricWorks Team

Well, iOS14.5 finally released yesterday. Day 1 has been filled with surprise, confusion, frustration and doubt. We’ve heard from UA leaders around the globe about how difficult and frustrating Day 1 has been due to the lack of preparedness across the advertising ecosystem. Many people were even told by trusted partners that Apple was going to allow fingerprinting, that Apple would relax their policies, and that they would be ready. Clearly that is NOT the case. We, at MetricWorks, feel sorry for anyone who’s been misled, or told that their partner would be ATT compliant or ready at the least. As our Chief Growth Officer, Chris Hoyt has said on LinkedIn, “I want to offer you a safe haven. With top-down incremental measurement, you don’t need last touch data or device IDs. Nothing Apple or Google, or the MMPs or the ad networks do, will complicate your ability to measure daily granular incremental KPIs (ROAS, LTV, retention, installs, revenue, etc.). Don’t be a victim in this process. Take control of your UA and UA measurement. We, at MetricWorks, are here for you when you are ready.”

‍

To help those that are trying to close the gaps in their post-IDFA measurement apparatus, we are offering them a chance to run a POC to compare incremental measurement to last touch. You will be astounded at how much better incremental measurement performs. Contact us today to get started.

‍

Polaris is the perfect measurement solution for the post-IDFA storm as it does NOT need IDFA or GAID. Just like the star after which it is named, Polaris will serve as the true north for marketers now that we are in Day 1 of the lights going out with iOS14.5. Polaris will allow gaming studios to utilize incrementality to deliver daily measurement, all at the same granularity that you have always relied upon to make informed marketing decisions. To learn more, submit a demo request or visit our Polaris product page.

‍

‍

Not only does Polaris help resolve your post-IDFA challenges, it is designed to help you achieve true marketing effectiveness. Contact us today to hear:

‍

• How Polaris is a ready-to-use, turnkey, drop-in replacement for last touch
• How Polaris involves zero change to your marketing or UA processes
• How you can take advantage of special Polaris subscription deals to get you started quickly even before IDFA deprecates

‍

Submit a demo request to hear about the powerful features of Polaris including that it does NOT need IDFA or GAID and can still provide you the following favorite KPIs, DAILY, in incremental form at the source by country level:

‍

1. Revenue
2. Installs
3. ROAS
4. LTV
5. Retention
6. Any other KPI we have data for that matters to your team.

‍

We’re here for you to ensure that you have the right measurement apparatus for the post-IDFA era. We look forward to helping you.

‍

The MetricWorks Team

Apple finally dropped a hint about iOS14.5 yesterday as part of a group of product announcements. If Apple’s fine print for AirTag is to be trusted, then we are less than six days away from the post-IDFA era. If you haven’t yet, do read GamesBeat’s latest article by Dean Takahashi. Dean does a great job of capturing the range of reactions across the mobile gaming industry to Apple’s announcement. Thank you Dean for including MetricWorks and our CEO, Brian Krebs in your article. MetricWorks is primed and ready for the post-IDFA storm. Our incremental measurement solution, Polaris which launched last month, has been rigorously tested, enhanced and tested even further through an extensive and highly successful beta program, as well as a series of comprehensive pilots with mobile gaming leaders. Submit a demo request today to see how Polaris is the perfect complement to your SKAdNetwork implementation to realize true marketing effectiveness.

‍

‍

Polaris is the best privacy-compliant measurement solution for the post-IDFA storm as it does NOT need IDFAs or GAIDs. Just like the star after which it is named, Polaris will serve as the true north for marketers when the lights go out soon with iOS14.5. Polaris will allow gaming studios to utilize incrementality to deliver daily measurement, all at the same granularity that you have always relied upon to make informed marketing decisions. To learn more, submit a demo request or visit our Polaris product page. Not only does Polaris help resolve your post-IDFA challenges, it is designed to help you achieve true marketing effectiveness. Contact us today to hear:

‍

• How Polaris is a ready-to-use, turnkey, drop-in replacement for last touch
• How Polaris involves zero change to your marketing or UA processes
• How you can take advantage of special Polaris subscription deals to get you started quickly even before IDFA deprecates

‍

Reliable measurement is the cornerstone of decision making and our team has worked tirelessly to deliver a solution that will future-proof your UA (without needing IDFA or GAID), and provide true incremental measurement that allows you to dramatically increase the effectiveness of your budget. In case you missed it earlier, here's a link to our What Is Incrementality? deck.

‍

We have also put together amazing subscription deals that allow you to commence with incremental measurement even before IDFA finally deprecates. Rather than wait for next week, Polaris will allow you to seamlessly transition from the outdated systems of today into the new world of measurement truth and accuracy from Day One of the post-IDFA storm.

‍

Submit a demo request today to hear about the powerful features of Polaris including that it can still provide you the following favorite KPIs, DAILY, in incremental form at the source by country level:

‍

1. Revenue
2. Installs
3. ROAS
4. LTV
5. Retention
6. Any other KPI we have data for that matters to your team.

‍

The world is quickly approaching a watershed moment. You have only six days to prepare. Do you have the right measurement apparatus for the post-IDFA storm?

We’re excited to share the latest Upptic podcast with our CEO, Brian Krebs as their guest. Brian discusses “Incrementality in the Post-IDFA Era” with Xander Agosta and Warren Woodward. Thanks Upptic for inviting Brian and addressing this important topic! Visit the Upptic blog to hear the full podcast as well as other podcasts on relevant mobile marketing topics. In this podcast, you will learn:

‍

• What is incrementality and how it overcomes the limitations of last touch?
• How does our incrementality measurement solution, Polaris help a growth/marketing team realize true marketing effectiveness?
• What level of granularity can be enjoyed via incrementality?

‍

Podcast Summary:

‍
We go on deep dive into incrementality in the mobile marketing context and how it can be used as an alternative or to supplement traditional last-touch attribution. We also discuss how it is more reliable, but less certain then last-touch attribution and how the MetricWorks' product, Polaris, offers a top-down measurement alternative for the post-IDFA era. Also, Epic Games is making epic bets on the metaverse, and is hyper casual gaming in decline? You can find the full Upptic podcast here.

‍

Now that IDFA will be deprecating really soon, it is time to adopt a new form of measurement, namely, incrementality to understand the true value of your media spend. The take-away is that iOS14 can actually be the driver to pursue a new opportunity in the form of measurement that is grounded in data science and most importantly, in truth.

‍

Submit your questions below. You can also request a demo to learn more about MetricWorks incremental measurement solution, Polaris that is a ready-to-use, turnkey, drop-in replacement for last touch. It involves no change to your marketing or UA processes. We look forward to helping you ensure that your marketing is truly effective in the post-IDFA era.

‍

Best,

The MetricWorks Team

Today represents a major milestone in our mission to make the lives of marketers much easier. Following an extensive and highly successful beta program, we are proud to announce that our incremental measurement solution, Polaris, is now live. Thank you to our clients, partners, advisors and our dedicated team who made this possible. Polaris is the perfect measurement solution for the post-IDFA storm as it does NOT need IDFA or GAID. Just like the star after which it is named, Polaris will serve as the true north for marketers when the lights go out soon with iOS14.5. Polaris will allow gaming studios to utilize incrementality to deliver daily measurement, all at the same granularity that you have always relied upon to make informed marketing decisions. To learn more, submit a demo request or visit our Polaris product page.

‍

‍

Not only does Polaris help resolve your post-IDFA challenges, it is designed to help you achieve true marketing effectiveness. Contact us today to hear:

‍

• How Polaris is a ready-to-use, turnkey, drop-in replacement for last touch
• How Polaris involves zero change to your marketing or UA processes
• How you can take advantage of special Polaris subscription deals to get you started quickly even before IDFA deprecates

‍

Reliable measurement is the cornerstone of decision making and our team has worked tirelessly to deliver a solution that will future-proof your UA (without needing IDFA or GAID), and provide true incremental measurement that allows you to dramatically increase the effectiveness of your budget. In case you missed it earlier, here's a link to our What Is Incrementality? deck.

‍

We have also put together amazing subscription deals that allow you to commence with incremental measurement even before IDFA finally deprecates. Rather than waiting for the inevitable chaos, Polaris will allow you to seamlessly transition from the outdated systems of today into the new world of measurement truth and accuracy from Day One of the post-IDFA storm.

‍

Submit a demo request to hear about the powerful features of Polaris including that it does NOT need IDFA or GAID and can still provide you the following favorite KPIs, DAILY, in incremental form at the source by country level:

‍

1. Revenue
2. Installs
3. ROAS
4. LTV
5. Retention
6. Any other KPI we have data for that matters to your team.

‍

The world is quickly approaching a watershed moment. Do you have the right measurement for the post-IDFA storm?

‍

Best,

‍

Brian
CEO of MetricWorks

iOS14 has certainly provided us an opportunity to re-examine last touch and how well it delivers truth in user acquisition. The cold, hard truth is that last touch doesn’t deliver truth and it is an entrenched approach to which mobile marketers have become addicted. Big thanks to Gamesforum’s John Speakman for exploring this topic with MetricWorks CEO, Brian Krebs. Visit Gamesforum Online to view this recording as well as webinars on other relevant topics.

‍

‍

In this webinar, we challenge the general perceptions of marketing effectiveness under last touch including its bias to SANs (self-attributing networks) and high engagement ad formats. As Brian points out, at the macro level, there has been a significant growth in the number of ad channels for marketing spend. With that, there has also been a greater overlap in audiences across these channels. Consequently, marketers are often paying twice to reach the same subset of eyeballs. Now that IDFA will be deprecating soon, it is time to adopt a new form of measurement, namely, incrementality to understand the true value of your media spend. The take-away is that iOS14 can actually be the driver to pursue a new opportunity in the form of measurement that is grounded in data science and most importantly, in truth.

‍

Submit your questions below. You can also request a demo to learn more about MetricWorks incremental measurement solution that is a ready-to-use, turnkey, drop-in replacement for last touch. It involves no change to your marketing or UA processes. We look forward to helping you ensure that your marketing is truly effective in the post-IDFA era.

‍

Best,

The MetricWorks Team

How do you know if your mobile marketing is effective? Well, the best way to ensure that is by adopting incremental measurement. View our SlideShare below to get a better understanding of incrementality. We’d love to hear your feedback.  Schedule a demo or submit your comments and questions below.

‍

‍

What Is Incrementality & Why Does It Matter To Your Marketing? [By MetricWorks] from SanjayRaghu5

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Are you ready to get started before the lights go out post-IDFA? Request a demo below of the ONLY incremental measurement solution that does NOT depend on IDFA or GAID. We look forward to helping you ensure that your marketing is truly effective in the post-IDFA era.

I’ve seen some folks contend that even though Apple’s latest language is more clear than ever, the phrase “uniquely identifying” means that fingerprinting must be 100% accurate to result in a ban.

‍

‍

Such an interpretation is only possible if you ignore the preceding words “for the purpose of”. Fingerprinting is always probabilistic, but its purpose in attribution is to match a single converting device (e.g., install) to a single ad-engaged device (e.g., click). Failing to uniquely identify a device does not change the purpose of fingerprinting. It is simply an indication that the fingerprinting tech needs improvement.

‍

Also, it’s important to remember Apple’s motivations in all this. It does not benefit them to allow a form of tracking that is not controllable by or transparent to them or their users. Fingerprinting has always been the most anti-privacy tracking method available on both mobile and desktop. Apple didn’t spend all those resources on SKAdNetwork just to allow everyone to attribute and track outside of the ecosystem they control.

‍

No matter how specific Apple’s language gets, there will always be someone interpreting it in just the right way to support their hopes, right up until they are banned from the app store.

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Submit a meeting request below to get any questions answered or to hear about our FREE beta program for our incremental measurement solution that doesn’t need IDFA or GAID and can still provide you, DAILY, in incremental form at the source by country level:

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1. Revenue
2. Installs
3. ROAS
4. LTV
5. Retention
6. Any other KPI we have data for that matters to your team.

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Best,

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Brian
CEO of MetricWorks

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This was one of the key take-aways from an informative webinar hosted today by Tinuiti, with guests from Liftoff and AppsFlyer. As Liz Emery, Snr. Director of Mobile Strategy at Tinuiti put it, “We work as if the date [for iOS14] is tomorrow”. The urgency cannot be stressed any more than this. If you don’t yet have a plan for post-IDFA measurement, then start immediately. Stop looking for loopholes. If you’ve not heeded the earlier warnings during 2020 from leading analysts such as John Koetsier when he said, 'The IDFA is going the way of the Dodo bird.' then do it now before it is too late. If you are not yet aware of the severe limitations of SKAdNetwork then contact us below to schedule a conversation.

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Devices will be going dark in terms of tracking from Day 1 of IDFA deprecation. The immediate areas that will be impacted include retargeting, death of measurement in its current form, and the severely hampered SKAdNetwork becoming the de facto standard. In terms of marketing, the lights will go out!

As Alex Dohrmann (Snr. Sales Engineer, Liftoff) reminded us, “Now is the time to get your data in place.”. MetricWorks can help you do that to keep the lights on with the ONLY future-proof measurement solution that is rich, accurate, granular and incremental. We'll even let you test drive it for FREE.

Here are a few things you should start doing today and how MetricWorks can help:

1. If you haven’t yet, test SKAdNetwork now.
2. Test drive our incremental measurement solution for FREE while you still have precious time before IDFA deprecation.
3. Compare your results from parallel testing our incremental measurement solution AND SKAdNetwork to develop your post-IDFA measurement strategy.
4. Then, look to the future and ask yourself: Do you really want to start building your long term measurement strategy after the lights have already gone out and the risk to your business is critical? Of course not. Prepare for IDFA deprecation now so that you are thriving while your competition is floundering. We can definitely help you do that.

Submit your questions below. We look forward to answering them and making the future of your measurement brighter!

According to a recent poll on an interesting webinar by JoyPac, 75% of respondents said that they are NOT well enough prepared for IDFA changes. The webinar hosted by Falko Boecker of JoyPac, featured Ioana Hreninciuc (GameAnalytics) and Christopher Farm (Tenjin) underscores “the need for more data science” and an “understanding of statistical methods” to make sense of the new signals.

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The good news is that we can help you get prepared in the short time that you have left before IDFA deprecation. Our top-down incremental measurement is packed with these statistical methods to help you quickly get prepared for post-IDFA. The best part is that you can take it for a spin for FREE.

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As a reminder, measurement granularity is a major gap within SKAdNetwork and we're glad to see JoyPac, GameAnalytics and Tenjin draw attention to this issue. Developers will need to prioritize investments in data science and statistical analysis in order to process more signals post-IDFA. Acquiring these skill sets can be expensive. With our DSaaS (Data-Science-as-a-Service) solution, you can inexpensively and easily achieve the accurate, granular measurement that you need to successfully operate post-IDFA. The full webinar is available below.

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Keep in mind that our top-down incrementality measurement solution which can co-exist with SKAdNetwork, offers a comprehensive, granular and accurate alternative that addresses the following glaring issues with SKAdNetwork:

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1. SKAdNetwork will leave marketers with only 100 campaign IDs of granularity
2. It does NOT offer a way to cohort KPIs by install date
3. Critical post-install performance KPIs that are foundational to your mobile growth strategy today like retention, revenue, LTV, and ROAS, will disappear and be replaced by a single conversion value with its own significant limitations.

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If you suspect that your measurement plan does not address the above gaps, contact us today to discuss. Time is running out and the competition is breathing down your neck. Our measurement solution can put you in a stronger position post-IDFA and ahead of your competition.

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Please submit your questions below. We look forward to answering them and making the future of your measurement brighter!

Thanks to Shamanth Rao (CEO of Rocketship HQ) for hosting MetricWorks’ CEO, Brian Krebs on The Mobile User Acquisition Show and thanks to Anthony Cross (Fmr. VP of UA, Data Science & Product at Big Fish Games) for participating in the conversation.  It is an informative podcast explaining why SKAdNetwork is NOT enough for successful post-IDFA measurement and describes how one can easily supplement SKAdNetwork with econometric modeling and interrupted time series (ITS) to arrive at a robust future-proof measurement apparatus. MetricWorks' measurement solution makes it easy for you to accomplish this. It requires really low effort on your part. We invite you to test drive it for FREE.

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Measurement granularity is a major gap within SKAdNetwork and we're glad to see The Mobile User Acquisition Show draw attention to this major issue. Our top-down incrementality measurement solution which can co-exist with SKAdNetwork, offers a comprehensive, granular and accurate alternative that addresses the following glaring issues with SKAdNetwork:

‍

1. SKAdNetwork will leave marketers with only 100 campaign IDs of granularity
2. It does NOT offer a way to cohort KPIs by install date
3. Critical post-install performance KPIs that are foundational to your mobile growth strategy today like retention, revenue, LTV, and ROAS, will disappear and be replaced by a single conversion value with its own significant limitations.

‍

Does your measurement plan address the above gaps? Time is running out and the competition is breathing down your neck. Why not make sure your post-IDFA measurement plan is foolproof? Contact us today to discuss how our measurement solution can put you in a stronger position post-IDFA.

‍

Instead of focusing on 'fingerprinting' or probabilistic modeling which Apple has already stated in their current terms will NOT be allowed, apply your precious cycles to quickly testing our top-down incremental approach which is the ONLY future-proof measurement solution available today.

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You can listen to the full podcast on iTunes or view the episode notes at The Mobile User Acquisition Show. Please submit your questions below. We look forward to answering them and making the future of your measurement brighter!

That is according to a survey (Apple, IDFA and iOS14: New Challenges, New Opportunities for Marketers) recently conducted by AppsFlyer and MMA Global. The low confidence in SKAdNetwork is primarily due to its lack of measurement granularity. Of course, this isn't a surprise to us, as we have described in our earlier posts. The other key findings were:

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• 74% of respondents agree that publishers will suffer revenue losses
• 63% of marketers will invest in probabilistic modeling to prepare for post-IDFA
• Audience targeting/remarketing will take the biggest hit (as shown in the chart below)

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Now, what should YOU do?

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Firstly, measurement granularity is a major gap within SKAdNetwork and we're glad to hear that marketers are now acutely aware of this limitation. If you are one of those marketers that are somewhat-to-very-likely to adopt SKAdNetwork, we believe that SKAdNetwork is a good starting point but make sure that you clearly understand its glaring gaps:

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1. SKAdNetwork will leave marketers with only 100 campaign IDs of granularity
2. It does NOT offer a way to cohort KPIs by install date
3. Critical post-install performance KPIs that are foundational to your mobile growth strategy today like retention, revenue, LTV, and ROAS, will disappear and be replaced by a single conversion value with its own significant limitations.

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Secondly, as you can see from the survey there is a lot at stake (74% agree that publishers will suffer revenue losses). Time is running out and the competition is breathing down your neck. Why not make sure your post-IDFA measurement plan is foolproof? You can do that by adding our top-down incrementality measurement solution which can co-exist with SKAdNetwork, and offers a comprehensive, granular and accurate alternative that addresses the above glaring issues with SKAdNetwork. Remember, there is a lot at stake. Contact us today to discuss and close any gaps in your IDFA preparedness.

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Thirdly, the focus on probabilistic modeling appears to be short-sighted as Apple has already stated in their current terms that 'fingerprinting' will not be allowed. More explicitly, in the FAQ section of that document, Apple has the following question and answer:

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Can I fingerprint or use signals from the device to try to identify the device or a user?
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No. Per the Developer Program License Agreement, you may not derive data from a device for the purpose of uniquely identifying it.

‍

Instead of focusing on 'fingerprinting' or probabilistic modeling, apply your precious cycles to quickly testing our top-down incremental approach which is the ONLY future-proof measurement solution available today. It requires really low effort on your part and we invite you to test drive it for FREE.

‍

Please submit your questions below. We look forward to answering them and making the future of your measurement brighter!

‍

If your plan for post-IDFA measurement is built solely on getting the most out of SKAdNetwork, then you are unfortunately going to be in serious trouble. One of the leading mobile analysts, Peggy Anne Salz described our CEO, Brian Krebs as being 'on a mission to measure'. That is certainly true. In a recent Retention Masterclass interview (see below) Brian talks about devices going dark in terms of tracking from Day 1 of IDFA deprecation. The immediate impacts include retargeting, death of measurement in its current form, and the severely hampered SKAdNetwork becoming the de facto standard. In terms of marketing, your lights will go out!

‍

‍

What may seem to many to be a grim view of what is to come, is actually the motivation for creating MetricWorks' top-down incrementality measurement solution. Our solution which can co-exist with SKAdNetwork, offers a comprehensive, granular and accurate alternative that addresses the following glaring issues with SKAdNetwork:

‍

1. SKAdNetwork will leave marketers with only 100 campaign IDs of granularity
2. It does NOT offer a way to cohort KPIs by install date
3. Critical post-install performance KPIs that are foundational to your mobile growth strategy today like retention, revenue, LTV, and ROAS, will disappear and be replaced by a single conversion value with its own significant limitations.

‍

Does your preparation plan address these gaps? There is a lot at stake, time is running out and your competition is breathing down your neck. Why not make sure your plan is foolproof? Contact us today to close the gaps in your preparation plan. We're so confident in our solution that we'll let you test drive it for FREE. You can watch the full Retention Masterclass interview with Peggy Anne Salz and John Koetsier below (courtesy of the Retention Masterclass).

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Submit your questions below. We look forward to answering them and making the future of your measurement brighter!

With the deprecation of IDFA, there will be a shift from a single truth to several signals. We explore this topic in our Conversations With UA Leaders series with Anthony Cross, former VP of UA, Data Science and Product Management at Big Fish Games. Thank you again Anthony for sharing your keen observations and analysis with us. Today, we still live comfortably in a world with a single truth, namely, last touch (deterministic, IDFA-matching-based attribution). However, post-IDFA, we will see several signals including SKAdNetwork. Should you implement SKAdNetwork? Will there be other signals layered on top of that? Watch the video below for Anthony’s suggestions and let us know your thoughts:

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Our measurement solution is built for operating in the uncertain post-IDFA era that you will face. Here are the key benefits for marketers:

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1. Free: We invite you to test drive our accurate, cutting edge algorithms with your data for free. The observed mean accuracy of our algorithms is 97%.
2. Future-proof: It is privacy-centric due to its reliance only on daily aggregated data. No device-level data is required. Our necessary data inputs will never be restricted.
3. Comprehensive: Our solution measures all marketing including traditionally non-attributable spend like influencer and TV.  It also unveils interactions between multiple media sources.
4. Incremental: This is the cherry on top since our solution is focused on incrementality in terms of uplift over other marketing activity and organic demand. It avoids the problems inherent in last touch attribution that gravely misalign measurement and true value.

‍

What should you do today to prepare for IDFA deprecation:

‍

1. Test SKAdNetwork early.
2. Register for a test drive to test our incremental measurement solution for free while you still have precious time prior to IDFA deprecation.
3. Compare your results from parallel testing multiple measurement solutions and develop your strategy for utilizing those multiple signals.
4. Do you want to start building your long term measurement strategy after the lights are already out and the risk to your business is critical? Of course not. Prepare for IDFA deprecation now so you are thriving while your competition is floundering. We can help you do that.

‍

We look forward to your questions and to making the future of your measurement brighter!

Thanks to Peggy Anne Salz and John Koetsier for hosting our CEO, Brian Krebs on their Retention Masterclass show last week. As always, it was a fantastic episode by the pioneering duo who have certainly established a high bar for live streaming over LinkedIn. This episode (recording below) focused on IDFA deprecation and the impact on mobile measurement or as John put it, The IDFA is going the way of the Dodo bird. and as Peggy reminds us, Marketing measurement is fundamentally changing.  What does this mean for marketing optimization, cohorts, LTV calculation and the metrics that marketers have been using for many years? Does that mean the end of mobile marketing measurement?

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Not according to Brian Krebs, CEO of MetricWorks who has spent more than a decade building mobile marketing and measurement solutions. He is as Peggy says, 'on a mission to measure'. Brian talks about devices going dark in terms of tracking from Day 1 of IDFA deprecation. The immediate impacts that Brian lists include retargeting, death of measurement in its current form, and the severely hampered SKAdNetwork becoming the de facto standard. In terms of marketing, the lights will go out! However, Brian also bears good news – MetricWorks can help you keep the lights on with the ONLY future-proof measurement solution that is rich, accurate, granular and incremental. We're so confident in our solution that we'll let you test drive it for FREE. You can watch the full video below (courtesy of the Retention Masterclass).

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‍

For the pragmatists out there who have watched the video, here are a few things you should do and how MetricWorks can help:

‍

1. If you haven’t yet, test SKAdNetwork now.
2. Test drive our incremental measurement solution for FREE while you still have precious time before IDFA deprecation.
3. Compare your results from parallel testing our incremental measurement solution AND SKAdNetwork to develop your post-IDFA measurement strategy.
4. Then, look to the future and ask yourself: Do you really want to start building your long term measurement strategy after the lights have already gone out and the risk to your business is critical? Of course not. Prepare for IDFA deprecation now so that you are thriving while your competition is floundering. We can definitely help you do that.

‍

Submit your questions below. We look forward to answering them and making the future of your measurement brighter!

When the lights go out with the deprecation of IDFA, you will lose marketing visibility that is critical for your decision-making. The good news is that you don’t have to fumble in the dark with a feeble 12.57 lumen candle (aka SKAdNetwork). Instead, your visibility can be vastly improved with a 100,000 lumen flashlight (top-down incremental measurement) to give you both the marketing clarity and accuracy you need for sustained growth.

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‍

                    Which Would You Choose

                      When The Lights Go Out?

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Top-Down Incremental Measurement By MetricWorks

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Of course, you would choose the powerful 100,000 lumen flashlight on the right. SKAdNetwork is set to leave marketers with only 100 campaign IDs of granularity and no way to cohort KPIs by install date. Most importantly, the critical post-install performance KPIs that form the foundation of mobile growth strategy today like retention, revenue, LTV, and ROAS, will disappear and be replaced by a single conversion value with its own significant limitations. That candle just doesn’t make much of a dent in the pitch black.

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That said, we can make the decision even easier for you. While you still have precious time before the lights go out with IDFA deprecation, you can test our flashlight for free. We encourage everyone to test SKAdNetwork early so they are acquainted with its glaring limitations and have plenty of time to understand the impact to their growth strategy. We can help answer questions on best practices. However, there is an opportunity to obtain a significant lead on your competition by testing our top-down incremental measurement in parallel. Here are more reasons why our top-down incremental measurement solution is the best remedy for the oncoming dark.

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Our solution has been derived from months of anticipation, research, planning, design and testing. Let's take a peek at the biggest benefits to marketers:

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1. Free: We invite you to test our accurate, cutting edge algorithms with your data for free. The observed mean accuracy of our algorithms is 97%.
2. Future-proof: It is privacy-centric due to its reliance only on daily aggregated data. No device-level data is required. Our necessary data inputs will never be restricted.
3. Comprehensive: Our solution measures all marketing including traditionally non-attributable spend like influencer and TV.  It also unveils interactions between multiple media sources.
4. Incremental: This is the cherry on top since our solution is focused on incrementality in terms of uplift over other marketing activity and organic demand. It avoids the problems inherent in last touch attribution that gravely misalign measurement and true value.

‍

To recap:

‍

1. Test SKAdNetwork early.
2. Register for our beta to test our incremental measurement solution for free while you still have precious time prior to IDFA deprecation.
3. Compare your results from parallel testing multiple measurement solutions and develop your strategy for utilizing those multiple signals.
4. Then, look to the future. Do you want to start building your long term measurement strategy after the lights are already out and the risk to your business is critical? Of course not. Prepare for IDFA deprecation now so you are thriving when your competition is floundering. We can help you do that.

‍

We look forward to making the future of your measurement brighter!

‍

Yes, we all know that SKAdNetwork is not enough for successful measurement. Across our numerous conversations with clients, there is widespread agreement that this is unfortunately true. With precious time running out before IDFA deprecation, what should you do?

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Well, firstly, you should test SKAdNetwork early to be well-versed in its limitations. Secondly, you should also test alternatives that could supplement or replace SKAdNetwork. Thirdly, test in parallel SKAdNetwork and a richer alternative to save you time and shrink your measurement risk. More importantly, you can arrive at an objective and meaningful comparison between SKAdNetwork and the alternative solution using your same dataset and window of time.

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Now moving to the potential alternatives. Our top-down incremental measurement solution has been derived from months of anticipation, research, planning, design and testing and is worth evaluating for a number of reasons, namely, it is free, future-proof, comprehensive and incremental. Let's take a peek:

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1. Free: we invite you to test our accurate, cutting edge algorithms with your data for free. Observed mean accuracy of our algorithms is 97%.
2. Future-proof: it is privacy-centric due to its reliance only on daily aggregated data. No device-level data is required. Our necessary data inputs will never be restricted.
3. Comprehensive: measures all marketing including traditionally non-attributable spend like influencer and TV.  Unveils interactions between multiple channels.
4. Incremental: this is the cherry on top since our solution is focused on incrementality in terms of uplift over existing marketing and organic demand. Avoids the problems of last-touch attribution that misalign measurement and advertiser value.

‍

To recap:

‍

1. Test SKAdNetwork early.
2. Test in parallel SKAdNetwork and our incremental measurement solution while you still have precious time.
3. Compare your results from parallel testing multiple solutions in real-time.
4. Then look to the future. Do you want to revisit this problem in the future? Of course not. You want to solve this IDFA deprecation issue once and for all. We can help you do that.

Thank you to Mobile Presence’s Peggy Anne Salz (noted author, analyst, content marketing strategist, and frequent Forbes contributor)Â for interviewing our CEO, Brian Krebs on the positive aspects of the IDFA deprecation including our new measurement solution for the post-IDFA world. See podcast link below.

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Here’s a quick summary of the podcast:

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With IDFA, marketers will no longer be able to attribute post-install activity, including revenue, directly to a campaign or publisher app. And that means marketers will be in the dark and unable to evaluate important metrics, including retention, DAUs, LTV, and ROAS at the campaign or publisher app levels. Or will they? Not if they harness a 'top-down' solution that algorithmically attributes post-install activity to campaigns. You can listen to the full podcast below or on the Mobile Presence site.

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‍

Submit a meeting request below to get any questions answered or to get feedback on your testing plan for post-IDFA measurement. Remember to:

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1. Upgrade your SDKs as soon as possible.
2. Stay in touch with the vendors who haven't yet provided an iOS 14 update.
3. Continue to be vigilant during this 3+ month IDFA deprecation reprieve.
4. Test thoroughly. The winners will be those that evaluate and adopt the solutions of the future while everyone else is still exhaling.

You wouldn’t be blamed for not paying close attention to LAT rates over the last week since iOS 14 launched. We were all told that life can continue as normal until early next year. With that, a huge collective sigh of relief was exhaled in unison and the mobile industry went about its business. However, there are a number of SDKs that check the isAdvertisingTrackingEnabled property (toggled by the user via the Limit Ad Tracking setting) before attempting to access the device’s IDFA.

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This is a relic of how IDFAs were handled pre-iOS 10. At that time, you could still access the IDFA when LAT was enabled, but you had to pinky-promise not to use it for advertising tracking (although frequency capping, fraud detection, and other uses were still permitted). With iOS 10, IDFAs were zeroed out when LAT was enabled, meaning SDKs were free to pull the IDFA without first checking isAdvertisingTrackingEnabled. Many widely used SDKs understandably continued the legacy practice though.

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For some SDKs, that practice continues to this day. When Apple pushed out iOS 14 a week ago, they deprecated the isAdvertisingTrackingEnabled property. See the relevant Apple docs here. As you can see, now it always returns “no”. Unfortunately, “no” isn’t just a default value that tells app developers that LAT is a thing of the past. To some pre-iOS 14 SDKs, it means that LAT is very much alive and enabled on the device (or advertising tracking is disabled).

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For anyone using an SDK that has not yet been updated to support iOS 14, there is a chance that it checks isAdvertisingTrackingEnabled prior to accessing the IDFA. If it does, you will see LAT rates quickly increase since iOS 14 dropped a week ago. This can have a lot of significant ramifications for attribution, campaign optimization, and ad monetization, depending on the purpose of the SDK.

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Upgrade your SDKs as soon as possible. Stay in touch with the vendors who haven’t yet provided an iOS 14 update. Continue to be vigilant during this 3+ month IDFA deprecation reprieve. Test thoroughly. Submit a meeting request below if you’d like feedback on your testing approach. The winners will be those that evaluate and adopt the solutions of the future while everyone else is still exhaling.

Here are my thoughts regarding John Koetsier's Aug 7th article in Forbes:

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First, I am assuming that the Apple Advertising opt-out setting (shown above) refers to Apple as an ad network and publisher. The verbiage in the screenshot mentions “Apple’s advertising platform” and links to Apple’s Advertising & Privacy page, which refers to ads that are delivered by Apple in Apple-owned properties like “the App Store, Apple News, and Stocks“.

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What is personalization?

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There is a burning question that must be answered if one is to determine if Apple is giving itself an advantage or not: What does “turning off personalized ads” mean To me, “personalization” means that the advertiser knows precisely who the user is, which requires an IDFA since IDFVs known by the advertiser are invalid in the publisher app. Therefore, by extension, an IDFV alone does not allow “personalization” but does allow the publisher to model each user’s behavior in their own apps, which can be valuable if they are also an ad network.

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If the setting disables all device identifiers for purposes of ad serving, Apple is putting themselves at a disadvantage since every other publisher at least has guaranteed access to the IDFV. I doubt Apple is willing to hamstring their ad product in order to prove their privacy chops, so we can probably dismiss that option. In that case, let’s assume the setting disables Apple’s access to the IDFA only. Then, the question becomes, does Apple gain an advantage over competitors if their apps are opt-out while competitors must receive per-app opt-in to access the IDFA?

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What are the benefits of IDFAs to ad network-publishers?

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In my opinion, the answer is yes now, and potentially much more so in the future. In terms of this analysis, we should consider Apple’s competitors to be ad networks that also act as publishers such as Facebook (who operate their primary app plus Messenger) or ironSource (who owns Supersonic). Those companies must ask consent to access a device's IDFA in each of their apps. Assuming the above is true, Apple would have de facto consent in all of their own apps (App Store, Apple News, and Stocks, for now) unless the user digs deep into their settings and revokes it.

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So how does greater access to IDFAs benefit an ad network-publisher like Apple? First and foremost, IDFAs enable a much more robust device graph, which acts as a critical foundation for almost every ad platform with a buy-side including ad networks and DSPs. Linking external performance via MMP post backs to the internal performance data you are already privy to as a publisher creates a far richer model for determining the likely value of each user to each advertiser. Without IDFA access, ad network publishers only see performance data in their own apps.

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In addition, common ad network features like frequency capping, suppression lists, and look-alike audience targeting, are either enabled or significantly enhanced by IDFAs instead of IDFVs.

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What is Apple’s long term play?

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I believe one of the primary reasons for this move by Apple (should my earlier assumptions prove to be correct) is to bolster the value of their identity management product, Sign in with Apple. On June 30, 2020, it became mandatory in all apps that offer any other third party single sign-on (SSO) option such as Facebook or Google. While it isn't being discussed much, I think it's big news since it allows Apple to greatly increase its footprint even into Android and web.

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Facebook's value as an advertising platform is largely based on the wealth of data they have on each user tied to a Facebook user ID. That value is only truly realized when those Facebook user IDs can be associated with IDFAs, providing the glue between Facebook's first party data and the mobile advertising world. If Sign In with Apple gains wide adoption as Apple hopes, expect to see advertisers get much more value out of Apple's ad platform. Even though they've promised not to utilize a user's history of sign-ins for advertising, just the list of apps and websites connected to the user's Apple ID alone is extremely valuable to advertisers.

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Don't be surprised if Apple's next move is the return of iAd in some form. Adding external publisher traffic to the mix similar to what Facebook Audience Network does for Facebook would certainly allow Apple to multiply the value of their IDFA advantage in combination with a successful identity management product.

Embracing Change

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The mobile advertising industry has always been a dynamic one that has attracted brilliant minds to embrace its constant change and bring to life businesses that wrestled with the messiness of advertising data to deliver increasing value as they evolved. Now is no different. So we think it is important that as we approach this IDFA/iOS14 cliffhanger, we commit once again to center ourselves, continue to embrace change and innovate.

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Let's begin by taking stock of the positives of this upcoming IDFA change that Apple has postponed till early next year. Firstly, it offers increased user privacy. This is in alignment with our core values as end users ourselves and as a mobile ad tech company. Secondly, it allows the industry to ditch the issues with last click attribution and forge a new chapter of measurement innovation.

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Thirdly, we want to reassure you that MetricWorks' platform, UA Command Center (UACC), will NOT be negatively affected by iOS14 and will still provide all of the value it does today. Additionally, our new measurement module will ensure that you have granular revenue visibility in order to continue to successfully optimize and execute. You will see more detail about this lower down in this post.

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Our Quest For The Future Of Measurement

The planned IDFA restrictions, likely to roll out in early 2021, introduces a huge but welcome change to the mobile advertising ecosystem. After an Apple user upgrades to iOS 14, any iOS 14-compatible app that wants to access their device's persistent identifier (IDFA), most often for the purposes of retargeting, user profile linking, or measurement, will need to ask for their permission (as shown in the example below).

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This presents an interesting challenge for the industry since so many players in the ecosystem rely on the IDFA to varying degrees. At MetricWorks, we've focused on how measurement data will flow in the new post-IDFA world. Our ability to provide end-to-end UA automation including LTV prediction and bid optimization for our advertisers, at the country and publisher app level offered by SDK networks, is contingent on accurate, granular measurement. Based on the spirit of Apple's new terms, we decided to evaluate this challenge with the assumption that MMPs will no longer be able to send us events with attributed channel, campaign, country, and publisher app information. In its current state, SKAdNetwork, Apple's on-device measurement offering, does not seem to provide enough granularity, nor does it handle post-install events well, making retention and LTV prediction impossible.

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Early in our search for a suitable measurement solution, we identified incrementality as an important piece of the puzzle. For those not as familiar with the concept – incrementality refers to the incremental value directly caused by each advertising touchpoint in the user journey. This is impossible to measure in the last touch attribution model (Fig.1 below), which credits the final touchpoint with 100% of the value for the user without consideration to the possibility that the user could have been acquired with fewer, more valuable touchpoints or even zero advertising as an organic install.

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A methodology known as incrementality testing is an ideal solution to prove the causal relationship between advertising touchpoints (ad buys) and uplift. It prescribes a rigorous scientific process similar to randomized clinical trials used by pharmaceutical companies where a population of users is randomly split into a test group that is delivered an ad and a control group that receives a placebo (often an unrelated public service announcement or PSA). However, it can be costly since, if you're displaying PSAs, you still have to pay for those impressions. There is an even bigger problem with the advent of iOS 14. Most forms of incrementality testing require a large list of device IDs so that the audience can be split. iOS 14 will make this difficult to accomplish.

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Another powerful tool in the measurement toolkit that also considers incrementality is media mix modeling (MMM). This technique uses regression models to find correlations between ad spend and business value. As a top-down technique (Fig. 2), versus a bottom-up (Fig. 3) approach like last touch attribution that works at the device level, it eschews device IDs in favor of aggregated data, and is therefore naturally aligned with user privacy. As you can see in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 below, both top-down and bottom-up measurement techniques attempt to allocate the same users and app activity data (installs, opens, revenue) to the same four campaign/publisher app combinations in the proper proportions, but come up with different answers.

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Key Idea: Based on the measurement output of the two different methodologies, we can see that they somewhat agree on the value of ironSource campaign B, publisher C (red). However, ironSource campaign A, publisher A (purple) didn’t get credited much in the bottom-up last touch methodology (just 1 install with little revenue) while top-down shows that, even though it might not be getting the last touch, it is providing significant incremental value. On the flip side, bottom-up attribution gives Vungle campaign A, publisher A (orange) a solid amount of credit for last touches, but statistically, it is providing almost no incremental value. We would have acquired those users either through other campaigns or organically anyway.

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Coming back to the top-down media mix modeling (MMM) technique (Fig.2), let's look at its advantages:

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1. Requires few inputs – mostly just a time series of spend and target outcome measurements.
2. Robust to incongruities among ad channels, both online and offline, in terms of functionality and data availability.
3. Can be used to predict the change in outcomes as a function of different spend inputs which is quite handy for planning purposes including what-if analysis.
4. Can also be used in conjunction with other algorithms to optimize towards a given goal, which can be used for budget allocation optimization.

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MMM has its own problems though, which also eliminated it from contention in our quest for the future of measurement. When we attempted to apply it to mobile app advertising, some major issues became apparent including:

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1. Requires several years of data at a minimum due to aggregation at the week or month granularity.
2. Not used for quick decision making since it takes weeks or months to update a model with new data.
3. Usually custom built for an individual advertiser by very expensive specialist consultants.
4. Can only prove correlation, not causation (eating seafood may be highly correlated with personal wealth, but that doesn't mean eating a lot of seafood will make someone more wealthy).

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While MMM wasn't a perfect fit, we recognized early on that the MMM concepts held a lot of potential. The key is that we found that most of the downsides could be mitigated through a combination of creative feature engineering and automated model validation through constant back testing and live experimentation.

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Keep in mind that the entire measurement process including modeling and validation must be completely automated in order to be scalable. No need to worry though because our existing automation technology in UACC is being enhanced to make this a powerful reality for you.

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Our Solution For Mobile Measurement

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Thank you for bearing with us and making it this far. Let us now look at the high level overview of our solution:

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1. We believe that measurement of campaigns at the country and publisher app level (when applicable) remains critical for UA decision-making.
2. Compatibility with the current iOS14 technical specifications and alignment with the spirit of the new rules are equally crucial for any future measurement solution including ours.
3. Regression models similar to those called for by media mix modeling can be augmented with techniques that address problems unique to mobile app advertising in order to finally deliver a measurement solution that considers incrementality.
4. Using daily data helps solve the data volume issue inherent to MMM and allows the model to be updated more quickly so it can inform the types of fast decision-making required by UACC's LTV prediction and bid optimization features.
5. Back testing allows us to automatically evaluate a wide array of approaches and select only the most accurate models based on their ability to predict known historical outcomes.
6. Automated controlled experimentation enables live testing of incremental value predictions in the real world so that models can be validated and improved by rejecting poor models and feeding results back into the next model.
7. iOS14 will not handicap any of the existing capabilities of UACC. All of our UACC platform capabilities remain intact including analytics (dimensions, metrics, etc.), LTV prediction, and bid optimization. The only difference is that we will be providing a new measurement module (based on our analysis outlined above) that ties aggregated cohort activity with the channel, campaign, country, and publisher app dimensions, instead of the MMP.
8. Our measurement module will be provided as an option at the app level so that advertisers can rely solely on MMP measurement for their Android apps, should they wish.

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We will continue to share details of our progress and invite you to connect with us to ensure that your concerns are addressed, and that you have a chance to shape our solution.

We realize that as an advertiser, you are facing a great deal of uncertainty due to Apple's announcement about iOS14 and IDFA. First, as the provider of the leading UA automation & LTV prediction engine for mobile gaming, we want to reassure you that we're here to help. For almost 12 months, we've been planning in the background for the upcoming deprecation of device IDs including the IDFA. While this change is a seismic shift for the entire industry including advertisers, publishers, networks, MMPs, and analytics and automation platforms like ours, we see this as an opportunity to not only continue providing our current value, but expanding that even more. Second, part of this expanded value that we'll provide will be based on fixing the issues caused by the last touch attribution model, which the mobile industry adopted long ago and continued to accommodate till present day.

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For those not familiar with the above diagram or the implications of Apple's announcement, let's recap. Once iOS device IDs disappear to a large extent toward the end of this year, it will no longer be possible to attribute post-install activity including revenue directly to a campaign or publisher app. That means that important metrics like retention, DAUs, LTV, and ROAS will be impossible to evaluate at the campaign or publisher app levels. We are working on “top-down” solutions that algorithmically attribute post-install activity to campaigns/publisher apps so that our platform (UA Command Center) continues to work and deliver value to you without disruption.

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Not only will UA Command Center continue to provide accurate LTV predictions and robust optimization algorithms, the solutions that power the algorithmic attribution of post-install activity will also allow us to “fix” the many problems with last touch attribution. In the last touch attribution model, 100% of user activity is attributed to the network that got the last touch just before the user installed the advertiser app. Even though it is very easy to understand, this is often highly misleading and rarely aligns with advertiser value.

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We have been and still are in talks with all of the major industry players to ensure proper alignment and the long-term design and success of our solution. We look forward to sharing more information shortly about our solution. Of course, we are very much in alignment with Apple’s move toward greater personal data privacy and are excited about the opportunities it presents.

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As part of our ongoing effort to gather feedback from as many perceptive voices in the industry, we invite you to connect with us to ensure that your concerns are addressed and you have a chance to shape the design of our solution.

You have probably seen a lot of buzz lately about automation in mobile user acquisition. So we teamed up with Gamesforum to explore this topic deeper with some of the best mobile gaming UA leaders from top companies like EA (Electronic Arts), Luna Labs and Hyper Digital Partners. Sign up below to watch the recording of this free webinar from June 9th, 2020.

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In the recording, you’ll hear these leaders (John Wright of Luna Labs, Daniel Lopez of EA and David Jumper of HyperDP) share their insights about UA automation in mobile gaming. Our very own CEO, Brian Krebs also shares his perspective (as a technical co-founder who has been innovating for over six years) on how automation and AI can be leveraged for successful mobile user acquisition, especially in mobile games.

There has certainly been a lot of buzz lately about automation in mobile user acquisition. So we thought it would be a good idea to explore this topic with mobile gaming UA leaders from top companies like EA (Electronic Arts), Luna Labs and HyperDP. Register today for this FREE WEBINAR on June 9th, 2020 where you’ll hear how these leaders are thinking about UA automation. Big thanks to John Speakman of Gamesforum for hosting this webinar and the panelists (John Wright of Luna Labs, Daniel Lopez of EA and David Jumper of HyperDP) for sharing their insights.

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You can check out Gamesforum’s other free webinars on important industry topics on their site. Our very own CEO, Brian Krebs will join that webinar to share his perspective as a technical co-founder who has been innovating for over six years on how automation and AI can be leveraged for successful mobile user acquisition, especially in mobile games.

Unfortunately, complexity is no stranger to mobile UA teams. Every week, they have to contend with large data sets that have to be assembled from disparate sources to then sift and analyze the data and coordinate numerous campaigns that involve a broad mix of ad channels. According to Adjust, "the average marketer runs 19 campaigns with 14 different networks". Of course, this translates into the bulk of the marketer’s day being spent on data management.

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Through numerous client conversations, we have confirmed that data management and the avalanche of tedious, manual tasks are major pain points. Many are struggling with reducing their daily time spent on campaign management which is a collection of manual and often repetitive steps that seem to explode with campaign scaling. These steps are ripe for automation and our clients witness that as early as the first 30 days of using our platform. The added bonus is that these tasks can be executed in real-time based on live monitoring of the click stream by our platform. So it never sleeps on the job! This approach liberates the UA team to focus on the higher value aspects of mobile UA such as devising strategies, setting goals and creatively adapting to fresh changes in the market.

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Another area that our clients find ripe for automation is the bid and budget optimization process. This is where our platform uses real-time performance monitoring to adjust bids, reallocate budgets from lower to higher performing ad channels and pause campaigns based on pre-defined automation rules and business goals. Once again, all the manual tasks and repetitive checking across different dashboards and spreadsheets are eliminated to free up large blocks of time needed for the higher value tasks that are critical to successfully differentiating from your competitors.

Thanks Joe Kim for posting the great article about the death of performance marketing. We certainly agree that things are changing rapidly in performance marketing/user acquisition but think that it is far from dead. It is actually going through a metamorphosis.

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For one, we believe that LTV prediction engines wrapped in automation will save performance UA as real performance and scale are VERY realizable across leading ad channels such as ironSource, Unity Technologies, AppLovin, Vungle and all of the other major SDK networks. When Facebook and Google shift to the new setup (described in Joe's article), the ability to perform will require any UA team to shift their skill sets to become experts at wielding sophisticated SaaS automation technology like MetricWorks UA Command Center.

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Secondly, with a UA automation platform and LTV prediction engine that works seamlessly across all networks, one will be able to quickly and easily predict where the most profitable AND scalable venue is to spend one's money. Currently, UA teams waste significant amounts of time accomplishing these tasks manually with large error margins. Herein lies a further opportunity to save valuable time, reduce the probability of costly errors and to be agile by responding in real-time to data feeds from the variety of mobile ad channels. This capability becomes even more crucial when teams have shrunk in response to the market changes described in Joe's article. Once again, it is the skills shift that will be important in order for UA teams to take advantage of these new tools to take their game to the next level.

You have probably heard all the buzz about UA automation and are trying to determine the best path forward for your business. As Eric Seufert outlines in his MDM article, The Five Levels of Digital Marketing Automation, UA automation is the ambition of many UA teams but there is still a considerable gap between hype and real-world application. As a partner to some of the leading mobile gaming companies and having spent the last six years in the UA automation and AI space, MetricWorks is firmly planted in the real-world application of automation.

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However, if we were to apply Eric's classification model to our UA automation platform, we find that even our technology most closely resembles Level 3: Marketing strategy automation:

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In particular, we feel that our innovation over the last six years enabled us to cover the bottom two rows in the graphic above, namely, Campaign setting experimentation (except for budget optimization) and ROAS projection and reporting. So why is that?

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Well, firstly, ad creative production has proven to date impossible to automate. As we all know, producing captivating creatives requires human creativity. This production process resists automation. Therefore, UA teams around the world have found it better to spend their budgets on human resources to deliver these tasks that are difficult to automate.

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Secondly, automating audience testing requires the machine (or automation platform) to know a lot of different things that may require cross-sectional industry data or domain knowledge that is not easily accessible or is simply not possible to share due to intense competition among gaming companies.

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That leaves the bottom two sections that we feel our automation platform brings to life via a powerful range of features:

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1. Cost & data aggregation in a consolidated dashboard
2. Real-time source-level LTV predictions (95% accuracy with 30 days of historical data)
3. Automated Bid Management Across All Channels At Source By Country Level
4. Impact Analysis: Easily conduct detailed analysis of the impact of bid optimizations on performance (volume, ROAS or custom KPIs)
5. Automation Rules: Automate time-consuming marketing strategies on a near real-time basis and set guard-rails based on ROAS, Retention, DAU or other KPIs
6. Performance Monitoring: Live monitoring and customizable alerts for designated publisher behavior
7. Bid History: Visually graph & analyze bid history along with metrics like ROAS or installs
8. Supply Groups: Customize, manage and analyze traffic groups with shared performance traits
9. Targeted Micro-Strategies: Execute specific actions on a defined supply group

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One of the features that our clients are really excited about is Automation Rules that allow marketers to encode their own user acquisition strategy. However, the heart of our platform and the core feature is our AI-driven mobile LTV prediction (down to the source-level) and how that flows into the automated optimization and execution.

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Others have built reporting dashboards and some have even added the ability to take action within these dashboards when it comes to UA execution. While this is a productive step, it is still an incremental one in the traditional direction. In contrast, MetricWorks rethought the entire paradigm and can proudly say that we are the only ones that built our platform from the ground up to seamlessly go from raw data aggregation and analysis across all mobile channels to model/prediction to optimization and finally execution without human intervention.

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Of course, the proof is in the pudding and our field success bears testimony to the value of our approach. Learn more about how our clients have realized a ROAS of 145% while generating an unprecedented 22.5 million LTV models and saving 40 hours per month per UA manager.

Our partner, AppsFlyer recently released their latest performance index. Please check it out if you haven't already. As always, the index is packed with interesting insights but the one that caught our attention and should certainly catch yours is what many have said already that digging deeper into the index reveals stories of networks surging up the rankings and presenting opportunities for marketers to diversify their mix and break away from the duopoly.

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This ties directly to our core mission, namely, to enable you to profitably scale your UA beyond Facebook and Google. Our solution, the UA Command Center is the leading UA automation and LTV prediction engine and can enable you to diversify your ad channel mix rather than be limited to the costly duopoly of Facebook & Google.

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With UA Command Center, diversifying your mix is easy, automated, accurate, cost-effective, highly productive and profitable. No more wasted manual effort, high fixed costs, expensive and error-prone experimentation. Just one platform to automate and scale your UA across all ad networks, DSPs and Affiliates. Everything is automated and driven by AI including our real-time monitoring to ensure that we got you covered even while you catch up on your beauty sleep!

It is really challenging to consistently make UA decisions without the effect of human emotion. However, we have found in the field that managing human emotions and employing a disciplined data-driven UA approach is the best way to mitigate your UA risk. No need to worry as MetricWorks has got you covered. Our platform, the UA Command Center, which is powered by AI and is the leading UA automation & LTV prediction engine can ensure that you stay on an objective decision-making path to UA success. For instance, in cases where many advertisers may be cutting their ad spend, our platform can unveil cost-effective and LTV-rich buying opportunities across a variety of ad channels to ensure that you meet your ROAS target or other UA goals. So reduce your stress and risk while boosting your UA success with our AI. Contact us today to discuss your needs and find out how we can help.

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Right now, you can enjoy all of the fantastic business benefits starting at only $250/month by signing up for our promotion.

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Additionally, remember that manually managing multiple ad channels is fraught with serious planning and execution risks. Let our automation help you navigate these risks with full transparency and control in one dashboard. Get a taste of the power of AI and automation.

We are excited to announce that Target Circle's mobile division has now been rebranded to MetricWorks! There are a few reasons for our rebranding but the most important is to streamline our product portfolio to strengthen our focus on properly serving the mobile user acquisition market. The Target Circle brand will still continue to be used for our white label solution.

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You’ll be happy to hear that our commitment to innovation and making it easy for mobile UA teams to leverage automation and AI still burns strong!  In fact, that was the inspiration for both our new company name (MetricWorks) and the new logo which reflect the merger of human teams and technology in order to realize a higher state of UA success.

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Our flagship product, UA Command Center, which is the leading UA automation and LTV prediction engine has been significantly enhanced with a number of sophisticated features such as automation rules, supply groups and optimization impact analysis. To learn more about these and other valuable features, please visit the MetricWorks product page.

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To celebrate our rebranding we are also offering a limited time promotion. You can enjoy all of our leading platform features starting at only $250/month by signing up before May 1st, 2020. Of course, you can also try the UA Command Center free for 30 days via our Free Trial.

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Contact us for a demo, questions or to learn how MetricWorks’ UA Command Center helps mitigate your ad spend risk while scaling your mobile UA. We look forward to helping you as MetricWorks!

Scaling UA across multiple ad channels is challenging! However, fortunately for you, our mission is to make it easy for UA teams to leverage automation and AI to overcome their scaling challenges. To accomplish this, we built a feature-rich platform, the UA Command Center, that has been field-tested and proven in delivering these five valuable benefits across ALL ad channels in ONE dashboard:

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1. Mitigate Ad Spend Risk
2. Boost Your Profit Margin & ROAS
3. Automate Manual Tasks To Save Time
4. Always-On AI Monitoring & Optimization
5. Real-Time Source-Level LTV Prediction

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To learn more about each of these platform benefits and the features that make UA Command Center the leading UA automation and LTV prediction engine, please visit our Home and Product pages. However, just to give you a peek into this value, let us look at number 1, Mitigate Ad Spend Risk. Any UA Manager who is manually managing multiple ad channels will concede that the manual approach is fraught with serious planning and execution risks. Just with the sheer number of tasks that one has to plan and execute each day, one is bound to miss a step here or forget to coordinate a bid execution there. These low-value manual tasks are screaming for automation not just because automation takes these tasks off your crowded plate to save you precious time, but more importantly, automation reduces the risk associated with your manual UA operations since it is always accurate, timely, reliable and transparent while still keeping you in full control.

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You can enjoy all five of the above benefits starting at only $250/month by signing up for our promotion before April 1st, 2020.  You can also try the UA Command Center free for 30 days via our Free Trial.

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Contact us for a demo, questions or to learn how the UA Command Center helps mitigate your ad spend risk. We look forward to hearing from you!

Yes, the future of UA is here! We are MetricWorks and our mission is make it easy for mobile UA (user acquisition) teams to leverage automation and AI in order to realize their full potential.  The fruit of our labor arrives in the form of the UA Command Center, the leading mobile UA automation and LTV prediction engine.  This engine enables you to easily and simply scale your UA profitably across ALL ad networks, DSPs and Affiliates.

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UA Command Center has been proven in the field across a number of types of mobile apps and is trusted by leaders such as Disruptor Beam, Trivago, GameInsight and Rogue Games.  For Disruptor Beam, we boosted their ROAS by 145% and their UA team’s productivity by 1000%.

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To accelerate our mission and celebrate the field success that we are so grateful for, we are offering a special promotion: for only $250/month, you can start enjoying the powerful benefits of the UA Command Center today.  Sign up before May 1st, 2020 to take advantage of this offer and to take command of your UA!

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‍Contact us if you have any questions.  We look forward to helping you boost your success.