AppsFlyer makes its attribution data more transparent

Transparency is arguably the biggest driver of change in ad tech these days. And today, attribution service AppsFlyer is offering another way to shine a light on what’s going on.

The Tel Aviv-based firm is announcing its Agency Transparency solution, which lets a brand more easily drill down into granular detail about its app install campaigns. AppsFlyer says that, to its knowledge, this is the first ready-made transparency option for agencies about this kind of data.

Previously, Senior Director of Agency Alliances Daniel Kahtan told me, the default setting in AppsFlyer’s agency dashboard showed total app installs by agency or by a given campaign or series of campaigns. Agencies had more detailed info, but they often preferred to export it and then present it in conversations with the brand.

This allowed the agency to maintain control of its relationship with the advertiser. Kahtan said the previous thinking was: “If the client sees everything, [the agency’s] expertise is at risk.”

Now, agencies can click a button in the AppsFlyer dashboard and see such data as media costs per ad network, install counts per ad network or ad campaign, numbers of impressions and clicks and quality of users in each ad network, the latter determined by factors like number of users acquired in each network who actually registered in the app after installing it.

The following AppsFlyer graphic provides a general illustration of the change. On the left are results by agencies, plus the brand advertiser might be making purchases directly into ad networks (media sources). There’s no immediate detail on agency results.

On the right is the newer view in the Agency Transparency solution, a breakdown within agencies:

The decision to make this more detailed info available is still between the agency and the brand, but it is now readily available in the dashboard.

About The Author

Barry Levine

Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.