Why APAC app marketers should be testing SKAdNetwork [+GUIDE 📙]

In the context of the Privacy Era, SKAdNetwork is the best solution to measure and optimize the impact of iOS campaigns—yet many advertisers still struggle to understand why they should be testing SKAN and how to get started. 

Leveraging SKAdNetwork to drive growth on iOS is highly relevant in APAC, the biggest smartphone market in the world, where the popularity of iOS devices has been increasing: not only China and Japan, but also India have secured their position within Apple’s top 5 iPhone markets [1].

In this post, we’ll dive into how Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework could impact your iOS campaigns, including: 

• The main reasons why app marketers should be testing SKAdNetwork to grow their iOS campaigns
• How to get started with SKAN in APAC
• Key educational resources for your team, including our new SKAN 4.0 guide for the APAC region and an invitation to an insightful live session

Let’s get started!

Why app marketers in APAC should be testing SKAN

Starting with ATT, all apps in iOS are forced to ask users for permission to store and enable IDFA for tracking purposes (the same way they ask permission for notifications, location, camera, etc.). This means that users are shown a pop-up message or prompt asking them whether they want to be tracked or not. 

So… are mobile users in APAC opting in or out when prompted? According to the latest industry insights, opt-in rates vary depending on the market. 

At the higher end, there’s Indonesia, with an opt-in rate of 50%, followed by Thailand at 42%, and India at 36%. Japan and China, on the other hand, currently have the lowest ATT opt-in rates in the region, with only 22% and 18% of users agreeing to be tracked, respectively. These metrics suggest that marketers who aren’t testing SKAN fail to reach between 50%-78% of their iOS audience.

“We firmly believe that this is a strategic moment for advertisers in the APAC region to seize the opportunity and start testing SKAdNetwork, particularly in markets like Japan, where there is an immense untapped potential of users who remain unreached by iOS app marketing campaigns.” 
— Yuki Kubota, App Marketing Strategy Division at MicroAd.

Conversely, ambitious advertisers investing in SKAN campaigns are already seeing positive results, securing full coverage of their iOS audience and achieving enhanced campaign performance.

“Leveraging SKAdNetwork has helped us unlock new scale and foster sustainable growth for our platform. Working with Jampp, we have achieved a lower cost per install and a higher volume of iOS users, reaffirming the effectiveness of our SKAN campaigns.” 
— Jane Zhi, Ad Operations Director at BIGO Live.

How app marketers in APAC can get started with SKAN

Work together with your DSP and MMP partners to start testing SKAN and keep up to date with the latest changes. Seek advice from people in the industry, ask questions, and learn more about this framework: only by truly understanding how SKAN 4.0 works will advertisers be empowered to make informed marketing decisions in the privacy era.

“We are seeing leading mobile apps across the world drive great results on iOS by using a combination of SKAdNetwork and enriched MMP probabilistic data to form a holistic view on measurement. We recommend advertisers to test and iterate with SKAN and work alongside their MMP partner to make sure they thrive in the privacy era” 
— Roshat Adnani, Managing Partner APAC at M&C Saatchi Performance.

Our latest guide, App Marketers’ SKAdNetwork 4.0 Guide: APAC Edition aims to empower advertisers across APAC markets with valuable insights and strategies to fully leverage SKAdNetwork 4.0 for driving privacy-centric app growth for their Apple iOS apps.

The guide provides an overview of how Apple’s ATT is impacting app growth strategies across the digital industry and the opportunities SKAdNetwork offers. It also features detailed insights from expert voices in the industry such as Affle’s Anuj Kumar, M&C Saatchi Performance’s Roshat Adnani, MicroAd’s Yuki Kubota, and BIGO LIVE’s Jane Zhi.

⬇️ Download our new guide here.

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Start growing your iOS business with SKAN

At Jampp, we believe that understanding SKAdNetwork is the first step toward keeping your iOS strategy relevant in the post-IDFA era. If you have any specific questions about SKAN or want to know how Jampp can help you take your iOS campaign to the next level, contact us to talk to one of our experts or join us next September 7, 2023, at 4:00 pm SGT for “iOS app growth strategies in a privacy-first world” an insightful live session hosted together with Newton and MicroAd.

References

[1] CNBC, July 2023.