Mobile attribution is one of the most effective ways to measure the impact of marketing strategies.
Even if the business is running smoothly, it is essential that you know how users are being acquired and what their behavior is after the installation.
Today, different marketing strategies, like targeted messaging, marketing campaigns, etc., are utilized by modern businesses.
They help understand how the efforts are impacting their return on investment. At the same time, they bring more clarity on user experience and how it can be improved further.
Irrespective of how well a business is doing, mobile attribution plays a huge role as it gives a better picture of your strategies and eliminates the guessing work.
It makes things clearer and helps you understand how to improvise further with data-driven strategies.
Let’s delve a little deeper and understand what mobile attribution is, how it helps, and what some of the best mobile attribution platforms are.
What is Mobile Attribution?
Mobile attribution is a marketing strategy or a technique that allows marketers to identify the mobile marketing tactics that increase engagements, conversions, and sales. It helps to evaluate when, where, and how users interact with the brand.
For instance, it will tell exactly which targeted messages (SMS/WhatsApp links) and channels (mobile ads) have put greatest impact on the users and compel them to convert and take their journey ahead with their product.
Once mobile attribution clears things about the user’s journey with its immense data, businesses can take further steps for improvising, retargeting, and optimizing. It will also help understand the best marketing channel for their unique products.
Some components that play a major role in implementing mobile attribution include:
- Cookies
- Website tags
- UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) parameters
In a nutshell, mobile app attribution helps connect the dots (the first click and how the click leads to the installation) and understand the customer journey.
Once you have used the best mobile attribution platform and have gained access to the users’ experience, this hard cold data will be of immense help because it will:
- Tell which advertising channel worked the best for your business
- Helps determine the loyal and high-value customers
- Helps understand where to invest for marketing as now you know where the fake clicks and installs are
All this will help in making better business decisions.
Best Mobile Attribution Platforms
Out of multiple mobile attribution platforms, we have selected the top-performing ones to help you flourish your business and take it to new heights.
1. AppMetrica
AppMetrica is an all-in-one mobile app analytics tool that gives you a comprehensive analysis of your mobile marketing campaigns and app performance. Founded in 2013, it enables 60 000+ mobile apps like Azur Games, METRO, Burger King worldwide to maximize their app revenue.
AppMetrica produces reports based on live campaign data, enabling you to see installs from your traffic as soon as they happen, and stores your historical raw data without any time limitations. It’s also a great contributor to your business efficiency and marketing budget, so you can increase or decrease bids based on their real-time performance, or turn off ad channels with negative ROAS completely.
In addition to detailed user attribution reports and mobile ad tracking, AppMetrica also generates comprehensive user behavior reports, lets you launch & analyze push campaigns, and run A/B tests.
AppMetrica Features:
- Unlimited conversions and events
- Secure and reliable data storage with no time limits
- Easy and fast raw data export
- Affordable and flexible pricing
- Real-time user acquisition reports
- Easy-to-use, intuitive interface
- Multiple simultaneous A/B tests
- AI-powered LTV & Churn Predicts for Pro plans
So, if you are looking for a cost-efficient and business-boosting solution to maximize your app’s revenue, AppMetrica is your one-stop-shop.
Pricing
AppMetrica offers several pricing plans to meet your needs at any point of your app’s journey:
- A Free plan includes everything you need to get started and see results: tracking an unlimited number of standard events and up to 100 million custom events. You can run up to 2 simultaneous A/B tests and up to 100 remote config flags. Revenue reports, API access, 24/7 support and more.
- A Custom plan allows you to select the features and add-ons that your app needs to grow at the moment. In addition to what’s included in the free plan, you can add or remove custom events, simultaneous A/B tests, custom workspaces for convenient team work and extra fast raw data export. Custom plans start at $90/month.
- A Pro plan is used by larger apps and starts at $3000/month. Track an unlimited number of custom events and run up to 50 A/B tests at the same time, up to 2000 simultaneous remote config flags, and LTV and Сhurn predictions for immediate ad campaigns optimization.
2. AppsFlyer
AppsFlyer is one of the trusted mobile attribution platforms among marketers. It features app-install attribution, giving an insight into the source of conversion.
It keeps an eye on every new installation as well as the media source. Using AppsFlyer, you learn exactly which marketing campaigns or channels help bring the customers.
Apart from app-install attribution, it also specializes in multi-touch attribution and retargeting attribution. So, if you are focused on retargeting the ad campaigns and optimizing the marketing performance, AppsFlyer is the best bet.
Features of AppsFlyer Mobile Attribution
- Real-time integration with the best ad networks
- Deep linking and fingerprinting
- Top-rated security features
- Comprehensive compliance program
Apart from collecting the marketing data, it also syncs it with different integrated providers. Moreover, it helps understand the most promising ad campaigns and channels that give high ROI.
If you are looking for the best performance and growth marketer that will aid in mobile installs and online marketing campaigns, choose AppsFlyer. It is more useful for travel, gaming, B2C, and retain industries.
AppsFlyer offers a free basic plan for small businesses or start-ups. It comes with a 30-day trial of premium features too.
Pricing
- Zero– It is a free plan, ideal for start-ups and amateur entrepreneurs. It includes basic features along with 12k conversions.
- Growth– This plan is the best for small businesses. Growth Plan offers many cool features such as mobile attribution, cohort and retention reports, LTV (Lifetime Value) analytics, etc.
- Enterprise– It is the superlative plan of AppsFlyer, delivering everything that this platform has to offer. Usually, it is for big companies and enterprises with greater marketing needs.
3. Adjust
Adjust is another reliable mobile attribution platform that delivers data-driven information such as ad clicks and organic installs. It also enables tracking in-app events. The private cloud infrastructure of Adjust is what makes it secure.
The best part about Adjust is you can retrospect the data history anytime, as it offers unlimited look-back. Adjust helps gather information on which ad campaigns helped bring loyal and top-quality customers, such as people who engage with your app, make a purchase, or have high lifetime value (LTV).
Due to versatility and flexibility, Adjust is trusted by companies like Spotify, Duolingo, Booking, SoundCloud, and gaming companies such as Tencent and Zynga.
Features of Adjust
- Top-class anti-fraud capabilities
- Private cloud infrastructure
- Intuitive and user-friendly dashboard
- Suitable for mobile and non-mobile channels
Since Adjust also offers powerful mobile analytics, it is used profusely to solve different purposes. At the same time, it works across 11 countries, supporting over 20 languages.
So, if the intention is to tie every user with the ads they interact with, opt to Adjust. It also prevents fraud and does not hinder users’ privacy while collecting information on their app journey.
Pricing:
Adjust offers three different pricing plans with a diverse range of features to suit the needs of small and big companies. These are:
- Base– The base plan is free of cost and suitable for start-ups and small businesses. In this plan, you get around 1,500 monthly attributions along with a few basic features.
- Core– The core plan is suitable for mid-sized businesses as you have to pay a certain amount to avail of its services. It gives around 250,000 annual attributions along with other features. You need to get the quote from Adjust Attribution to know the pricing.
- Enterprise– Geared towards big companies, the enterprise plan helps you get over 250,000 annual attributions along with other features. Contact Adjust Attribution to know the pricing.
4. Kochava
Kochava is a versatile platform serving as mobile attribution and mobile app analytics tool. Moreover, it also serves as a data management platform, giving the best solutions in the marketing world in just a few clicks.
When Kochava retrospects any change in the key metrics, like an increase in ROI, decrease in conversion rates, or changes in the number of installs, it immediately sends an alert via email, SMS, etc.
What makes Kochava unique is it doesn’t require SDK to attribute installs. It is because this mobile attribution platform utilizes cloud integration for the purpose instead of being loaded into the app itself.
Features of Kochava
- Fraud prevention
- Doesn’t require SDK for attributing installs
- Utilize IP addresses and unique device identifiers for data collection
- Marketers Operating System (m/OS)
So, if you are looking for a platform that serves different purposes like attribution, analytics, and data management under one umbrella, Kochava is the best bet. Companies of all sizes can utilize and make the most of it.
Pricing:
Kochava offers three different pricing plans depending upon the size of the companies and the services required. These are:
- Free– Recommended for start-ups and small companies, the free plan offers attribution, app analytics, and many more useful features. A free plan can be used to examine and assure about Kochava Attribution services, especially its Marketers Operating System (m/OS).
- Foundation– The pricing for Foundation Plan starts from $100 per month, where you get around 10,000 conversions. The plan offers everything that comes under Free Plan plus some extra features such as configurable attribution by app and partner.
- Enterprise– The pricing for Enterprise Plan also starts from $100 per month and includes around 5 000 monthly active users. Here, you get every service offered under Foundation Plan plus some premium features such as tracker-level configurable attribution.
5. Branch
Branch is considered the most useful mobile attribution platform for e-Commerce industries.
Utilizing contextual deep-linking and the predictive algorithm, it provides cross-channel attribution. Also, it supports cross-platform, helping marketers learn their fragmented identifiers under one roof.
Once marketers gain insight into their web and in-app users, focusing on the right tag, ad campaign, and features becomes easy for optimization.
Since Branch covers multiple marketing tools and integrations, such as email service providers and ad networks, tracking accurate user interaction with in-app content gets hassle-free.
Features of Branch
- Configurable attribution windows
- View-through attribution
- Cross-channel insights
- Data freedom
- Fraud protection
So, if you are looking for ways to charge up your app game and improve growth, Branch is your go-to solution as it links platforms to build data-driven strategies.
Pricing
As far as pricing plans, Branch offers only two plans, which are as follows:
- Launch– It is a free plan suitable for small businesses and start-ups. The plan offers every basic feature and includes 10 000 monthly active users. It also includes cross-platform attribution for better results.
- Enterprise– It is another pricing plan that involves complex attribution solutions, suitable for big companies. It includes over 10 000 monthly active users.
6. Singular
Singular is another top-performing mobile attribution platform that depicts a comprehensive view of your ROI. It delivers insightful data on attribution and marketing campaigns in one dashboard.
Whether we talk about the fraud prevention capabilities, more than 2,000 integrations worldwide, or precise attribution, everything about Singular is excellent, making it the number one choice of growth marketers of companies like Ubisoft, Glue, Riot Games, Supercell, etc.
Features of Singular
- Campaign analytics
- Creative optimization
- Granular ROI
- Touchpoint prioritization
- Lookback windows
- Customized re-engagement flows
- Multi-touch tracking
So, it won’t be an exaggeration to say that Singular is a marketing intelligence platform giving actionable insights across marketing platforms. Once you know the ROI for individual ads, networks, and campaigns, strategizing further investment become easy.
Pricing:
- Standard– It is Singular’s free 30-day trial plan. While using this plan, you can check out the basic features of Singular, and based on your experience, you can decide whether you want to avail of its services in the future. It is useful for smaller teams.
- Premium– The pricing of the Premium Plan is custom and is usually based on the company size. Generally, growing companies can gain maximum benefits from Premium Plan as it offers excellent marketing insights.
- Enterprise– Companies looking for custom solutions should opt for Enterprise Plan. For pricing, contact Singular.
7. Tenjin
Tenjin helps you analyze data- be it user acquisition cost or monetization with utmost accuracy. It helps marketers analyze the source, examine the in-app purchases and check out the cost incurred in each ad, campaign, etc. and compare it with ROI.
The easy-to-use tools and user-friendly interface make Tenjin even more lucrative. However, it is more useful for game developers, especially working with f2p (free-to-play) games. Tenjin upgrades their platform constantly, bringing advanced and improved tools to enhance growth.
Features of Tenjin
- Intuitive dashboard
- Multiple data groupings
- Free access to dashboard
- Tailor-made pricing plans
Pricing: The pricing model of Tenjin is pay-as-you-grow.
- Starter plan– Start-ups, independent developers, and small developers can make the most of Tenjin’s Starter Plan.
- Advanced plan– Every medium size team looking forward to scaling up and reaching more customers to increase conversion can start using Advanced Plan.
- Enterprise plan– Teams looking forward to comprehensive and custom solutions should choose the Enterprise Plan.
8. Airbridge
Providing insights across multiple channels and utilizing the most promising attributions- last-touch attribution and multi-touch attribution to deliver data, Airbridge has gained momentum in the recent past, becoming the official partner of Meta.
At the same time, it involves marketing mix modeling that estimates how the different marketing tactics are affecting sales. Utilizing all these, Airbridge discovers new sources to maximize growth.
Features of Airbridge:
- Introspect marketing performance
- Provide metrics for web, and app (android and iOS)
- Budget optimization
- Fraud prevention
It is an excellent mobile attribution platform for the gaming, e-commerce, and finance industries.
Pricing:
Airbridge offers a free trial using which you can review its features. To obtain advanced features, contact Airbridge to avail of their customized pricing plans.
Factors to consider while selecting the best mobile attribution platform for your campaign
Since multiple mobile attribution platforms exist, choosing the right one is essential to measure the data precisely.
At the same time, due to potential fraud issues, trusting a platform sometimes becomes questionable.
Some factors you need to consider in your attribution platform include the following:
Data Accuracy
It is vital that your attribution platform is able to interpret the exact data based on which you can make data-driven strategies for better optimization.
If you see a major difference between the data on attribution platforms and UA and Google Ads are showing significantly more app installs from organic traffic, you need to think again about your selected platform.
Here, it is essential to remember that even though a difference of $0.1 in CPIs may seem small, it can make a huge difference. So, if you keep using the services of such an attribution platform, it may affect your campaign. Inaccurate reporting should be a big NO.
Features and Integrations
Even though we are looking for an attribution platform that serves a lot of fancy features and multiple integrations, we need to ensure whether we need them or not. It can be understood with the two examples:
A- If you want to know which ad campaign or channel helps bring users to your application, you can choose multi-touch attribution. But is it able to determine where the conversion comes from?
To know this, there will be a requirement for some additional features in your attribution platform, such as those delivering time-zone-based analysis or cohort data tracking.
B- Although mobile attribution is amazing in many ways, what if your audience does not use mobile but prefers desktop? In such cases, mobile attribution data is of no help. Here, to measure your marketing campaign, you need to use desktop attribution data.
Infrastructure
Some platforms utilize private cloud infrastructure, while others use third-party cloud infrastructure such as Amazon Web Services (AWS). So, look into it while selecting the mobile attribution platform and choose the one that meets your specific needs.
Here, ensure that data privacy and security aspects are taken into consideration.
Report Quality
If the report quality delivered by your selected attribution partner is high, you will be able to optimize the ad campaigns and mobile app ad creatives effectively. Thus, your business will be able to thrive in the competitive app world.
Make sure the reports you are collecting are based on your goals. So, all you need is to check if the attribution platform is able to collect information on the desired metrics that meets your marketing objectives.
User-friendly interface
Every mobile attribution platform provides cohorts and retention reports. However, you must be able to overview them in a friendly user interface. For instance, certain tools such as AppsFlyer and Kochava deliver pivot tables wherein you get a summarized view of the data.
Furthermore, some platforms also have additional functionality of audience-building in their dashboard. It helps many businesses in a great way.
Speed of Attribution
Attribution speed is another criterion that will help you understand the potential of a mobile attribution platform. It is because you can make the right marketing decisions when you are getting in-depth industry insights on time.
If a platform is slow, the chances of getting fake results increase. When the platform takes a lot of time to access data, finding the correct number of installs becomes hard, especially in real time. It would lead to getting lower CPI than what it is in reality.
Advanced Security Features
Since the attribution platform accesses your information during registration, you need to ensure that it offers top-notch security and has the capability to detect fraud.
Being acquainted with the latest fraud prevention features is the plus point of any mobile attribution platform.
Price
Sometimes you find the best mobile attribution platform adhering to all your needs, but its pricing plan is ready to dig a hole in your pocket. It usually happens with independent app developers, small teams, and start-ups.
In such cases, you can opt to free tools that offer most of the features or at least basic features for free.
However, if you are a large company with complex marketing requirements, go for a comprehensive plan that offers a lot more than just basic features. Choosing the right platform, irrespective of its pricing, can play a key role in turning the tables and bringing more revenue to your business.
So, these are the factors that you need to consider to get the most out of your selected attribution platform.
Even though there are plenty of tools or platforms to explore, sometimes it takes a toll in deciding the perfect one based on your requirements. Indie developers often opt to free tools such as Kochava as it offers limited use cases in its free plan.
On the contrary, marketing professionals dealing with eCommerce apps prefer mobile attribution platforms like Branch, Adjust, and AppsFlyer, which are rich in useful features and deliver deep-linking features. However, they could be expensive for small teams or indie developers.
