Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2025-03-13

How to Optimize User Acquisition Across Major Ad Channels — Shane Ly, AppsFlyer

Short episode for RevenueCat's State of Subscription Apps report. Shane Ly (Solutions Architect, AppsFlyer) goes channel by channel on iOS measurement in 2025: Apple Search Ads added view-through attribution; TikTok, Snapchat and Meta became advanced SRNs, recovering signal and letting apps track subscriptions and renewals outside SKAN's windows; YouTube now shows an ATT prompt (opt-in 10% to 50-60%); SKAN still misses about 10% of subscription conversions. Spend is rising across Meta, Google and TikTok as confidence returns, and Reddit is an up-and-coming app install network.

Play the episode

2 tactics

Practitioner pattern · Shane Ly (Works at AppsFlyer, the measurement partner whose attribution integrations and Conversion Studio he recommends)

Show Apple's tracking permission prompt so ad networks can attribute and re-target users

Opt-in ranges from 10% to 50-60% depending on the app

Show the ATT prompt even if opt-in is low: each opted-in user gives a device ID that lets the measurement partner attribute installs and follow LTV (subscribe, renew) per network, and can later be sent to networks for re-engagement campaigns. Now matters for Google too, since YouTube serves its own ATT prompt, making YouTube installs attributable with traditional methods.

Unknownanalytics-attributionpaid-social

Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2025-03-13

Practitioner pattern · Shane Ly (Works at AppsFlyer, the measurement partner whose attribution integrations and Conversion Studio he recommends)

Run iOS install ads on TikTok, Snapchat and Meta with their advanced attribution hookups

Big lift in attribution; renewals tracked past SKAN's delay; no exact numbers

Use the advanced self-attributing network (SRN) integrations that TikTok (first), Snapchat and Meta now offer via the measurement partner: extra parameters are sent to the network so it can attribute installs without relying on SKAN's delayed postbacks. Subscription apps can then LTV these users (e.g. subscribed 7 days later, renewed at months 2, 3, 4), within each network's data retention policy. Keep SKAN running in parallel, configured (revenue, event or funnel) in the MMP's Conversion Studio, and on Meta also consider web-to-app flows via a landing page.

Workedanalytics-attributionpaid-social

Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2025-03-13

Numbers mentioned

Who	Metric	Value	Context	When
aggregateATT prompt opt-in rates across apps measured by AppsFlyer	conversion rate	10–60% approximate	ATT prompt opt-in rate, varies by app ('somewhere low, 10%, to 50% to 60%')	12:34
aggregateSubscription conversions reported via SKAdNetwork	share	10% estimate	Share of subscription conversions that can be missing from SKAN postbacks due to privacy thresholds (shown as null conversion value)	9:52
aggregateAd networks supporting SKAdNetwork	count	100 networks approximate	Over a hundred ad networks on SKAN, including Meta, Google and TikTok	8:47
benchmarkSKAdNetwork measurement window by version	time to milestone	48 hours	SKAN 3 measures about 48 hours of post-install data	8:47
benchmarkSKAdNetwork measurement window by version	time to milestone	35 days	SKAN 4 measures up to 35 days, but the second and third postbacks have low fidelity (e.g. only subscribed or not)	8:47