Practitioner pattern · Marcus Burke (Sells Meta ads consulting to subscription apps and plans a paid Meta ads email course)
Base your Meta setup on SKAN; use AEM only to scale further
AEM helped high-CPI apps below SKAN thresholds, but it's a black box
Mixedanalytics-attributionpaid-social
What they did
Aggregated Event Measurement gives instant, modeled (IP-matching) postbacks and helps high-CPI advertisers who can't pass SKAN privacy thresholds. But it's a black box Apple could shut down. Keep the account foundation and evaluation on SKAN, which is future-proof and improving (SKAN 4 lowers the threshold to ~20 installs/day and adds two more postbacks), and use AEM campaigns for extra scale when they perform.
What happened
Some advertisers, especially high-CPI ones, were really helped by AEM; it can't be fully trusted.
- Stage
- scale
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · Scaling Your Subscription App with Meta Ads – Marcus Burke, Independent Consultant“I think it is a great tool, and I've seen advertisers that this really helped, especially the ones that have high CPIs and can't pass privacy thresholds.”
“So I like to build my account foundation on SKAN, because I know it's future proof, it's what Apple wants us to do, and it's also getting better with each version.”
Related topics
Get tactics like this every Monday
New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from this episode
- InnoGames: Switch on each new Meta bidding option the day it launchesDoubled budget month after month while beating ROI targets (pre-ATT)
- Start with one Meta campaign and one ad set; split only as spend growsKeeps each campaign above SKAN's 88-installs-a-day threshold so Meta sees trials
- Optimize Meta ads for trial starts and rank trials highest in SKANApps with a trial in onboarding weathered SKAN better than games
- Wait at least a week before judging a new Meta campaignSKAN data arrives 2-3 days late; early reads show spend with zero trials
- Leave people under 25 out of your Meta ads at firstYoung users give cheap trials that rarely convert; age is the biggest lever
- Set up Meta campaigns by hand first; add Advantage+ later with lower bidsGuest's standard setup; no numbers given
- Check which placements each ad wins on, then make ads for those placementsGuest says most accounts miss this; no numbers given
- Put your best Meta ad in your App Store screenshots or videoGuest says matching the ad often lifts conversion; no numbers
- Match your onboarding reviews and prices to the people your ads reachCommon mismatch: young Reels traffic won't pay $80-90 a year
- Ask new users their age, gender and how they found youGives sample data per channel and age where SKAN misses up to ~50% of trials
- Turn ads on and off, check survey and opt-in data, then set cost-per-trial goalsScrappy model most small and mid-size teams use; no numbers
- Skip paid tracking tools early; use Meta's SDK and your subscription dataMost 10-20 person client teams run without one; no numbers
- Test new ads in a separate campaign, in your cheapest real marketProtects the main campaign from resets; results carry over better
- Follow news pages your audience reads to copy their headline and image style
- Start with Meta ads early; use Apple Search Ads to test your pricingGuest's default channel order; no numbers given
- Marcus Burke consulting: Post practical Meta ads tips on LinkedIn every dayBuilt a large backlog of consulting clients; no numbers