¶ Introduction
With Apple Search Ads you can promote your iOS mobile app so that it appears at the top of the AppStore search results.
EMMA, Apple's integrated partner, allows you to measure and attribute all conversions coming from this format.
To do so, follow the instructions detailed throughout this guide.
To be able to measure your Apple Search Ads campaigns in EMMA you must have EMMA iOS SDK version 4.2.13 or higher. To see how to integrate the EMMA SDK click here.
¶ Get your campaign group id and generate keys
In order to make the connection between Apple Search Ads and EMMA it is necessary to obtain the campaign group ID.
In order to make this connection, it is necessary for the user to have API access.
- Log in to your Apple Search Ads account.
- Get your Campaign Group ID (organisation ID). To do this, go to the top left where the name of the selected campaign group appears and copy the corresponding campaign group ID.
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Log in to EMMA and go to the section Aquisition > Media Sources.
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Find the source Apple Search Ads and from the context menu click on the Edit option.
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Scroll down to the Impressions, Clicks and Cost section, enter the campaign group ID you obtained earlier in the Organisation ID field and click on the Generate Keys button.
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Copy the public key as shown in the screenshot. Including the Begin public key and the End public key and the -.
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A user with API Account Manager access must login to the Apple Search Ads dashboard (if there is no user with this role you can make a change to an existing one or create a new specific user with this access) and go to the Settings section from the drop-down menu at the top right of the screen (where the username is displayed).
- Paste the public key copied from EMMA into the Client Credentials > Public Key field and click on the Generate API Client button.
- It will automatically generate a clientId, teamId and KeyId. Copy the 3 identifiers and go back to the EMMA dashboard.
¶ Set up Apple Search Ads in EMMA
The last thing left to do, to start measuring your Apple Search Ads campaigns in EMMA, is to connect the console to the EMMA apptracker by following these simple steps.
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Login to EMMA and go to the Aquisition > Media Sources section and edit the Apple Search Ads media source.
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Fill in the Client ID, Key ID and Team ID fields with the information obtained from the Apple Search Ads console.
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Click Save to save your settings.
Once you have completed all the steps in this guide you will be able to start seeing the results of your Apple Search Ads campaigns in the EMMA Apptracker.
¶ Main causes of discrepancy
In this section you will find in more detail the main causes of discrepancies that may exist in the data between the EMMA and Apple Search Ads (hereafter ASA) platforms.
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Install vs. open
ASA counts all downloads as installs/conversions while EMMA only counts the installs as such once the user downloads the app and opens it for the first time (which must also be a minimum session of 4 seconds, which is the time it takes to make the connection with Apple to send us the information). -
Ad tracking limitation.
If users have ad tracking limitation enabled to opt out of interest-based ads, they will be attributed in ASA but not in EMMA. This is because, as a result of the privacy policy, ASA cannot share the information of those specific users with EMMA. -
Attribution window
ASA's attribution window is 30 days while EMMA's is 2 days. This is one of the main causes of discrepancy between ASA and EMMA.If a user clicks on the ad today and installs the app two days later, ASA attributes that user to one of its campaigns. However, in EMMA, if a user clicks on the ad today, installs the app tomorrow but does not open the app for the first time until three days after the click, that installs in EMMA is not attributed to the ASA campaign.
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Re-Installs
ASA counts re-installs. That is, users who have had the app in the past, uninstalled it and reinstalled it through an ASA ad, are attributed as re-installs in ASA. Therefore, under the ASA installs column, both new install and re-installs are being counted.
In EMMA, if a user has had the app before and reinstalls it through an ASA ad, it is not counted as a new install attributed to that campaign as that user was already in our database. Therefore, the correct data to compare both platforms would be new ASA installs vs EMMA installs.
¶ Frequently asked questions
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What level of breakdown am I going to get?
In EMMA you will be able to find your campaign by the same name you have given to the campaign in the Apple console. In addition, you will be able to easily differentiate it because it will have the Apple icon in front of the name.
As for the campaign breakdown, each source will take the name of the Ad Group you have given it in Apple Search Ads. -
What data will I be able to see in EMMA?
From the EMMA Apptracker you will be able to see data on clicks, cost, installs and in-app events after install.
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Why do I see a campaign in EMMA with the name CampaignName which is not in the ASA Dashboard??
The ASA campaign, CampaignName, that you see in the EMMA AppTracker are tests that are sent only by the iOS simulators through the EMMA SDK, this is done every time the app is installed.
Our SDK already has ASA tracking implemented by default, so from the moment it is installed we already collect this information.
ASA tracking can be disabled in the configuration of the startSession method with the parameter appleAdsAttribution = false, although it is not a recommended practice if you want to measure this type of campaign in the future.