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FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW

In today’s episode, we’ll talk about the ideal schema set up on SKAdNetwork(or SKAN in short) for subscription apps.

For those that are new to this, SKAN is Apple’s measurement protocol, which operates without the IDFA or any sort of unique identifier. You can check out our previous episodes on SKAN over at https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/start-here/ – go to post-identifier strategy.

In your SKAN schema, you have to select a set of events(say registration, trial, complete onboarding etc.) that lets Apple track your campaigns’ performance. These events have to be prioritized(so you have to specify which is a low priority event – say registration, and which is a higher priority event – say purchase or trial) – because SKAN *only* records the highest priority event(and passes this event on to platforms like Facebook and TikTok for measurement).

The other idiosyncrasy of SKAN events is the system of timers that is involved. The moment a user installs, a 24 hour timer starts – and keeps running until it is reset by a higher value conversion event(so as soon as a user installs(say conversion value 0), a 24 hour timer starts – and if a user registers within 24 hours(say conversion value 1), the timer is reset and starts the 24 hour clock again. 

And if a user starts a trial within the subsequent 24 hours, the timer is reset and starts the 24 hour clock again – BUT if the user does NOT start a trial in the subsequent 24 hours, then the 24 hours elapse – and a postback is sent with the trial event(conversion value 1) at a random time within 24 more hours of the timer expiring.

Why does all of this matter – particularly for subscription apps?

Because the later an event happens, the lower the chance of it being captured by SKAN. If a registration happens in the first 6 hours, and a user goes away and does nothing – and then comes back 72 hours later to start a trial – then the trial is NOT recorded as a conversion event by SKAN.

Since the conversion from trial to paying user for subscription apps happens anywhere from 3 to 7 days after install(depending on your trial duration), you can only record the conversion to paying user event in SKAN if other lower priority events happen within 24 hour time frames to reset the timer: say a registration happens in the first 24 hours, trial in the next 24, consume content in the next 24 – and the user returns to the app every 24 hours or so.

The great thing about subscription apps though is that even though conversion to paid subscriptions happens 7 days in, free trials for the vast majority of users(in many cases over 90% of users) happens within 24 hours of an install.

This means very few of the free trials are ‘lost’ to SKAN’s system of timers(unlike say many games where monetization happens by day 4 to 7 – and that signal is completely lost to SKAN).

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With all that said, what should your schema be for a subscription app? Because most of your signal from free trials happens in the first 24 hours(and because the trial to paid conversion is unlikely to be captured by SKAN), I recommend a very simple conversion schema.

Registration as the lowest priority event

Complete onboarding as the next

Free trial as the next

Engaged free trial as the next(an engaged free trial could be someone that starts a trial and consumes some content in the app)

Why ‘engaged free trial’? This lets you track the number of users who completed a free trial that have a high probability of converting into paying subscribers.

Since the first 3 events(register, onboarding and free trial) get done by the vast majority of users in the first 24 hours, you are able to capture and measure the quality of the users in your ad networks and platforms – and are able to maximize signal.

A REQUEST BEFORE YOU GO

I have a very important favor to ask, which as those of you who know me know I don’t do often. If you get any pleasure or inspiration from this episode, could you PLEASE leave a review on your favorite podcasting platform – be it iTunes, Overcast, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast fix. This podcast is very much a labor of love – and each episode takes many many hours to put together. When you write a review, it will not only be a great deal of encouragement to us, but it will also support getting the word out about the Mobile User Acquisition Show.

Constructive criticism and suggestions for improvement are welcome, whether on podcasting platforms – or by email to shamanth at rocketshiphq.com. We read all reviews & I want to make this podcast better.

Thank you – and I look forward to seeing you with the next episode!