Best Mobile App Attribution Tools 2022

If you’re in the app business, you know how important your app analytics and mobile attribution are: knowing where your users come from and what they do once they get to your app is critical. 

It comes as no surprise that whole companies specialize in providing solutions to stay on top of your app marketing performance data. So, here we’re going to talk about the top of the app marketing funnel and mobile attribution.

First off, what is mobile attribution? It’s data-based science that gives an understanding of what happens when a particular app user interacts with a mobile ad – for example, an app attribution tool will attribute ad spend to installs or user engagement. 

As a mobile marketer, you must keep track of how well your ad campaigns perform. You need to know your target audience, the ad type and creatives, which channel the ad is running on and, of course, key quantitative app metrics such as installs and CPI.

Tracking all of these manually can be overwhelming. That’s why we recommend having a mobile attribution tool that will help you understand where your users are coming from and which campaigns resonate with them the most.

Here are the main features that you should look for in an attribution tool:

1. Dashboards & Reporting
2. Retargeting Attribution
3. Uninstalls Reporting
4. Fraud Detection
5. Integrations with platforms you use, like Google Ads, Apple Ads, etc.
6. Pricing based on your budget

AGN works on many mobile projects, and we’ve had the advantage of trying multiple tools. Here we’ve identified the best mobile attribution tools that you should check out!

1) Adjust

What’s great about Adjust is that they provide a holistic solution that goes beyond just attribution. They acquired the data aggregation platform, Acquired.io, in December 2018 and offer Adjust Automate which enables marketers to manage all campaigns in a single dashboard. The automated workflow handles budget allocation, bid management, and more.

Another Adjust differentiator is that – while others detect fraud – Adjust prevents fraud. Their solution is preventative by blocking data from ever entering into a client’s ecosystem. They also acquired cybersecurity company, Unbotify, that detects and eliminates in-app bot fraud.

A feature we use a lot is the audience builder, which is designed to re-engage your app users by generating dynamic audiences that are updated in real time, eliminating the need to check those CSVs. You can then split audiences by different networks they’re coming from so that you don’t spend on duplicates.

It has an easy-to-use dashboard where you can track network performance based on important mobile app KPIs along with in-app events that you can configure manually.

Adjust is an excellent choice for teams of all sizes because of its versatility and accessibility.

The example above shows an Adjust demo dashboard 

2) Appsflyer

Appsflyer is another popular mobile attribution tool. It provides great features like multi-touch attribution, retargeting attribution, configurable attribution windows, and many more, allowing marketers to achieve their targets easily and efficiently.

Appslfyer also has two different free accounts available – one for zero-based marketing and a “pay as you grow” account for small businesses with limited ad budgets.

The basic version lets you engage and interact with your users and – once you decide to scale your marketing efforts – you can unlock better reports, alerts, and even custom dashboards.

Appsflyer also offers retention reports and cohort analysis based on country, source, app version and has raw user data that can be exported and analyzed in your preferred BI/visualization tool.

A major deciding factor when choosing between this one and Adjust is which interface you prefer. Since their features are kept to a high standard, you’ll likely choose the one that will integrate into your app dev/marketing/managerial stack better.

The example above shows an Appsflyer Retention Report

3) Airbridge

AB180 has grown rapidly (both business-wise and physically) since 2015, now having over 100+ employees and soon opening offices in the US. Airbridge, AB180’s proprietary attribution measurement solution, has become Meta’s (Facebook) official business partner, first to be accepted into both MMP and MTA programs globally.

The example above shows an Airbridge Touchpoint Analysis report

4) Kochava

Kochava is a newer and underrated player in the world of attribution. This does not prevent it, however, from providing a multitude of services. It’s clear that Kochava is eager to join the above-mentioned platforms and become a commonplace name.

To establish themselves, they have created their own Kochava Traffic Index that helps you choose higher quality users and low-fraud rate channels, which save you hours of research.

Besides helping you with attribution, Kochava also provides tools to increase user engagement, such as using push notifications to segmented users and A/B multivariate testing for experimentation.

They have a Unified Audience Platform that helps marketers establish customer identity, segment and activate audiences, plus measure and optimize marketing efforts across connected devices.

For smaller teams, or for those with limited budgets, one of Kochava’s main advantages is that it has a completely free version available—as long as you’re willing to share your data.

Best App Attribution Tools in a Nutshell

While many of the best mobile app attribution tools have many similarities, they have key differences that you should keep in mind when figuring out what’s best for you and your app product.

We’ve highlighted our top pick for best Mobile Attribution Tools as follows:

• Adjust – best for security & speed
• Appsflyer – best UI/overall
• Airbridge – Multi-touch attribution
• Kochava – great for indie teams

Notable mentions:

• Branch
• Singular

Depending on the size of your team, your timelines, and budget, you’ll want to do your own research to determine which choice best serves your needs. And, of course, if you need some expert assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We’re here for you!