Primer — How the industry views the IDFA

This article serves as a means to enumerate the mechanisms by which the Marketing industry leverages the IDFA token.

There are four ways by which developers leverage customer data:

• Attribution: Share 1P data with 3P to measure user acquisition campaigns
• Personalization: Deliver contextual messages using 1P data to further engage users within the service. This includes creative optimization.
• Re-Targeting: Share data with 3P for re-engagement campaigns
• Monetization: Share data with entities who will display personalized ads within the application in exchange for money

Glossary of terms used in this article:

• MMP: A mobile measurement partner helps businesses measure efficiency of advertising
• Demand Partner: Also know as a DSP (Demand-Side-Platform) helps advertisers match their creatives with the best possible lead
• SSP: Supply-Side-Platform helps businesses monetize their products by matching the user with the best possible creative

Here’s an illustration of how the IDFA helps with Attribution:

1. App-A wants to acquire more customers in the funnel
2. App-A works with Demand Source to deliver ads in exchange for money
3. User-X (on App-B) sees an ad that is interesting, taps and is taken to download/view App-A
4. Demand Source ties the click with the IDFA belonging to User-X passed along from App-B (Via SSP-B)
5. AdNetwork sends the click event (tied to the IDFA) to an MMP-A (Mobile Measurement Partner)
6. App-A registers the launch and subsequent events tied to User-X with the IDFA
7. App-A sends the launch+subsequent conversion events to MMP-A
8. MMP-A uses the click to understand conversions at key milestones — This helps evaluate the quality of the user as well as the channel

Here’s an illustration of how the IDFA helps with Personalization:

1. App-A wants to re-engage an existing user-X from other apps (eg: A personalized Netflix trailer in your Facebook feed)
2. App-A enlists MMP to deliver segments as targetable assets
3. App-A delivers a cohort of IDFAs to the MMP-A
4. MMP-A passes cohort along to partners including FB, Google and other ad-exchanges
5. The ad gets displayed to user in App-C; If tapped, launches App-A
6. App-A passes additional telemetrics (keyed-off IDFA) over to the MMP
7. MMP delivers attribution+LTV analytics to App-A

Here’s an illustration of how the IDFA helps with Monetization:

1. App-A wants to provide their users with a freemium alternative to consuming content by displaying ads
2. App-A enlists SSP-A to work with one or more exchanges to sell their ad spots
3. On a per-user basis, App-A delivers user attributes to SSP-A to fill an ad spot with an impression.These attributes are tied to the IDFA.
4. SSP-A passes the word along to DSP/AdNetwork (in real time) to fetch and fill the best possible advert

Finally, here’s an illustration of how the IDFA helps with Re-targeting:

1. App-A has signed User-X up for a freemium/subscription service
2. User-X attempts the subscription trial, engages with the service to a fair degree
3. User-X finds the service useful but too expensive at the offered price point.
4. User-X churns from service
5. App-A uniquely identifies churners and advertises a special winback deal from within the application
6. In parallel, App-A enlists the help of partners such as Google and FB to retarget users
7. The IDFA is leveraged for the purposes of identifying the user outside the app sandbox

Now that we’ve reviewed the mechanisms by which the advertising/marketing eco-system leverages the IDFA, we will analyze the impact of said practices in Part-II.

Feel free to drop me a note should you find this interesting and have additional questions.