Who Adjust is
Adjust is a mobile measurement company based in Berlin, founded in 2012 and part of AppLovin since 2021. It tells app marketers which campaign brought each install and what those users did next. Around that sit deep links that still work after an install from the app store, fraud prevention, audience lists for retargeting and its Datascape reports.
On iPhones it works with Apple's App Tracking Transparency, SKAdNetwork and AdAttributionKit, it offers data residency in the European Economic Area, and it maintains its own Flutter SDK next to its iOS and Android SDKs. That is why it is one of the mobile attribution connectors of our analytics and monitoring module.
What it does in your platform
Analytics & monitoring
Shows your marketing team which campaign brought each install, and which of those installs went on to open an account or make a first payment, so ad spend is judged on real customers. Adjust's SDK records installs and sessions for customers who agreed, and the platform's server reports the events that involve money.
How the connection works
In the apps, Adjust's own Flutter SDK, adjust_sdk, records installs and sessions once a customer agrees. On the server, the platform sends money events to Adjust's server-to-server (S2S) events API and erasure requests to its data erasure endpoint, both authorised with S2S Security tokens from your Adjust dashboard.
An ad brings an install
A customer taps one of your campaign's Adjust links, installs the app and opens it. Until they choose, the app sends Adjust nothing.
Consent comes first
The customer agrees to attribution in the app's consent screen, and only then does the app start Adjust's SDK. On iPhones, Apple's tracking prompt is shown before the SDK starts, and the SDK sends the answer with the install. If they decline the prompt, Adjust never gets the advertising identifier.
Adjust attributes the install
Adjust matches the install to the campaign that brought it and gives the device an Adjust ID. The platform keeps that ID next to the customer's random platform ID, never a name, email or phone number.
An account is opened
When the KYC check passes and the account opens, the platform's server sends an account-opened event to the S2S events API, with the device's Adjust ID, and the platform ID as a callback parameter for your own exports.
The first payment settles
When the ledger settles the customer's first payment, the server sends that event the same way. In Adjust's Datascape reports, marketing compares campaigns by the customers who opened an account and paid, not by installs alone.
The customer changes their mind
If they withdraw consent in the app's settings or ask to be forgotten, the app switches the SDK off, the server stops sending, and the platform calls Adjust's data erasure endpoint. Adjust deletes the device's personal data and stops receiving data from it.
Next to other providers
Adjust is one of the module's attribution connectors, next to AppsFlyer, Branch and Singular: it answers where a customer came from. Mixpanel, Amplitude or Google Analytics for Firebase show what customers do in the app, Customer.io keeps in touch with them, and Sentry or Firebase Crashlytics report crashes. The analytics, attribution and engagement tools start only with the customer's consent for their purpose, know them by the same random platform ID and receive only the events on your tracking plan.
The tracking plan, the consent choices and the money events live in the platform rather than in Adjust. Moving to another attribution provider later changes a connector, not your apps' screens, events or consent flow.
When Adjust fits best
A strong fit when
- You pay for app installs on several ad networks and want to judge them by accounts opened and first payments.
- You want attribution that works within consent: Apple's tracking prompt, aggregated SKAdNetwork and AdAttributionKit results, and raw data kept in the EEA.
- You want installs from data centres, VPNs and Tor, injected clicks and unusual click patterns kept from being credited to your campaigns.
Also worth a look
- Product analytics alone, with Mixpanel, Amplitude or Google Analytics for Firebase, when you do not run paid campaigns for your apps.
- An attribution provider your marketing team already uses: its account becomes a connector too.
How we get you live
The contract
We help you get your Adjust account and contract in place, with the features your campaigns need, such as fraud prevention and data residency in the EEA.
The data
We choose the data region with you before launch, because Adjust sets it per app and it cannot be changed later. Together we agree the events on your tracking plan, such as account opened, card issued and first payment.
The keys
S2S Security tokens go into your platform's secrets, and S2S authentication is switched on so Adjust rejects server requests without a valid token. The apps only carry the app token that identifies them to Adjust.
A full test run
The apps and the server first send to Adjust's sandbox environment, and we check consent, installs, events, deep links and erasure on test devices in Adjust's Testing Console, before the switch to production and your first real customer.
