An MMP is a neutral referee for app installs. When someone installs an app after clicking an ad, the MMP decides which ad network or affiliate gets the credit and tells everyone involved. App advertisers pay for installs and in-app actions based on what their MMP reports.
A mobile measurement partner is a third-party platform that attributes app installs and in-app events to the media sources that drove them. AppsFlyer, Adjust, Branch, Singular and Kochava are the main ones. The advertiser builds the MMP’s SDK into the app; ad networks and affiliate networks send their clicks, and sometimes impressions, to the MMP through attribution links, and when the app is opened for the first time the MMP matches the install to the winning touchpoint and sends a postback to that source.
The matching works differently on each platform. On Android it relies mainly on the Google Play Install Referrer, which hands the referring click data to the app, plus the advertising ID where the user allows it. On iOS, App Tracking Transparency, introduced with iOS 14.5 in April 2021, requires apps to ask permission before accessing the IDFA, and most users decline, so user-level matching is limited. Apple’s SKAdNetwork, and AdAttributionKit, available since iOS 17.4, report installs in aggregated, delayed postbacks that MMPs decode for the advertiser.
For CPI and in-app event offers in an affiliate network, the MMP is the source of truth. The network’s tracking link redirects through the advertiser’s MMP attribution link, and the MMP’s postback, not the network’s own count, decides what is paid. MMPs also run fraud protection and reject installs that show patterns such as click flooding, click injection or impossible click-to-install times; those rejections are among the most common reasons for scrubbed app conversions.
Lookback windows matter as much as the payout. MMPs credit a click only within a window set by the advertiser, a common default being seven days for clicks and one day for impressions. Affiliates promoting app offers should know which MMP the advertiser uses, the windows, which events are paid, such as install, registration or purchase, and how quickly rejected installs are reported, because those rules decide the real income more than the headline CPI.
An affiliate runs a utility app offer at 1.50 USD per install for two weeks.
| Stage | Count |
|---|---|
| Clicks sent through the affiliate’s link | 40,000 |
| Installs attributed to the affiliate by the MMP | 1,120 |
| Rejected by MMP fraud rules | 140 |
| Paid installs | 980 (1,470 USD) |
All 140 rejections came from one sub-source that produced most of the clicks with almost no installs, the classic signature of click flooding. Cutting that sub ID shrinks the click count but leaves paid installs intact and keeps the affiliate in good standing with the advertiser. Numbers are illustrative.
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A mobile measurement partner: a third-party platform such as AppsFlyer or Adjust that attributes app installs and in-app events to the ads and partners that drove them.
To have one neutral source of truth across many ad networks and affiliates, with fraud protection and postbacks to every source.
On iOS, users who decline tracking cannot be matched by IDFA, so attribution leans on SKAdNetwork or AdAttributionKit aggregates and other privacy-safe methods.
Usually the advertiser’s MMP. Its postbacks, after fraud rejections, define the installs and events the network pays for.
References are listed as plain text on purpose; look them up by title and publisher. Updated: 2026-10-09.
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