What is iOS 14.5+ Attribution?
Also known as: App Tracking Transparency, ATT
Apple's 2021 privacy framework that broke deterministic cross-app tracking on iOS, fundamentally changing paid-social attribution.
The detailed definition
App Tracking Transparency (ATT), introduced in iOS 14.5 in April 2021, requires apps to ask user permission before tracking them across third-party apps and websites. The vast majority of users say no. Deterministic device-level attribution for paid social on iOS effectively collapsed — Meta lost 20–35% of attribution visibility on iOS users, with corresponding drops in reported ROAS. Five years later the workarounds have matured but the gap remains. Modern paid-social attribution combines four data sources: platform modeled conversions (ML estimates of the iOS conversions platforms can't deterministically track), server-side conversion APIs (CAPI / Enhanced Conversions), SKAdNetwork for app installs, and backend revenue reconciliation against actual orders. No single source is ground truth.
Related terms
Frequently asked about iOS 14.5+ Attribution
›How much did iOS 14.5 affect paid-social ROAS reporting?
Meta and other paid-social platforms reported ROAS dropped 10–35% on iOS-heavy accounts when ATT rolled out in 2021. Some of that gap has been closed by modeled conversions and server-side tracking; the underlying loss of deterministic tracking remains.
›What's the workaround for iOS attribution gaps?
A combination: platform modeled conversions (Meta's ML estimates), server-side conversion APIs (Meta CAPI, Google Enhanced Conversions, TikTok Events API, Snap CAPI), SKAdNetwork for app installs, and backend revenue reconciliation against your actual orders. Modern attribution cross-checks three or four sources rather than trusting any single one.
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