Hi Apple Support,
We're reaching out to clarify what appears to be unexpected behavior in the AdServices token attribution API, specifically around reinstall attribution for apps with high reinstall rates.
The problem
For an app with a high reinstall rate, our ASA install counts are significantly higher than what the Apple Ads dashboard reports. Total install counts across all sources match closely — the discrepancy is specifically in ASA-attributed installs.
What we tested
To investigate, we ran a controlled experiment:
- Installed an app by tapping an Apple Search Ads ad.
- Deleted the app.
- Reinstalled the app approximately 15 minutes later directly from the App Store, without tapping any ad.
- Fetched a new AdServices token and exchanged it with Apple's attribution API.
The API returned attribution: true with the original campaign details (same campaignId, adGroupId, keywordId) and conversionType: Download. The reinstall was attributed to the ASA campaign even though the user did not interact with any ad before the second install.
Question about documentation
The Apple Ads help page defines a tap-through Redownload as:
"A redownload is when a user downloads your app, deletes it, then downloads it again on the same device or a different one following an ad tap."
Could you clarify: does "following an ad tap" mean the redownload must be directly triggered by a tap on an ad? Or does it mean any redownload that occurs within the 30-day attribution window of a prior ad tap?
Question about intended token API behavior
Is the AdServices token API intended to return attribution: true for installs where the user did not tap an ad before that specific install, but had interacted with an ad within the past 30 days?
In other words, is the token API designed to attribute all installs within the 30-day window regardless of whether the current install was ad-driven, or should it only attribute installs that were directly preceded by an ad interaction?
We would appreciate any clarification on the intended behavior, as this directly impacts how we reconcile install counts between the AdServices API and the Apple Ads dashboard.
Thank you for your time.