About on-device conversion measurement for iOS App campaigns (original) (raw)

Implementing durable measurement strategies is crucial for understanding the impact of your marketing efforts and optimizing your investments. Google’s on-device conversion measurement improves the amount of observable conversions to enhance campaign optimization and reporting for your iOS App campaigns in a privacy-preserving manner. In this article, you’ll learn about the key benefits of on-device conversion measurement, how it works, and the implementation requirements to enable it.

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Benefits of using on-device conversion measurement
Implementation requirements to get started
Optional ad relevance improvements
Considerations around implementing on-device conversion measurement

Benefits of using on-device conversion measurement

On-device conversion measurement (ODM) helps you measure app installs and in-app actions from your iOS App campaigns while keeping user data private. There are 2 variants of this solution:

Using first-party data, for example, email and phone number data collected by your app’s sign-in experience through Google Analytics for Firebase SDK. This variant is a fit only if your app collects first-party data from signed in users.
(NEW) Using de-identified, temporary app event data, such as data derived from device signals like IP addresses and timestamps.

For advertisers running iOS App campaigns, we recommend implementing both variants of this solution to maximize performance and reporting benefits.

Key benefits of this solution include:

Improved campaign reporting & performance: Boosts conversion observability enabling better campaign optimization and more accurate, comprehensive and real-time reporting in third-party App Attribution Partner interfaces. Advertisers who have implemented this solution using their first-party data and have a majority of users logging in, have seen strong results, with a median 19% reduction in CPA on Google’s owned inventory.
Privacy-preserving: Works utilizing privacy-centric technologies and techniques which ensure no identifiable information ever leaves a user’s device or is disclosed to external parties, including Google.

Implementation requirements to get started

Each variant of this solution has specific implementation requirements. In order to activate each, you will need to:

Using first-party data:
- Ensure your app can run on iOS 12+
- Integrate with the latest Google Analytics for Firebase SDK version
- Create an app sign-in experience that collects user-provided emails or phone numbers
- Call the on-device measurement API with the email or phone number data you gathered
Using event data:
- Ensure your app can run on iOS 12+
- Integrate with the newest version of the default Google Analytics for Firebase SDK (version 11.14.0 available in June 2025)
- Link your Google Analytics property to a Google Ads account that runs iOS App campaigns
- Verify integration following the steps in the Tutorial: Measure iOS Ads conversions using event data
- To opt out, exclude the GoogleAdsOnDeviceConversion library from your app’s build. Detailed developer information can be found in the latest Google Analytics for Firebase SDK Release Notes and the Firebase FAQ page.
- This feature will be inactive for all users located within the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom, and Switzerland.

Optional ad relevance improvements

Advertisers with on-device conversion measurement using first-party data may also benefit from ad relevance signals to deliver more relevant ads. These improvements gather and utilize additional user data signals, like IP addresses, to increase your campaign performance by using de-identified data from across users’ apps and devices.

As a reminder, you have the option to display a prominent link in your disclosures to make clear how Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services, including information about the technologies used.

Considerations around implementing on-device conversion measurement

If on-device conversion measurement (ODM) isn’t working as intended for your iOS App campaign, it may be misconfigured. Review the following considerations to make sure that ODM is successfully implemented:

Use Firebase SDK events (not Measurement Protocol events): ODM requires the conversion source of targeted events to be Firebase. Events should not be sent through server-to-server (S2S) integrations. Learn more about server-to-server integrations or [GA] Measurement Protocol.
Target primary GA properties only: Targeted events must originate from a primary Google Analytics for Firebase (GA) property. Events imported from a GA sub-property are not compatible. Learn more about About subproperties.
Avoid Firebase Audience-triggered events: Events that are triggered when users match the definition of an audience within Google Analytics are not supported by ODM. Learn more about [GA] Audience triggers.
Avoid reserved names for custom events: Avoid the use of "firebase_", "google_", or "ga_" as prefixes for your custom event names, as they are considered reserved names. If you use them for custom events, it will prevent ODM from tracking them correctly. Learn more about Event naming rules.

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