Mobile Dev Memo Podcast

Season 5, Episode 16: Quantifying the impact of ATT (with Daniel McCarthy)

Apr 15, 2025

In this discussion, Daniel McCarthy, an Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Maryland, shares insights from his recent research on the impact of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT). He highlights how ATT has disproportionately affected small businesses, leading to significant declines in advertising effectiveness and revenue. The conversation dives into the challenges of adapting marketing strategies in the wake of privacy regulations and clarifies common misconceptions about ATT’s true effects on e-commerce performance.

47:55

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Episode guests

Daniel McCarthy

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Quick takeaways

The implementation of Apple's App Tracking Transparency significantly hindered ad effectiveness, particularly impacting small businesses reliant on Meta advertising.

Understanding user context through innovative technologies like Context SDK can enhance engagement and profitability by optimizing marketing strategies.

Deep dives

Context SDK and Its Impact

Context SDK leverages over 200 smartphone signals to accurately assess a user's real-world context, enabling apps to deliver timely push notifications and relevant in-app offers. By optimizing messaging delivery based on user behavior, one of its clients experienced a significant 80% boost in conversion rates and a 20% increase in customer lifetime value. This innovation highlights the importance of understanding user context for enhancing user engagement and driving profitability. The technology showcases how data-driven insights can transform marketing strategies and achieve substantial business outcomes.

Intro

3min

Navigating Long-Term Value and App Tracking Transparency

15min

Analyzing the Revenue Impact of App Tracking Transparency on Small Businesses

5min

Navigating App Tracking Transparency

15min

Understanding the Nuances of App Tracking Transparency's Revenue Impact

3min

Navigating App Tracking Transparency: SMBs' Struggles and Strategies

7min

My guest on this week’s episode of the podcast is Daniel McCarthy, who is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. The topic of our conversation is a draft paper for which Daniel is a co-author: Evaluating the Impact of Privacy Regulation on E-Commerce Firms: Evidence from Apple’s App Tracking Transparency. I cited this paper in Could ATT be rolled back?, and we unpack the paper’s findings in detail in the episode.

Among other things, we discuss:

Background on the paper, including its general methodology and principal findings;
Why so little academic research has been dedicated to the effects of ATT;
The qualities of small business marketing that made it disproportionately susceptible to the restrictions of ATT;
How SMBs have adapted to ATT;
The consequences of ATT on lower-funnel metrics and how the impact of ATT on upper-funnel metrics might be misleading;
The misapprehensions or points of confusion about ATT that are most common;

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

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ContextSDK. ContextSDK uses over 200 smartphone signals to detect a user’s real-world context, allowing apps to deliver perfectly timed push notifications and in-app offers.

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact ⁠Marketecture⁠.