Mobile measurement partner (MMP)

A mobile measurement partner is a third-party platform that sits between an app, the ad networks it advertises on, and the app stores, to determine which marketing channel, campaign, or ad drove a given install or in-app event. Because an app developer cannot see inside a competing ad network's own reporting, an independent MMP is used as a neutral, trusted source both sides accept.

MMPs perform install attribution using a mix of techniques: matching a click to an install within a time window, referral parameters passed through the app store, and, on iOS, aggregated postback data from Apple's SKAdNetwork framework rather than device-level matching. They also typically provide deep linking infrastructure so an ad click can route a new or existing user to a specific in-app destination rather than just the app's home screen.

MMPs matter because mobile attribution cannot be done reliably with the same cookie-based techniques used on the web, and advertisers need a consistent, cross-network view of which spend produced installs and downstream value. The main pitfalls are relying on a single attribution model (such as last-click) that can systematically favor certain channels, and treating MMP-reported installs as guaranteed real users without watching for fraud signals like install farms or click flooding.