iOS

How to create a native iOS app that can read Search Ads Attribution API information

TL;DR

In this post, I’ll show you how easy it is to create a native iOS app that can read Search Ads Attribution API information.

You can check out the full working code on Github.

What is Search Ads App Attribution?

From Apple’s documentation:

Search Ads App Attribution enables developers to track and attribute app downloads that originate from Search Ads campaigns. With Search Ads App Attribution, iOS developers have the ability to accurately measure the lifetime value of newly acquired users and the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns.

Steps to recreate this yourself

  • Create a new blank project in Xcode
  • Add a label on the Main.storyboard:

  • Create an Interface Builder Outlet for this label and name it searchAdsInfoLabel. For those not familiar with iOS development, this is done by pressing Ctrl and dragging the label into the ViewController.swift file.

  • Once done, you should see this in your ViewController.swift file:
import UIKit

class ViewController: UIViewController {
    @IBOutlet weak var searchAdsInfoLabel: UILabel!

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
    }

    override func didReceiveMemoryWarning() {
        super.didReceiveMemoryWarning()
        // Dispose of any resources that can be recreated.
    }
  • Next, import iAd to your project:

  • import iAd in your ViewController.swift file: import iAd.

Add the following function to the ViewController.swift file:

func getSearchAdsInfo() {
    ADClient.shared().requestAttributionDetails({ (attributionDetails, error) in
        if error == nil {
            for (type, adDictionary) in attributionDetails! {
                print(type);
                print(adDictionary);

                let attribution = adDictionary as? Dictionary<AnyHashable, Any>;

                let iadAdgroupId = attribution?["iad-adgroup-id"] as? String
                let iadAdgroupName = attribution?["iad-adgroup-name"] as? String
                let iadAttribution = attribution?["iad-attribution"] as? String
                let iadCampaignId = attribution?["iad-campaign-id"] as? String
                let iadCampaignName = attribution?["iad-campaign-name"] as? String
                let iadClickDate = attribution?["iad-click-date"] as? String
                let iadConversionDate = attribution?["iad-conversion-date"] as? String
                let iadCreativeId = attribution?["iad-creative-id"] as? String
                let iadCreativeName = attribution?["iad-creative-name"] as? String
                let iadKeyword = attribution?["iad-keyword"] as? String
                let iadLineitemId = attribution?["iad-lineitem-id"] as? String
                let iadLineitemName = attribution?["iad-lineitem-name"] as? String
                let iadOrgName = attribution?["iad-org-name"] as? String

                self.searchAdsInfoLabel.text = "iad-adgroup-id: \(iadAdgroupId ?? "")\niad-adgroup-name: \(iadAdgroupName ?? "")\niad-attribution: \(iadAttribution ?? "")\niad-campaign-id: \(iadCampaignId ?? "")\niad-campaign-name: \(iadCampaignName ?? "")\niad-click-date: \(iadClickDate ?? "")\niad-conversion-date: \(iadConversionDate ?? "")\niad-creative-id: \(iadCreativeId ?? "")\niad-creative-name: \(iadCreativeName ?? "")\niad-keyword: \(iadKeyword ?? "")\niad-lineitem-id: \(iadLineitemId ?? "")\niad-lineitem-name: \(iadLineitemName ?? "")\niad-org-name: \(iadOrgName ?? "")"
            }
        }
    })
}

Call this function in the viewDidLoad() method.

The full code listing, of the ViewController.swift file should now look like this:

import UIKit
import iAd

class ViewController: UIViewController {
    @IBOutlet weak var searchAdsInfoLabel: UILabel!

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        getSearchAdsInfo();
    }

    override func didReceiveMemoryWarning() {
        super.didReceiveMemoryWarning()
        // Dispose of any resources that can be recreated.
    }

    func getSearchAdsInfo() {
        ADClient.shared().requestAttributionDetails({ (attributionDetails, error) in
            if error == nil {
                for (type, adDictionary) in attributionDetails! {
                    print(type);
                    print(adDictionary);

                    let attribution = adDictionary as? Dictionary<AnyHashable, Any>;

                    let iadAdgroupId = attribution?["iad-adgroup-id"] as? String
                    let iadAdgroupName = attribution?["iad-adgroup-name"] as? String
                    let iadAttribution = attribution?["iad-attribution"] as? String
                    let iadCampaignId = attribution?["iad-campaign-id"] as? String
                    let iadCampaignName = attribution?["iad-campaign-name"] as? String
                    let iadClickDate = attribution?["iad-click-date"] as? String
                    let iadConversionDate = attribution?["iad-conversion-date"] as? String
                    let iadCreativeId = attribution?["iad-creative-id"] as? String
                    let iadCreativeName = attribution?["iad-creative-name"] as? String
                    let iadKeyword = attribution?["iad-keyword"] as? String
                    let iadLineitemId = attribution?["iad-lineitem-id"] as? String
                    let iadLineitemName = attribution?["iad-lineitem-name"] as? String
                    let iadOrgName = attribution?["iad-org-name"] as? String

                    self.searchAdsInfoLabel.text = "iad-adgroup-id: \(iadAdgroupId ?? "")\niad-adgroup-name: \(iadAdgroupName ?? "")\niad-attribution: \(iadAttribution ?? "")\niad-campaign-id: \(iadCampaignId ?? "")\niad-campaign-name: \(iadCampaignName ?? "")\niad-click-date: \(iadClickDate ?? "")\niad-conversion-date: \(iadConversionDate ?? "")\niad-creative-id: \(iadCreativeId ?? "")\niad-creative-name: \(iadCreativeName ?? "")\niad-keyword: \(iadKeyword ?? "")\niad-lineitem-id: \(iadLineitemId ?? "")\niad-lineitem-name: \(iadLineitemName ?? "")\niad-org-name: \(iadOrgName ?? "")"
                }
            }
        })
    }
}

After you run the project (make sure you run it on your device, as you won’t get any data back on the simulator) you should get some stub data that Apple returns:

Conclusion

If you’re utilizing Apple’s Search Ads, then I hope this helped you see how easy it is to fetch Search Ads App Attribution information in your app.

Of course, once you get the data, you should send this to your server for saving and further analysis.

Written by Nikola Brežnjak