Episode
Can We Still Trust Attribution? Brian Quinn on AppsFlyer, Privacy, and Measurement
- Podcast
- Signal & Noise
- Published
- Jul 9, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3825
- Processing state
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Summary
Attribution was supposed to get easier. Instead, marketers today operate in a world of disappearing identifiers, privacy restrictions, walled gardens that increasingly measure themselves, and consumer journeys that unfold inside environments few advertisers can fully observe. So how much confidence should we still have in the numbers? In this episode of Signal & Noise , Brett House and Rio Longacre sit down with Brian Quinn, President & GM of AppsFlyer , one of the most influential—but often least understood—companies in digital advertising. For more than a decade, AppsFlyer has been at the center of mobile measurement, helping brands understand where users come from, which campaigns actually drive installs and engagement, and how to measure effectiveness in an ecosystem transformed by Apple’s ATT framework, signal loss, and evolving privacy regulations. Together, we unpack one of the industry’s most important questions: Can attribution still be trusted? The conversation explores why mobile remains the dominant yet underappreciated consumer environment, whether multi-touch attribution still has a future, and why marketers are increasingly turning toward incrementality, clean rooms, and econometric approaches to understand what really drives business outcomes. We also discuss: • Why AppsFlyer became much more than an attribution company• Whether the walled gardens are effectively grading their own homework• The lasting impact of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency changes• Why fraud remains a massive hidden tax on digital advertising• The growing role of clean rooms and independent measurement• Whether privacy has made advertising measurement better—or simply more uncertain• How AI may reshape attribution and optimization over the next five years• What a modern me…