SKAD vs SKAN vs SKAdNetwork: What’s the Difference?

SSP, DSP, MMP, CPM, CPI, CPA, ROAS, ROI –  We as a mobile ecosystem love acronyms and sometimes we love them a little too much. That’s why we have acronyms like SKAD, SKAN, and SKAdNetwork and people can’t tell if we’re talking about Apple’s privacy centric framework StoreKit AdNetwork or something else.

Let’s start with SKAdNetwork:

SKAdNetwork Apple’s short form name for StoreKit AdNetwork.

Though it was shorter than the original name, SKAdNetwork is still not easy to pronounce so we came up with SKAD.

Now onto SKAD:

According to free dictionary, SKAD refers to:

Steal, Kill and Destroy
Survival Kit – Air Droppable
Sk Advertising (UK – advertising)

But what we really mean to say is:
StoreKit AdNetwork, with an emphasis on the S, K A, and D

And finally SKAN:

According to the same dictionary, SKAN refers to: 
Saint Kitts and Nevis (a dual island nation located between the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean, also the smallest country in all of the Americas)

But again what we really mean to say is:
StoreKit AdNetwork, with an emphasis on the S, K, A, and N

So whether you call it – SKAD, SKAN, or SKAdNetwork – we’re all really just referring to the same thing – StoreKit AdNetwork. If you want to go mainstream, go with SKAdNetwork though it’s a mouthful. For me, I like to go with SKAN since it sounds better and plus who doesn’t want to be associated with an island? At Liftoff, internally we call it SKAN as well.

Also it doesn’t leave out the “Network” like SKAD does:

SKAD –  StoreKit AdNetwork (network is sad)
SKAN – StoreKit AdNetwork (everybody is happy!)