How Apple iOS 14 Update Will Potentially Affect Facebook Ads
IOS users make up nearly half of Facebook users worldwide, How would you feel if you could no longer effectively market to them? In December of 2020 Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, announced The App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature to be a part of the new IOS 14 update. What is ATT and how can we prepare for it?
What is App Tracking Transparency?
One of the main tools in a digital marketer’s arsenal is data and leveraging it to make correct decisions with ad placement. With ATT and the IOS 14 update, iPhone and Ipad users will have to permit companies like Facebook to track their data across applications or only have access in-app. This could potentially lead to millions of users that will be untrackable to your business outside of Facebook, Instagram, Google, and anywhere else that you may run online ads.
Once prompted, the user decides on whether or not they would like their data to be tracked. If they press allow nothing will change. If they decline you will not be able to track anything from these users. So what does that mean for you?
How will ATT affect you?
The update will limit the effectiveness of many different strategies. Retargeting pools will become smaller, broad targeting will become less effective, and you will have fewer data to make accurate decisions. The little click attribution data you do have will be inaccurate and only available for a 7-day window. This means that items that take longer than 7 days for a decision to be made may never be recorded. Lastly, you will not be allowed to have any cross-domain tracking and will be limited to 8 events per domain. If you have multiple sites that are broken into many different domains you must choose one and will be limited with the number of events that you may use. So what are some steps you can do today to get prepared for IOS 14?
How can you prepare for IOS 14?
FB will give estimated results stat
Facebook understands that IOS 14 will cause a shift in the way the site is currently used, because of this Facebook will provide tools and models that can help you forecast the future even though you are missing data.
Verify your domain inside the business manager
I cannot stress how important this is. If you do one thing after reading this article it is that you should verify your domain in the ads manager
Set up conversions and tagging through Conversions API
As we are moving to a world without cookies you also need to set up your server-side tag. It is also showing high match rates currently and may only get stronger in the future. Do this after you verify your domain
Plan your 8 conversion events
Now that you are limited in your domain per pixel and limited to 8 events you should strategically plan events. If you have click funnels or used multiple domains because of Language barriers you need to have a plan when rolling out your 8 events.
Figure out which conversions fall outside of the 7-day window
Since things purchased outside of the 7-day window will not be tracked you need to understand what items are likely to fall outside and take that into account when observing your data. High ticket items or items that may weigh on the customer’s decision-making ability will see a drop because they won’t be recorded.
Use less Dynamic Ads
Facebook will have fewer data to optimize Dynamic Ads which will lower their effectiveness
Build email list
As we go down the path of less data being available having an email list or online community will be very beneficial. You will have something to fall back on to get your message and products out to your customers.
Develop new strategies that do not require reporting
As stated earlier having an online community will always be a valuable asset. You can build and grow this through many different ways such as: recruiting from an email list, providing discounts, hiring an influencer with a highly specific niche that matches your products, etc.
Video Ads are great because you can retarget based on time spent watching the ad
While you cannot track between apps you can track what people do while they are on the app. I recommend using video more to have a better idea of which customers are interested and target based on watch time.
Focus on overall ROAS to determine which variables are most effective
You may have relied on Facebook’s ROAS calculations in the past but now that they will not have the data required you must take matters into your own hands. It will be better to track your own ROAS so you can accurately know how your ad spending is helping. You can then isolate the variables and determine exactly what will efficiently help your business.