We have all been hearing about the new Apple iOS 14 data privacy update, but some are still unsure what exactly this update means and what consumers and marketers should do with these changes. Well, you came to the right place; we will take a clearer dive into this subject and tell you what you should expect to see in 2021.
What is the Apple iOS 14 update?
The new iOS 14 update now allows Apple users to opt-out of third-party tracking on websites and apps. By default, this setting is turned on which allows users to be tracked how they originally were, but it now can be turned off if the consumer chooses to do so. This is a big deal because it now allows consumers to use websites and apps without seeing personalized ads on their social media feeds. Now, some may say this isn’t a big deal, but others including Facebook disagree.
Why does it matter if I allow or prevent my data to be tracked?
On one side, consumers are happy without having targeted ads on their social media feeds based on their browsing activity. They do not like it and have no intention of ever purchasing a product, signing up with their email address, or filling out a lead form. However, this does not mean they’ll stop receiving ads altogether. It means that the ads that are being served to them will not be as personalized and accurate to what the consumer is actively browsing for. This is what advertisers are worried about because if a user does not get personalized or even accurate advertisements, they will be less likely to engage with them thus hurt campaign performance altogether. Yet, does it matter even though the consumer would never engage with an ad anyway?
By not allowing permission to track users on websites and apps, consumers are saying that they would rather not have personalized ads for websites and apps they have engaged with. They may be missing out on holiday promotions, discount codes, seasonal sales, new products/services, and other benefits of not allowing themselves to be tracked. Would you rather have personalized ads instead of ads you do not have any intention of interacting with? Facebook has been vocal about this for the past few months now saying, “We disagree with Apple’s approach and solution, yet we have no choice but to show Apple’s prompt. If we don’t, they will block Facebook from the App Store, which would only further harm the businesses and users that rely on our services. We cannot take this risk on behalf of the millions of businesses who use our platform to grow.”
What changes should we expect from an advertising perspective?
Currently, in February, we are seeing minimal changes as advertisers, but we do expect to see KPI changes as consumers become more aware of this Apple feature. We could see little to no disturbance or we could start to see Facebook pixel data become less valuable and a shift to opening up our audience targeting. In the meantime, we suggest following these two steps to ensure your business manager and ad accounts are set-up properly for the Apple iOS 14 updates:
- Complete Domain Verification – All businesses should verify their domain as a best practice. However, it’s important to prioritize verifying your domains if your domains integrate pixels that are owned by multiple businesses or personal ad accounts. Please note that domain verification is not a new process and businesses can complete it from their Business Manager. The key difference is that domain verification needs to be done at the effective top-level domain plus one (eTLD+1), but the process is otherwise the same. Learn more about domain verification.
- Operate with up to 8 Conversion Events per Domain – You can only configure up to 8 unique conversion events per website domain that can be used for campaign optimization. Ad sets optimizing for a conversion event that’s no longer available will be paused. You can configure these 8 conversion events in Events Manager. Learn more about Aggregated Event Measurement.
At the end of the day, the new Apple iOS 14 update is something that your marketing department should be discussing and keeping an eye out for. There is still a lot of unknowns about what will happen with these changes and their effects on digital advertising altogether. If you are curious about how Anvil Media can assist with these new changes please reach out here and our paid media specialists can help.