Today’s topic was definitely an important one as we broke the record for the amount of people watching us live! And no wonder as the topic was the new iOS 14 update and its impact for marketing. And nobody is better to talk about it than our own Head of Paid Social, Paul Drägert!
He created a very thorough presentation for us all, which can be accessed below:
What is the new iOS 14 update?
The new update will ask for tracking permission in all apps, meaning that app providers need to provide extra information on how they track users’ data. There will also be a new app product page dedicated to app privacy.
And, although it’s mostly Facebook and other such big social media apps or internet browsers like Google Chrome who will be affected by this update, it will have implications for other apps too.
We expect that this update will make it much more difficult for tech giants like Facebook (or rather its advertisers) to track users across the web, because when the user downloads an app, they will be prompted to opt in to tracking. When asked specifically to allow tracking, most users will very likely opt out – especially when it comes to tracking elements like “audience network” or showing Facebook-targeted ads outside of the platform. If most people do not allow Facebook to target them on other sites, this will be a major headache for advertisers.
But what if the user allows app tracking?
Here, Paul introduced two scenarios for when a person does something on an app that leads to something being tracked. For example, when a person is on their Facebook app, sees an ad for another app and clicks through to download it, the downloaded app’s tracker is started.
In the second example, Paul used a fictional e-commerce company called “Pumidas”. Here, the conversion which happened on the Pumidas website will be attributed to Facebook if it happens within 7 days of the person first clicking the ad to visit the website. If the conversion happens after one week then there is no attribution, as the conversion window has closed.
Now, for most products and services advertised on Facebook, the 7-day-click attribution is probably enough. But especially for B2B companies, this can be a very short time to convince a potential customer to click, even with lead generation.
This shorter attribution window will also have an impact on lookalike and remarketing audience sizes, which could have previously had a time span of 180 days. And obviously, it will also be hard to exclude those who recently purchased from you.
Why such a short time? Most likely due to the fact that, as Tim Cook mentioned in a inc.com article, the more time a company has to collect and store data, the more it can “chase” people around with different strategies.
Changes to Facebook Ads Manager
Facebook has created a new resource centre for advertisers to get more information about how the update might (and will) impact their campaigns on the platform. It also will show a task list of what the advertiser needs to do in order to make sure their ads are running as efficiently as possible.
Changes to the attribution window on Facebook Ads Manager
The update on Facebook Ads Manager might lead to some chaotic reporting as the legacy ad sets will still have the old 28-day-click attribution but the newer ones are already part of the new 7-day-click attribution. To avoid this confusion, we recommend you change the overall attribution to 7-day-click, so that the older ad sets also follow the new order. We also recommend using the same attribution window for your third-party analytics providers, such as Supermetrics.
Solutions
In spring 2021, Apple will introduce the Private Click Measurement (PCM), which will protect users’ individual and personal data but at the same time allow advertisers to keep tracking where their conversions actually come from.
Overview and actions for social & search platforms
Members of the Peak Ace team actually already put together a very informative article with a table to summarise what actions need to be taken for certain popular platforms for advertisers. So go ahead and read it!
How did the internet react to this?
Paul found a couple of interesting articles related to a recent speech by Apple’s Tim Cook about the upcoming privacy changes. Wired.com published an article about the ongoing “feud” between Apple and Facebook, where Apple basically accused Facebook of profiting off its users’ data, something which Apple has decided not to do. So here, Tim Cook has painted himself as heroically protecting Apple users from evil Facebook, taking and selling its users data.
The aforementioned inc.com article went further, claiming in its headline that Tim Cook just might have killed Facebook. Also a little longer than the Wired one, the article covered Cook’s speech and the algorithm in the context of the recent political events – i.e. Facebook’s algorithm can push a slightly radical person into a downward spiral of even more radical content. The problem of us staying in our own echo chambers because of the algorithms’ recommendations is a universal problem, not just one for Facebook. Paul also highlighted one statement from the article, where Cook criticizes Facebook for turning its customers into products. To this, Paul wanted to note that even though Facebook and Instagram do have their negative sides (as does everything in life), they also have done a lot of good, allowing people to connect with each other and to raise awareness of serious issues in their communities or countries. So, there are two sides to every coin but the battle will continue between these two giants – we users and advertisers simply have to adapt.
And adapt we will! This was an extensive presentation from Paul and we’re more than happy to answer any questions you might have about advertising on an iOS device. Just get in touch with our sales manager Stephen or by leaving us a comment via the form on the upper right-corner and we will get back to you!
