If you spend much time in online advertising (or if you’ve logged into Facebook Ads Manager this year), you’ve probably heard about the iOS 14 update’s impact on advertising and therefore the IDFA armageddon. And, if you’re like many businesses and advertisers, you almost certainly did a touch of digging, figured it mostly boiled right down to a shouting match between Apple and Facebook, and advance. After all, there’s always some new update that promises to ruin online marketing forever. Capitalizing on our fear of the unknown, advertising gurus prophesy that “the end is near!” and then…not much happens. The update rolls out, we all adjust and it’s back to business as normal. Sure, a couple of businesses (that are usually milking a loophole the update is meant to eliminate) get the short end of the stick, but most folks are just fine. Over the years, I’ve seen several of those game-changing updates roll out, and therefore the game has always stayed about an equivalent. It seems scary initially, but things end up okay. you almost certainly haven’t been too worried about the hype surrounding the IDFA apocalypse. However, no matter whether or not iOS 14 spells the top of advertising as we all know it, it’s still an enormous change. As advertisers, we’re getting to need to adapt to a post-IDFA world. So, during this article, we’re getting to take a tough check out what’s changing, why it matters, how it’d affect your business, and what you’ll do to adapt. We’ll just specialize in the realities of things and what they mean to you. The iOS 14 update, however, is different. Apple doesn’t care about whether or not your business can advertise effectively on Facebook. Your ad spend isn’t a source of revenue for them (relatively speaking). Apple cares about making its customers happy. And, in light of all the info and privacy breaches apps like Facebook have experienced in recent years, prioritizing privacy may be a great way for Apple to form its customers happy. Even without the info breaches, most of people don’t like ads—especially ads that are almost intrusively personalized. So, unlike the “game-changing” updates we’ve seen in the past, the iOS 14 update doesn’t have our advertising best interests at the bottom. In fact, it’s quite the other. What’s Changing with iOS 14 update impact on advertising forces advertising platforms to try to do things differently in several ways. As you’ll probably imagine, those changes have downstream consequences for advertisers, so let’s take a glance at what’s changing.
Targeting
Whether they know it or not, marketers are heavily reliant on the wealth of knowledge provided by cookies so far. Facebook tracks all types of data about its users—on and off of Facebook or Instagram—and uses that information to work out which users to point out which ads. Obviously, losing access to tons of that data will have an impression on audience targeting. additionally, however, losing the power to trace which specific users click on your ads also will affect your ability to make retargeting and lookalike audiences. This is where things get scary for several advertisers. The more complex your sell is, the harder it’s to convince someone to convert directly. Many advertisers affect this by creating layered customer journeys where potential buyers are shown different ads as they progress towards conversion. With iOS 14, however, that kind of progressive buyer journey becomes tons harder. Retargeting audiences will become smaller as people cop out of tracking on iOS 14, making it harder and harder for advertisers to nudge prospects ever closer towards converting. Again, this alteration will presumably affect small businesses the foremost. the apparent solution for giant businesses is to use their email lists to create retargeting and lookalike audiences. It’s a step backward, but not a crippling one. Smaller businesses, however, often don’t have large email lists. Their customer base is fairly small, in order that they simply don’t have enough emails to run an efficient remarketing campaign. Instead, they’ll be forced to believe upper-funnel marketing efforts…even if their products or services take time to warm up to. What does that mean for app advertisers? Well, at a minimum, it’ll delay event reporting for up to 3 days after an app is installed. additionally, lift measurements are going to be unavailable for iOS 14 App Install and App Events campaigns and event data are going to be restricted to a maximum of nine campaigns and five ad sets per campaign for each Facebook Ads account. Most problematic of all, the SKAdNetwork only seems to properly attribute about 68% of conversions. That 32% inaccuracy can have an enormous impact on Facebook’s algorithms, potentially causing your ad’s exposure ahead of the incorrect people at the incorrect time. additionally, it could lead you to form adjustments to campaigns supported by bad data, further compromising your results. Depending on your current app advertising strategy, these changes could require an entire overhaul of your Facebook campaigns. Or, it’d not make that much of a difference. It all depends on how complex your advertising model is.
How Will iOS 14 Affect Your Business?
As you’ll probably tell, there are tons of variables at play during this situation. Anything from your business size to what you’re advertising to your buyer journey can influence how iOS 14 update impact on advertising will affect your business. However, there are a couple of things to think about as an attempt to assess iOS 14’s potential impact on your advertising:
Where Do Facebook Ads Fit Into Your Buyer Journey?
Different businesses use Facebook Ads in several ways. Facebook and Instagram Ads are generally low-purchasing intent ad platforms. As such, many businesses use Facebook Ads an equivalent way they use display ads: to get awareness. If that’s true of your business, iOS 14 might not affect your advertising considerably. If all you employ Facebook Ads for is to urge people into your funnel, it should still be an efficient top-of-funnel channel. However, if you believe Facebook Ads for middle- or bottom-funnel advertising, the iOS 14 update could hurt. A lot. This is very true if you’re selling a product or service that needs tons of explanation. Odds are that folks won’t “get it” the primary time they see your ad—or albeit they are doing, they often need time to believe it—and your buyer journey depends on staying ahead of these people until things finally click for them. If this seems like your business model, you’ll probably get to find other ways to remain ahead of prospective customers. Create lead magnets. Build out your email lists. Invest into more email marketing. And, use those email lists to create remarketing audiences in order that you’ll still stay ahead of potential customers on Facebook.
How Do Your Customers Find Your Business?
Depending on what you’re selling, your customers will find your business in several ways. If your products or services are something that folks look for online, iOS 14 might not affect you considerably. you would possibly lose some remarketing sales, but Facebook Ads probably isn’t a central part of your advertising strategy. If you’re selling something people wouldn’t think to shop for otherwise, however, you’ll be reliant on Facebook Ads to create awareness for your business. during this situation, there are a couple of things that will influence whether or not iOS 14 features a significant effect on your business. First off, are your customers using the Facebook mobile app on an iPhone? 80% of Facebook users only use Facebook on the mobile app. By comparison, just 1.7% use Facebook only on desktops. However, if you recognize your audience and most of them fall under the 20% of users who use the desktop version of Facebook, you won’t be stuck handling the PCM protocol. So far, only the Safari browser uses the PCM protocol, so your customers are going to be cooked normally. Similarly, albeit most of your audience uses the Facebook mobile app, if the bulk of them have Android devices, iOS 14 won’t have an enormous impact on your advertising. While the iPhone remains the dominant smartphone within the US, Android devices are rising in popularity. If your audience prefers Android, you’ll not have much to stress about. Where does one Do Most of Your Advertising? Similarly, while the iPhone dominates the US smartphone market, only 8.9% of Facebook’s users are within the US. Outside of the US, Android devices are much more popular than the iPhone, so only 14.9% of the social media giant’s 1.8 billion users access Facebook on an iPhone. Globally, 80.5% of Facebook users access the mobile app on Android. So, if you are doing most of your sales outside of the US (and especially outside of the US, Europe, and Australia), iOS 14 could also be just a blip on your radar. But, if you are doing most of your sales within the US, you’ve got tons more to stress about.
Verify Your Domain(s) with Facebook
Hopefully, you’ve already done this, but if you haven’t verified your domain gives you the power to settle on which eight conversion events you would like Facebook to trace. Even if you don’t expect iOS 14 to possess much effect on your ad performance, you’ll still want to try to do this because Facebook is implementing the eight conversion restriction across the board. There is a spread of the way to verify your domain on Facebook. If you’re not particularly tech-savvy, you’ll need a developer’s help, but with the proper skill set, you’ll verify your domain in only a couple of minutes. To verify your domain, you basically just need to prove that you simply have access to the backend of your site. for instance, you’ll add a DNS TXT entry from Facebook to your DNS record, upload a Facebook-provided HTML file to your web directory, or add a meta tag to the section of your domain home page. Again, hopefully, you’ve already done this—since it’s required to grant certain permissions for your ad account—but if you haven’t, now’s an excellent time to form it happen!
Conclusion
The iOS 14 update’s impact on advertising promises to be…interesting. Like many of the “apocalyptic” changes we’ve seen in online advertising over the years, it probably won’t be as bad as some people make it bent to be. As with every marketing challenge, the important question isn’t “Will this affect my business?” but “How will my business adapt to the present change?” Now, you ought to remember what to observe and have some ideas for a way to reply. the remainder is up to you.
