Apple's iOS 14.5 update introduced App Tracking Transparency, which limits ad targeting and data sharing. Advertisers are shifting strategies to Android devices and focusing on conversion events instead of broad audience data.
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The Apple iOS 14.5 update has led to more sleepless nights than Freddy and Jason combined. This new update could have some horrifying effects on your ads. Here's what you should know. Unveiled in the spring of 2021, Apple's iOS 14.5 update hit the streets. And it came with a lot of really cool stuff, including the ability to unlock your iPhone with an Apple watch while wearing a face mask. More diverse Siri voices, new emojis, and an updated Google Maps, to name a few. But tucked in, there is also a bit of a marketing game changer called att, or App Tracking Transparency. See, in order for companies to decide how to run ads geared specifically to you, they have what's called IDFAs, or identifiers for advertisers. This is what gives your apps the ability to communicate with each other. Communicate with each other? My apps can talk. My phone is listening to me. Okay, okay, calm down. It is, but not how you think it is. Here's how it works. IDFA means your phone has an ID number attached to it. Say you go to a shopping app on your phone to check out some hats. The IDFA number acts like an ID card that tracks you while you're getting into all the other cool apps in that shopping app. It's freely sharing information such as age, location, health, stats, spending habits, and your browsing history, to name a few. That info is then shared across other apps you have, including your social media, so that when you get back from a long session of browsing, you are instantly greeted by a lovely fruit basket in the form of an ad for hats on your feed. App Tracking transparency is the thing that stops all of that. ATT is the bouncer that's coming around and saying, no, y' all can't talk anymore. No more getting consumers ID numbers, no more freely communicating, and no more automatic gift baskets waiting for you back on your feed. The party's over. The show is done. How, you may ask, due to att, instead of these apps just automatically sharing your information like they always have, you now get a message like this, asking you if you would like your data to be shared. Good, right? See, the problem is that this little extra step has led to some scary numbers for advertisers. Initial estimates said just 4% of U.S. users and 11% of worldwide users are allowing themselves to be tracked. That's a total of a 14% buy in for a tool that supports a $189 billion mobile advertising industry. Why would Apple do this? Well, that's because it's something that they've always believed.
I'm an optimist. I believe people are smart and some people want to share more data than other people do. Ask them. Make them tell you to stop asking them. If they get tired of you asking them, let them know precisely what you're going to do with their data.
So what can you do to make sure this doesn't mess up your ads? In the immortal words of Dan Patrick, you can't stop them, you can only hope to contain them. This is the future, and there isn't a ton that you can do to completely replace the Oasis you all had. But there are some clever things you can do to supplement and limit the damage. Number one Target Android devices. While Apple is extremely, extremely popular, they don't own the world or the market on all smartphones. Apple's iOS only controls about 25% of the global smartphone market, with the other 75% largely controlled by Google's Android. Remember, the privacy update will only affect Apple devices, so don't forget about your Android ad campaigns. Your ads on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google can still be targeted to Android users without the worry of impact. Number two Prioritize your most valuable conversion events. When you create a new Facebook ad, you'll be asked to choose a conversion to optimize for. This means that Facebook will try its very best to show the ads to the people most likely to complete that conversion event. These events include purchases, leads, adds to cart, checkouts, initiated searches, content, views, etc. Pretty much any action a user takes on your website. These new tracking rules mean that Facebook can only track one event per interaction with your ad, meaning that if a user went to your website, made a search, viewed content, added to the cart, and initiated checkout, Facebook would only track and report one of those events based on your prioritization. But choose carefully. You can only choose eight events per verified campaign. You need to decide which eight conversion events are most important to your business and track those. Look, I know all of this seems really scary, but don't worry. I'm sure if we all focus in and use some of these workarounds, then over time you won't even be thinking about anything having to do with privacy updates anymore. Oh, we'll talk. As always, that's the info. Do with it what you will. Until next time, adios. See, in order for companies to decide how to run ads gear specifically to you, they have what's called. They have what's called IDFAs.
