This week, the long-awaited (or dreaded – depending on your opinion) Apple iOS 14.5 is finally being rolled out. As Apple users download the new update they have the opportunity to opt-out of cross-app tracking, what can you do as an agency or advertiser to maintain your campaigns and ensure the best success?
Double-check Your Preparedness
If you are a Facebook/Instagram advertiser, in Facebook Business Manager make sure you have executed the recommended actions in order for your campaigns to continue to run. If you have not completed this exercise or are using any custom conversions, your current ads may have already been turned off by the platform.
Verifying your domain and removing any events on your Facebook pixel beyond your eight most important KPIs is mandatory for campaigns to run. Once you have completed those steps, update your Aggregated Event Measurement tool to rank your events in order of importance. This will help to ensure if only one action can be used for optimization, the platform is optimizing towards the most important event. For step-by-step instructions on how to implement these changes in Facebook click here.
Don’t Panic
Keep in mind, your ad campaigns are probably not going to see an immediate and sustainable drop in performance. Most advertising platforms have already changed their attribution windows to align with the new operating system prior to the launch. For example, Facebook/Instagram changed their attribution windows to be a max of a one-day view-through and a seven-day click-through, so they were positioned appropriately when the launch occurred. In addition, Apple users will not all be downloading the update at the same time or opening all apps immediately after the software update. Changes to ad performance on different platforms may vary over the first month as the opt-in/opt-out ratio changes for each platform. Be patient and stay the course with your advertising vendors through this time as they adjust and don’t make any hasty decisions with your ad dollars.
Be Ready To Pivot
While being patient with your ad platforms as they adjust to this change, you should start thinking of ways to shift your strategy if your current advertising campaigns do not recover in the long-term from this iOS update. This could include testing different audiences for your campaigns, optimizing creative for better performance, or changing platforms altogether. As everything levels out, we recommend as a best practice for the foreseeable future to have creative sizes prepared in case you need to switch out creative types in-platform or move to an entirely different ad platform quickly.
Spread Out Your e-Commerce
If you sell products online, strongly consider also selling directly from any platforms outside your website that have a shopping function. Since a lot of consumers will turn off their cross-app tracking, the more areas of the sales funnel you can fill in one platform, the better. For example, if a consumer starts on Instagram and visits items in your shop on Instagram, you can then retarget them on both Facebook and Instagram and push them back to the shop to purchase. This enables the whole awareness to conversion experience to be done in-platform, similar to Amazon and will allow you to track that consumer from initial exposure to purchase. Otherwise, you could potentially lose track of the consumer once they click off the app and to your website to purchase and miss the benefits of understanding the customer’s path to purchase.
Spread The Word
Use your social media to encourage people you know to keep sharing their data! Most people don’t understand what they’re being asked to do, so as a person they trust, sharing the information with them might resonate further. Here’s a template you can customize for social media!
Hey everyone!
You might notice you’re seeing pop-ups on your Apple device apps when you login after downloading Apple’s new iOS 14.5. You’ll be asked if you want to share your information outside of the app for a better advertising experience. The benefit to you is to have a more personalized experience in the app and be shown ads that would interest you. I would love if you could say yes and pass on the word to others to do the same!
Your personal information is NOT shared with a third-party when you say yes. Saying yes to this basically allows advertisers to track a purchase from its origin, so they can tell what advertising campaigns are working. They don’t know who you are, they just know that XX purchases came from an advertising campaign so they can use their advertising dollars effectively to optimize to best performing campaigns. During a time when small businesses can be struggling to get sales, allowing them to continue to have transparency on what is working and what isn’t just makes sense and can help others!
Thank you!!
Reach Out For Help
If you need help navigating this privacy change or other paid media opportunities for your brand? The Brandon Agency can help with all of your digital and traditional media placement needs. Contact us today to get started.
Courtney Olbrich
Media & Analytics Director
Courtney is our Media & Analytics Director, located in our Myrtle Beach office. She has over 20 years of experience in marketing and advertising, with a wide variety of clients. Hailing from Metro Detroit, Michigan, it comes natural that she is an avid sports fan. So much so that all of her pets are named after professional baseball stadiums!