Facebook iOS 14 Changes

With the rollout of Apple’s iOS 14 in spring 2021, Apple will start asking users of apps like Facebook if they would like to opt-in to their tracking, changing what has always been an ‘opt-out of tracking’ to an ‘opt-in to tracking’. This applies to Instagram as well, as it’s part of the Facebook Ads ecosystem.

Users that opt-out of tracking will no longer be able to be tracked by Facebook’s pixel and therefore won’t be part of personalized advertising and conversion tracking. Facebook is unsurprisingly not happy about this, but are being forced to comply as so many of its users are on iOS devices.

However, with Aggregated Event Measurement, Facebook will still be able to track and report on conversions from people that opt-out of tracking.

That makes optimization toward conversions possible, as Facebook is still allowed to track one conversion event under ‘aggregated event measurement’.

How will this affect advertising on Facebook?

Like anything, there are pros and cons to these changes.

Pros:

• Potential lower cost of advertising:

  • Facebook CPMs have been going up consistently over the last 10 years. To the point where it’s too expensive for many advertisers to generate a positive return on investment. We expect that CPM will drop by at least 25% as it becomes less competitive to reach certain audiences. The reality is that most people do accept cookies so the anticipated impact could be as low as a 5% reduction in tracked conversions

• More focus on alternative methods of tracking and less reliance on Facebook Ads manager results

• Innovation from Facebook and other platforms that find alternative ways around relying on other businesses platforms.

  • Facebook is already planning on showing users its own prompt, educating users on how they use their data, presumably to encourage them to opt-in to tracking on iOS14.

Cons:

• A delay in conversion reporting

  • Conversions won’t appear in the Facebook Ads manager for 48-72 hours instead of a few hours. This isn’t changing what is actually happening, but only what you see in FB Ads Manager.

• Less accurate audience targeting

  • With less personalized data to use for targeting, audiences will either become much smaller or just not available for advertising.

• Aggregated Event Measurement will combine different conversion events into one.

  • So instead of having multiple tracking events throughout the funnel (like ‘add to cart’), these will be rolled up into a single event.

• Smaller remarketing and custom audiences

  • Users that opt-out will not be included in these remarketing and custom audiences.

• Less relevant ads

  • Users that decide to opt-out will, without a doubt start to see less targeted and relevant advertisers and probably more ads from the big brand advertisers who are more likely to target broadly.

What you can do about it:

• Facebook is recommending that all advertisers verify their domain via Facebook Business Manager

• Focus on creating strong offers that you can tie back to an ad with UTM tracking, dedicated landing pages, or unique coupon codes.

• Make sure you have reliable tracking in place outside of Facebook Ads Manager. That could include:

  • Your CRM (HubSpot, Pardot etc.)

  • Google Analytics or another analytics platform

  • Custom solutions built on UTM tracking

• Bolster efforts on other advertising channels like Google LinkedIn, Microsoft Ads

• Understand the ‘halo-effect of Facebook Ads

  • Right now tracking from Facebook Ads is not perfect, and ad impressions and traffic from Facebook can be under-counted by the platform. Looking at your Google Analytics data can help better understand the ‘halo-effect’ of advertising on Facebook.

The future is now?

I think this is much less about protecting consumer privacy than it is a power-struggle between Apple and Facebook over tracking control and monetizing user data.

Ultimately, I think this will push Facebook to find a way around its reliance on Google and Apple. In 2019 it was reported that Facebook was already working on building it’s own OS so that it’s AR technology did not have to rely on Google’s Android.

I will say that none of our clients built their businesses entirely on/with Facebook Ads and that any campaigns we’re running there are only one slice of overall marketing efforts. There are, however, many businesses, especially D2C startups that have done just that. These are the companies that are most at risk from the impact of these changes. Facebook Ads is their primary advertising channel and they will suffer the most from not being able to effectively target their audience and track conversions.

It’s still the wild-west out there. Not so long ago we didn’t have social media platforms influencing elections, starting social movements, and upending financial markets. As marketers, we all need to adapt to the changing world of digital marketing.

Further reading:

User Privacy and Data Use (Apple)

Speaking Up for Small Businesses (Facebook)

About Aggregated Event Measurement (Facebook)