Earlier this year at the annual Worldwide Developers' Conference, Apple announced product and policy changes that will affect how data is shared across iOS. Unfortunately, the limits this change places on advertising will disrupt the growth of small businesses and the free internet.
Don’t get us wrong, we are all for proactive privacy measures and data transparency. We believe in a world where personalisation and user privacy can coexist. In saying this, we aren’t too happy about the policies Apple is bringing in.
What will change
The new iOS 14 update will force people to opt-in for their data to be tracked on their mobile devices and across the web. By opting out, Apple’s proposed changes will limit your ability to effectively reach, understand and engage people on their mobile devices and across the web. This will disrupt how you control who sees your ads, understand the performance of your campaigns and draw insights of user behaviour. Over time, you may see an overall decrease in ad performance and personalisation and an increase in cost per action.
Specifically, these changes will limit your ability to:
- “Effectively deliver ads to people based on their engagement with your business”
- “Measure and report on conversions from certain customers”
- “Ensure that your ads are delivered to the most relevant audiences at the right frequency”
- “Accurately attribute app installs to people using iOS 14 and later”
- “Predict and optimise cost per action over time and efficiently allocate budgets” (Facebook, 2020)
In summary
The changes to the policy in the iOS 14 update will make it harder for small businesses to reach their target audience. This limits growth and the ability to compete against the bigger players. It’s important to note that Facebook advertising isn’t (and shouldn’t be) the only driving force for selling online, gathering leads, building brand awareness. It is essential to create integrated campaigns across multiple platforms so that messages reach consumers in many areas of life, not just online.
What you can do to get ready for the change
If you plan to deliver conversion events on your website (you can read more about this here), you may need to verify your website's domain to avoid future disruptions. Domain verification should be prioritised for domains with pixels used by multiple businesses and personal ad accounts. If you plan to deliver ads for conversion events that occur within your business apps, follow these steps.
And if you’d like to read more about these changes, visit this blog post from Facebook, explaining the iOS policy changes in-depth.
Related Tag: Facebook Ads Australia