There is always a lot of noise whenever Apple announces a new update to its operating system. In light of this, it was no surprise to see a lot of media coverage when iOS 14 was released in September 2020. There has also been a lot of talk about this update since 14.4 was released in early 2021. For digital marketers, the biggest potential issue with the iOS 14 update was the perceived impact on Facebook ads.
But just what has changed and how significant could it be to the future of ad campaigns on this social media giant?
iOS 14 from Apple – what has changed for Facebook ads?
In simple terms, the latest update by Apple has affected the way in which Facebook receives and reports ad conversions. This is thought to impact any organisation which uses mobile apps to run ads and may also have a negative effect on the ability to target and report on online conversion events. Apple now also dictates that all external apps in its store must ask users for explicit permission to track their data outside the app.
From a marketing point of view, this is pretty bad and could make it much harder to run or track Facebook ad campaigns via mobile. If users opt-out of sharing data when prompted, Facebook will not be able to keep tabs on their behaviour and any Facebook ad or remarketing results may be severely weakened. It will also hit marketers’ ability to create ultra-personalised ads in Facebook for users.
With it being reported that almost 80% of Facebook users access the app through their mobile device, it could be a real worry. When you also add in the restrictions it brings around reaching your target audience and fewer Facebook ad driven sales through websites, it is a serious situation.
What possible solutions could businesses find?
With so many businesses affected, many are now looking at solutions which help limit the impact on their Facebook ad campaigns. The main workaround lies in understanding that pixel tracking is the major tech issue and how this then impacts conversion tracking and remarketing.
With this in mind, one solution, for now, could be simply excluding iOS devices from any conversion objective driven campaigns on Facebook. Although this is not ideal, it might at least help you deal with the impact of this latest update. In addition, you might choose to run campaigns that sit outside of conversion objective rules. This would entail running web visit based marketing campaigns that use your own internal tracking to work out if a conversion or sale happened, due to the ads in Facebook.
The last effective workaround is asking for user information earlier in the whole process of conversion. This then allows you to upload this information into Facebook afterwards to help with remarketing.
Let CDA help make navigating the latest iOS update easier
Here at CDA, we can help your business navigate the changes which the latest iOS 14 update has brought to ad campaigns in Facebook. Our experienced team of digital marketers have an in-depth knowledge of this area and how to make ads on Facebook work still for iOS users. Contact us for more details.
