NAPA – North Adriatic Ports Association

What Is The New iOS Update And How Will It Affect Digital Advertising?

There has been a lot of buzz about the Apple iOS 14 update. Most people are worried about how it will relate to Facebook advertising and performance tracking metrics. Here is what you need to know about the new update. If you need digital advertising services please look no further!

What Is The iOS 14 Update?

Apple announced in June 2020 that they would release new privacy features to change tracking and reporting metrics used in advertising. With the iOS 14 update, apps should ask users for permission to share or collect data using Apple’s device identifiers for advertisers. Therefore, all Apple users will see a popup similar to the prompts that come up for cookies on websites. Here, they can opt-in or out. It is expected that the new update will prevent data collection and sharing unless the user opts-in.

What Is Apple’s Device Identifier For Advertisers?

It refers to a random device identifier usually assigned by Apple to every device. Advertisers use this to track data and deliver custom adverts to Apple users. The data is used to discover information such as when the user interacts with a mobile advertising campaign.

How Will The iOS 14 Update Affect Facebook Advertisers?

With the new update, there will be an impact on how platforms such as Facebook can collect and process information from tools such as Facebook pixel, often used by advertisers to track conversions. Before the update, device identifiers were available for most of the users. However, with the update, few users will opt-in so the advertisers will have access to a few of the device identifiers available to them previously. Businesses will have a hard time marketing themselves so they can’t make more money through advertising.

When Will iOS 14 Be Introduced?

The new update has been postponed a few times but Apple has announced that it will be mandatory for all apps by early spring.

What Can Advertisers Do?

The industry at large is still waiting for guidance from Apple on how to adapt and meet the necessary requirements before the new update. However, Facebook advertisers should take a few proactive steps to meet their needs. For instance, Facebook has come up with a new domain verification feature. Here, any website advertising through Facebook should go through the ownership verification checks. It is a simple process but it needs a verification code to be added to a website before any advertising can be done on Facebook.

Facebook has mentioned that the new update will have a harmful effect on small businesses. However, user privacy and personalized ads can coexist peacefully with the new iOS update. Yes, the platform will show Apple’s prompt but Facebook will also come up with its own prompt to offer more information on how the personalized ads will be used. Therefore, if you accept the prompts for Instagram and Facebook, the ads you come across will not change.

However, it doesn’t mean that Facebook will not be collecting new data. If you decline, you will still see some ads but they will become less relevant to you. If you are worried about how the new iOS update will affect your digital advertising, do your research and get the best information on the process. That way, you can stay ahead of the curve rather than being completely locked out.