Apple iOS14, Facebook Ads and Survival Of The Fittest

Apple iOS14. When Apple announced the news late last year, we had no idea just how big the impact was going to be.

Over the last two weeks, there have been several campaigns that we have been running for MONTHS that have been absolutely killing it but suddenly as if overnight, became unprofitable. 

On the other end of the spectrum, some campaigns are being inflated on Facebook reporting and not reflecting the back end sales accurately. 

If you're running Facebook ads, or you have the intention to run Facebook ads, then understanding what this update is all about and how it impacts you (and what you need to be doing to combat these changes), is going to be crucial. 

What is this iOS14 update that has everybody's knickers in a twist?

If it hasn't already happened and you're an Apple user, a popup will appear that is going to ask your permission to track apps across websites. 

Most people (who aren't advertisers) don't understand the benefit of tracking, and without thinking, almost like a knee-jerk reaction, they will opt not to track. They don't understand the upside of App tracking and only see it as a scary thing.

Many people are opting out of being tracked. What is the significance of this if you're running ads? It means that your audience targeting is not going to be that targeted anymore. 

For example, let's picture a gym that wants to run ads targeting people who like working out. 

In the past, let's say one thing Facebook used to do is track people who used an exercise app on the Apple store. This enabled the business owner to target people based on this fact (ie. targeting people who use the app as they are likely to enjoy being a member of the gym).

This scenario no longer exists.

Most users, upon seeing the popup, are going to instantly react with "Ask App not to Track".

Early Gmail users (this was 20 years ago? which makes me 10 lol) experienced something similar. There was a huge fuss when Google wanted to monetise with targeted ads based on the types of emails you'd receive. For example, if you received flight tickets to Bora Bora in your inbox you would then be targeted ads for hotels in Bora Bora. 

The majority of people are opting out because they think it's an invasion of privacy when in actual fact these apps aren't spying on you, it's just that your data is utilised to give you more targeted ads that would in many ways increase your user experience. 

What's going to happen is a lot of business owners relying on leads and sales through targeted Facebook Ads are going to be affected by this. 

But enough gloom and doom... what can advertisers do about this? 

So there are a few things you need to do to combat this if you're running on Facebook, and I've got some strategies that we have done to ensure our campaigns have remained successful. 

First, you should have already done the below steps ever since this news was announced late last year.

1. Verify your website domain in Facebook Business Manager.
2. Set up and prioritize your measurable web events on your domain (up to eight of them). This needs to be done so you can track your conversions.

Links on how to do this found at the bottom of this post.

Second, the biggest impact here is to do with conversions and reporting. 

We know that earlier this year Facebook replaced the 28-day attribution window for a 7-day window, but now we also know that real-time reporting will NOT be available for any conversion events triggered from Apple devices running iOS14. 

As a result of Apple's iOS14 update, Facebook is now predicting conversion reporting with a delay of up to 3 days. That's a significant difference from what was almost real-time. 

 Also, we'll still be able to target age and gender demographics, but we will NOT be able to access that data in reporting. 

Please do these things:

1. Monitor your back end sales. There is a possibility that people are converting and it's not being tracked on the campaign or ad level. Initial results on the campaign might suddenly become really bad or unprofitable, but you have to understand that the reporting is delayed, and it's part of the process.
2. Go broader in targeting. Focus efforts on broad targeting rather than retargeting because your pool for retargeting will become smaller. In my opinion, this is very sad news as retargeting has always been the haymaker for many advertisers, but all is not lost as we can still...
3. Complement retargeting with lookalike audiences. For example, if your ad set is retargeting website visitors, add a 1-2% lookalike of your website visitors to the same ad set as this will help broaden the audience reach. 
4. Consider using your CRM customer list and upload this to Ads Manager. Update this frequently because offline audiences are not impacted by iOS. Use conversion API methods to send independently tracked events back to Facebook. 

This is the new normal and we are going to have to get used to it. 

If you've heard me talk about ads before you know I always stress that there is no one strategy that fits all. Every business is different. 

Advertising and marketing principles are always going to be more important than technical tactics. (See my last post which outlines a strategy we implemented that is now generating our client 7 figures in additional revenue a month.)

Ultimately, it's not the end of the world. Algorithm changes are not a new thing. We should think of this arena as survival of the fittest - that's how we win. 

Advertisers who aren't able to generate profitable results are going to stop advertising altogether. As a result of that, what's going to happen to the cost of advertising? It's going to fall (unless Facebook comes up with a magic fix pronto), which at the end of the day, means a better time for the advertisers that are still around. 

Every moment of crisis creates opportunity if you are willing to pivot and adapt.  

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Domain verification: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/286768115176155?id=199156230960298

Setting up conversion events: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/964258670337005?id=1205376682832142&helpref=search&sr=1&query=standard%20events

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