Mobile publisher, don’t wait for IOS privacy release

In just six months' time give or take, you will be facing a new reality; one in which you're unable to attribute your traffic to source on mobile phones – and not only that, you'll only have one chance to convince users to allow you to track his/her device ID for third-party use purposes.

MY GOD, this is the end of the internet as we know it...

Now instead of speculating on what you will or will not be able to track, when the all-important question should pop up and whether or not Android will follow in this thing's path, let’s talk about the actions you should take TODAY to ensure you stay on top of your game.

First thing's first, NO – saying you will use Android data to reflect IOS devices is not an option. You shouldn’t count on the attribution tool's alternative giving you 100% coverage, and if I may be honest, anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying to you or has an interest in you continuing to pay them. We're going to have lower coverage, and that's something we need to accept. Collecting a lot of data today won't really help, so let's avoid doing that!

In fact, what you should be doing is very simple: first up, change the way you think about data, break down your accounts, build a first-party tracker, and… ah yes, start talking to your user about how you are adapting to a privacy-first culture so that, when the day comes, you can count on him or her to opt in.

Rethink data

When I talk about rethinking data, I mainly mean rethinking how you make decisions so that they are based more on internal data over that of third parties. But the most important thing, in my opinion, is rethinking what data you share with third parties.

We already have GDPR, LGDR and CCPA, besides the countless other laws out there that are centered around getting consent to share data – but maybe you should think more about what you share and why you share it. Does company X really need to know your users' basket size? Does company Z really need to know how many users are buying an item in the game?

We've gotten used to the concept of sharing data with third parties with the expectation that doing so will help us monetize the product and ensure our ads are being served to more suitable users. But the reality is that we don’t need to ask others to do a job we can do by ourselves.

At the end of the day, we know our product and we know what experience we want to sell. We also know how our product works best. So why are we sharing so much data externally?

Account breakdown

Try to create more ad serving accounts and spread out different tests across them. Our budget is limited, so we've gotten used to putting all of it – or most of it – into one main account because it works best. We've also gotten used to putting as much money as possible on one campaign, when in actual fact, this isn't necessary at all.

Looking forward, we might actually need an account for IOS14 users and other IOS users, so why not start now and practice adopting different strategies for different accounts? Why is this worthwhile? Well maybe you will learn some interesting strategies for converting your users, even those who choose not to share their device ID with you.

First-party tracker

Tracking your users – oh dear, can I say this without losing some friends? – should be an internal process and not an external one.

One of our biggest challenges is to fully track the user, and for this we use external tools – tools that go against the privacy-first approach. Ask yourself this: is sharing user data with third parties upholding privacy? What about sharing his or her site actions?

Well this issue will be solved with the new privacy release anyway. It will no longer be possible, because you will need to be tracking the user internally, creating a unique identification, only using first-party trackers, not third parties.

Privacy-first communication

That's right, we need to be communicating with the user whenever we can, explaining to them the ways in which we are maintaining their privacy, and that involves revealing how we collect their data, how we share their data, how we store their data and for how long.

We should also be explaining to them why we use third parties in the first place. Why do we make such a big deal about revealing what third parties we use and how we use them? We should be helping the user understand how we design marketing tools like newsletters and ads, and how we use their data and others' data to do so. We shouldn't be shy about this.

Communication, communication, proactive thinking about privacy and a bit more communication. This is key to successfully retaining your users and ensuring future users trust you.