Its here! The dreaded Apple update is officially being rolled out. iOS14 and its impact on Facebook ads has been a huge topic for discussion in the online advertising world for a few months now, but what does it actually mean? As a result of the iOS14 update, Apple have now moved from an opt-out policy to an opt-in policy in an attempt to give users more control over their data privacy. This means that when you download a new app, you will be notified by a pop-up about how the app you are downloading will use your data and track your online behavior, providing the option to accept or not.
With so many people know realising how Facebook and other similar platforms use our data, it would be safe to say that more than 90% of users will opt out of behavior tracking.
These changes mean that the Facebook Pixel will no longer be viable. No longer will you be able to track the behavior of iOS14 users across the web and optimise campaigns for specific conversion actions. With the lack of behavioral data on users, audience targeting will no longer be as comprehensive, meaning broader audiences and lower ROI’s
The truth is that we don’t actually know the full impact these changes will have. We have seen the roll out of similar changes in the past cause stress and anxiety across the online community only to find that the impact was much less significant than initially expected. An example of this would be the introduction of GDPR in 2018. We all thought it would have a huge impact on the way we do business online, only to find that the impact was not as expected. As a result of GDPR we now see cookie opt-in’s everywhere resulting in most of us blindly accepting so we can continue with what we were doing. This could also be the case when it comes to the Facebook pop-up.
Approximately 80% of Facebook advertisers are just about seeing a return on ad spend meaning 80% of advertisers may leave the platforms a result of the changes. With ads being the primary source of revenue for Facebook, we would expect them to be spending enormous amounts of time and money in coming up with solutions that will bring back that huge volume of advertisers. But until then we should expect to see a drop in cost and competition, and a huge opportunity for those who know what they are doing.
All current campaigns that have been running since before the introduced changes will be optimised for the Facebook settings prior to iOS14. When the changes were introduced to the platform, these settings were no longer viable meaning your campaigns became ineffective the moment these changes were introduced. A super simple work around is to recreate your campaigns with the exact same options and settings. When re-entering the learning phase, your campaign will learn under the current Facebook algorithm settings meaning your results will more or less return to where they once were. These changes are taking effect on different ad accounts at different times so if you haven’t seen a drop in results yet, bare in mind you are still subject to the changes and may witness a drop off going forward, in which case implement this strategy.
Please Note: Once these changes are fully rolled out, results will be expected to drop across the board meaning the implementations of this strategy will not be able to bring back the results seen prior to the introduction. However, implementing this strategy will help. Want our help with getting your Facebook ads back to where they once were? Get in touch.