With the release of iOS 14, Apple is taking a big step towards granular user privacy – and a huge potential bite out of marketer’s efficiency for certain types of campaigns. They are rolling out an update – named IDFA, or, Identifier for Advertisers – that will greatly change how marketers can reach users on iOS devices within apps.
As we saw last week, Facebook is not a fan of the new changes that Apple is rolling out. I almost never agree with Facebook policies, but I can see why they are concerned. On one hand Apple is putting more control in the hands of its users. That seems to be a great thing for users. On the other hand, I question that Apple really has the best interest of its users at heart here, and instead I’d argue this is a similar move in their playbook to further lock down access to user information on their platforms, and further deepen their competitive moat against google and other tech companies. That’s likely bad for the user long term.
Regardless, the changes to impact general Facebook and Google display ads powered through the FB display network (among others) as well. The change will impact anyone inside of an app on IOS who is being marketed to. The user will now get a prompt asking if they want the app to allow them to be tracked. It’s highly likely most users will say no, which means the advertiser advertising within that app won’t know to remarket or move users being marketed to into more relevant ads displayed because they won’t have data telling them anything about individual usage patterns.
The good news here is users browse more freely and are tracked less than before. The bad news is that advertisers lose some targeting, which means costs will go up and relevancy will go down.
3rd party attribution companies are racing to find workarounds with device fingerprinting the leading option, but it’s a long ways off from being as good as the current tracking capabilities.
Here’s a short video with a more detailed view of what’s happening, as well as some of my thoughts.
More information can be found in these sources below:
- https://mobilemarketingmagazine.com/the-implications-of-idfa-with-ideas-and-solutions-from-the-gaming-industry
- https://www.cmswire.com/digital-marketing/why-apples-changes-to-idfa-will-make-things-harder-for-marketers/
- https://www.appsflyer.com/mobile-attribution-glossary/idfa/
- https://www.adexchanger.com/mobile/apples-policy-is-clear-email-is-not-gonna-take-the-place-of-idfa/
- https://9to5mac.com/2020/12/16/ad-industry-accuses-apple/
- Device fingerprinting https://9to5mac.com/2020/09/04/ad-industry-tracking/
- https://www.macrumors.com/2020/12/23/ios-14-4-beta-app-tracking-prompt/