As you may already be aware, during early 2021 Apple will be launching a new Privacy Policy update across all iOS 14 software versions. Serotina has synthesized the details of the iOS 14 update below and how it will impact your brand via FB Ads platform. Please know that the below does not affect other mobile operating systems (ex. Android).
As a current Facebook advertiser, we’re providing you with an overview of how these changes are being interpreted by Facebook Business Marketing to take you through the key steps and adjustments that your business will need to make in order to comply and best-align.
Firstly, the Apple update will allow all iOS 14 users to opt-in or opt-out of being uniquely tracked across each specific app that they have installed onto their device. Apple’s policy will prohibit certain data collection and sharing unless people opt into tracking on iOS devices via the prompt that will appear when they open Facebook. Users who ‘opt-out’ of tracking cannot be tracked or measured by any third party companies. Note that it is more likely for users to opt out than to opt into this tracking.
This means trouble for Facebook and Instagram.
Facebook relies on in-app user tracking capabilities for targeting and measurement, and will be restructuring their current platform and trading infrastructure to help minimize the impact this will have on their clients (us). Because they do not have a separate Ads Manager platform for iOS and Android, they will be making significant changes across devices even if you’re not necessarily targeting iOS 14 users.
These changes are specifically related to the accuracy and depth that we (as advertisers) would normally see within our FB Ads campaign reporting and are due to the following reasons:
- Loss of visibility of those who have opted-out. Any action that is taken on your website or app once the user leaves the Facebook app (either organically or from clicking on a link), will not be tracked. If they choose to opt into being tracked, then we will be able to track all of their interactions and conversions as per normal. This means that if a user has ‘opted-out’ and clicks on one of your ads to then add items to their cart and/or complete a purchase etc (conversions), that user’s conversion(s) will not be tracked in Facebook conversion reporting, i.e. how we measure our ads’ performance.
- Changes in Facebook Attribution. Going forward 28 day click-through, 28-day view-through and 7 day view-through conversion windows will not be supported for active campaigns. Moving forward, 1-day click, 7-day click and 1 day view-through will be the attribution settings, with 7-day click becoming the default. This means that for someone who clicked our ad and then continued onto shopping, deciding to come back to our website and purchase after 7 days – the purchase will not be tracked. Before the iOS 14 update, that purchase would be able to be tracked for up to 28 days after the user has originally clicked our ad.
- The removal of Custom Events. While not every agency has access to build Custom Events within Facebook, Serotina Media has been very fortunate to have this extra functionality. However once the iOS 14 update is rolled out, Facebook will be removing Custom Events from all users, allowing only Standard Events (purchase, page view, leads, registrations, etc) and Custom Conversions (URL-based conversions) to be available to track and optimize towards. This means that conversions (purchases, page views, leads, registrations, etc) that do not fall under the ‘Standard Events’ category will not be tracked. So, if your campaign currently tracks ‘Custom Events’ (specifically coded conversions), as of the iOS 14 update this tracking will not be possible via the reporting FB allows. This doesn’t impact the majority of our conversion tracking as the metrics we look at are standard conversions.
- Limitations on demographic data. As a result of the limited visibility and more people opting out, this will impact retargeting audience sizes as well. This means that we will have to readjust our current audience targeting in order to continue reaching as many people and more than we have been. We will also not have full insight into how many people we will be reaching with our ads, i.e our audience size.
- Domain and conversion registration. As part of the platform update, in order to continue tracking any conversions/events throughout your campaigns, you must register your domain (and subdomains) and a maximum of 8 conversion events. Because this registration will take place within your own Business Manager, any stakeholders that track and optimize towards conversions within Facebook on your behalf, will only have access to the 8 conversion events that have been registered and prioritized within your Business Manager. This will require action from your end and can be actioned as of now; we have provided some detailed instructions and tips on how to register your domain and 8 conversion events below. In other words, the iOS update will only track your campaigns if your website domains/subdomains are registered (which is something that you have to do within your own Business Manager – don’t worry, we’ve got instructions below).
While Apple has not yet released when they plan to roll out the update to iOS 14, there are specific preparatory steps that we should take ASAP that should minimize its impact on advertising and allow for a smoother transition to the new platform and practices.
If you optimize, target or and/or measure website events (conversions), below are some actions that you and Serotina Media can take to prepare:
Key Priorities
- Verify your domain in Facebook Business Manager. Instructions here: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/domain-verification. Can only be done via an admin of the domain’s Facebook Business Manager. Serotina Media are happy to guide and assist if/when needed.
- Prepare for attribution window changes by using the Comparing Windows feature in Ads Manager to see performance across all existing windows. Serotina Media will be completing this from our end and reaching out to review and discuss the impact of shorter conversion windows.
By end of January (ideally)
- Set up event configuration for your domain in Events Manager. Serotina Media to assist with the prioritization of the 8 conversion events.
- Review and consider replacing ad sets that will be impacted. Duplicate ad sets that use new conversion events will be published immediately and replaced ad sets will be paused. If this is not the desired outcome, we can wait to replace ad sets once the update occurs.
Here is a reference to the announcement/resource from Facebook.
