In case you missed it, Apple has recently announced changes with iOS 14 that will affect how Facebook both processes and receives conversions from tools like the Facebook pixel. Any business that advertises on mobile apps, as well as any business that uses data from tools like the Facebook pixel to optimize their ads will be affected.
In accordance with Apple’s AppTracking Transparency framework, Apple will prohibit certain data collection and tracking unless users opt into tracking on iOS 14 devices via a discouraging prompt. Here’s how this Apple software update will affect your ads going forward.
Limited Reporting
Unfortunately, businesses will be limited in their ability to measure the success of an iOS 14 install campaign. According to Facebook, for iOS 14 app install campaigns, reporting will need to rely on data from Apple’s SKAdNetwork API for mobile app installs and other app conversion events. Here are some other ways Facebook says the update will affect reporting:
- Delayed reporting
- Estimated results
- No support for breakdowns
- Changes to account attribution window settings
While these changes to reporting seem abundant, Facebook states they might not all occur at once, and may be staggered over time.
Targeting Limitations
Unsurprisingly, as more people opt out of data tracking and collection, the size of your audiences, such as Custom Audiences and Lookalike Audiences, may decrease as well.
Ad Creation Limitations
While your existing ads will work for iOS 14 users, you’ll need to create separate iOS 14 app install campaigns due to reporting limitations from Apple’s SKAdNetwork API. According to Facebook, here are some limitations you’ll need to consider going forward:
- Auction is the only available buying option when you create an ad for devices on iOS 14, Reach and Frequency is not available
- Each app is limited to 9 iOS 14 campaigns at once and each campaign is limited to 5 ad sets of the same optimization type
- Your pixel may only optimize for a maximum of 8 conversion events for each domain
View more limitations here.
How to Prepare
While all of this information can seem overwhelming, there are some actions you can take now to help your business’ online campaigns. Here are the three actions Facebook recommends to take today:
- Verify your website’s domain to help avoid any future disruption of your website campaigns
- Update to Facebook’s SDK for iOS 14 version 8.1 to help personalize ads delivered to devices on iOS 14
- Educate yourself more on how to use Facebook Pixel to reach devices on iOS 14 as well as how to use the Facebook SDK, App Events API and Mobile Measurement Partners to reach devices on iOS 14 and measure performance
As every social media manager knows, the only constant about Facebook ads is that they are constantly changing. While this change may seem overwhelming and devastating to the online ad space, there still is a lot of potential to reach your target audience! Contact us today to learn more.
