iOS14 and Facebook Ads – What You Need to Know Right Now
If Facebook and/or Instagram Ads are ANY part of your business STOP and READ this now before it’s too late…
Yes, that title is pretty “clickbaity” however it’s for a good reason… iOS14 is making changes that will be affecting all FB/IG advertisers (and potentially Google and Bing as well…) In short, Apple will begin to require that all apps show a prompt to users on iOS 14 devices to opt-out of tracking. BEWARE: If a user actually opts out, this WILL affect your targeting/measurement & FB is removing its 28-day attribution window.
Andrew Foxwell, does an amazing job of explaining what happens and how you can prepare. On a high level here is what you need to know:
Not ALL tracking is being lost – If a user opts out, changes to that person’s data will include shorter attribution windows (i.e. if they purchase 8 days later you won’t see it), no demographic data in reporting breakdowns, only 1 conversion event will be attributed to that user (i.e. if he added to cart, you will see 1 add to cart, but once he purchases you will see 1 purchase, but 0 add to carts… this is based off a priority of 8 events that you may choose) & likely smaller retargeting audiences due to the limit of conversion events.
What to do before the iOS14 and Facebook Ads changes take place?
- Dive into Ads Manager and see how many of your conversions are in the 28-day window relative to 1 day and 7 days. This will help you approximate success once you can’t see this data any longer.
- If you use more than 8 events, you should start prioritizing and/or consolidating which 8 you will be using moving forward.
- The article explains it more at length as to the reason why – but it’s a good idea to “verify your domain” with Facebook (although not required in all cases.)
- There’s a concept of tracking conversions via CAPI (serverside) vs Pixel (browser side). CAPI can bring some benefit over the Pixel… but both will be affected by ios14. 5)
- Be prepared to discuss the possible changes with your client/boss/team.
- Don’t freak out – we are all in this together – and will come out on the other side!
If you need any help navigating these unknown waters drop us a line.