March 2021: What You Need to Know About the iOS14 Update
Today’s topic is not the jazziest, but it is super-duper important. I myself have been confused and overwhelmed by all of the jargon flying around in the Apple-versus-Facebook battle over Apple’s iOS14 privacy setting updates.
I have done my research on this, including attending a workshop with the lovely Jaymie Tarshis this afternoon, and want to share my distilled findings and recommendations with you.
What is the iOS14 update? What's the big deal?
With Apple’s new software update, they've decided to take a jab at Facebook. All third-party mobile apps are now required to ask users (AKA millions of people who use iPhones) whether they want their actions to be tracked or not. This is happening right now. People in the U.S. are already receiving these in-app alerts.
When asked whether they want to be followed around or not, we can assume that most people will remember watching The Social Dilemma and select “Do Not Allow.” This means conversion tracking, retargeting capabilities, and data collection in general via the Facebook Pixel will become more limited.
To quote a great WordStream article on this topic, “These changes will 100% affect small businesses. In fact they will have a massive impact on all businesses advertising on the platform.”
Here's what you should do:
First, do not take this to mean that you should no longer advertise on Facebook and Instagram. At this point, my stance is actually quite the opposite: Let other advertisers run out of the pool screaming while you wish them "happy travels!" and do a celebratory backstroke. Because fewer advertisers = lower demand = cheaper ads. 👋
That said, you cannot leave your Facebook Ads Manager account exactly how it is right now. There are two things you absolutely need to do:
1. Verify your domain(s)
In your Facebook Business Manager account, go to Settings > Brand Security > Domains. Verify your website(s) using one of the three methods. DNS and Meta Tag Verification are the two simplest options and this shouldn't take you more than a few minutes. If you don't do this, Facebook will soon block you from running ads until you do.
2. Prioritize your conversion events
You can now only track eight Conversion Events within Facebook Ads Manager. Eight is plenty for most small and mid-sized businesses and organizations. The big hitch is if a user completes multiple events (i.e. becomes a "Lead" and then makes a "Purchase" a few days later), only one will be tracked.
You need to go into Events Manager and tell Facebook how to prioritize your Conversion Events. Do you want that user to be tracked for becoming a lead, or for making a purchase? Once your domain is verified, you can do this by clicking on the new "Aggregated Event Measurement" option within Facebook Events Manager and clicking "Configure Web Events".
Here's what else you should know:
👋Say goodbye to real-time conversion data. Conversion data will now be more limited and will take up to three days to pull into your Ads Manager account, so don't panic if you've been running a campaign for 48 hours and don't see any conversions!
🐁Retargeting audiences based on your web traffic will be smaller. This is because some of those people will be iPhone users who decided to opt out of being tracked. You can make up for this in a few creative ways, including expanding retargeting to include people who have recently interacted with your Facebook page or Instagram account.
🧐 iPhone users who opt out won't show up in Breakdowns. Breakdowns will still exist, but the data will be more limited.
Looking ahead
In terms of how this impacts the future of Facebook and Instagram advertising, we’ll just have to wait and see how results are impacted. I will let this group and all of my clients know if I see good reason to jump ship at any point. For now, it seems like—for those who make the few important adjustments recommended in this email—maintaining results should be totally doable. And if other advertisers bail, that's more money floating in the pool for the rest of us!
You can follow me on LinkedIn if you’re interested in receiving more updates on this.
Thanks for sticking with me on such a technical topic! If you need something cute and fluffy to think about after all that tech talk, I'm running a campaign for one of my favorite clients right now that's too cute not to share: The Antarctic & Southern Ocean Coalition's Penguin Art Contest in celebration of World Penguin Day!
