By now, you would have heard and read about the upcoming iOS update and I am pretty certain the news didn’t sound good to you, even if you don’t fully understand what it is all about.
The purpose of this post is to break it down in easy to understand terms and give you the facts on why you should even care about the updates.
What is the update?
Back in June 2020, Apple announced an upcoming software update – iOS 14.
Along with many feature updates that you can read about here, Apple is giving its users more transparency and control over the data they share while using their Apple device on iOS 14. With this update, iOS 14 users will receive a prompt when an app wants to track them across apps or websites owned by other companies for advertising, such as Facebook, but not limited to Facebook.
This is what the prompt will look like:
Users will be able to choose whether Facebook and other apps they are using can track their activity on other websites and apps. Currently users can still opt out of this tracking however they have to go and find it to opt out, they are be default, being tracked. Now it will be a conscious choice for users to be tracked and I would imagine that a large percentage of users will not allow the apps to track them.
This change has been forced upon Facebook by Apple.
So while this update is great from a user perspective giving us more control over our privacy, the feature isn’t so great for us that rely on this tracking and data to achieve great results with our Facebook and Instagram advertising.
How is it going to affect Facebook Advertisers?
This change is going to mean less data is pushed from users who click on our ads back to Facebook and Facebook will receive less data on people and the actions they are performing on the internet.
For us as advertisers, this will mean:
- Our targeting options will be reduced and maybe less effective than they are now.
- Audience sizes will be reduced.
- Audiences that we create using the pixel from actions taken on our own websites will be reduced.
- Lookalike audiences could become less effective with the reduced number of people in those audiences to create the lookalike audience from.
- Our conversion tracking won’t be as accurate as it is now.
- We won’t be able to track conversions beyond a 7-day window (it is currently 28 days)
It will be highly important to ensure you are gathering your own data to create audiences from which means collecting email addresses from your leads.
What action do you need to take now?
We haven’t been given an exact date of when the update will come into effect but it is likely to be around April 2021.
While the full consequences of these changes are still unknown, there are action steps that advertisers need to be taking now to prepare for these changes. Even if you aren’t advertising at the moment, I highly recommend you set these things up and make the changes now so that are ready for when you want to run ads in the future.
Verify Your Personal Profile
- Login to Facebook on a desktop
- Tap the down arrow in the top right of your screen
- Click on “Settings & Privacy” and then “Settings”
- Then follow the instructions from “Identity Confirmation” in “General Account Settings”
Turn on Two-Factor Authentication
- Login to Facebook on desktop
- Tap the down arrow in the top right of your screen
- Click on “Settings & Privacy” and then “Settings”
- Select “Security and Login” from the left hand menu
- Follow the instruction under “Two-Factor Authentication” to turn it on
Verify Domain
To track conversions in your Facebook Ads moving forward, you will need to verify your website domain in your Business Manager. Any websites that you can’t verify, that you don’t own, you will not be able to track conversions that occur on those URL’s.
To verify your domain:
- Go to your Business Manager Settings
- Under “Brand Safety” click on “Domains”
- Click on the blue “Add” button
- Enter your domain name and click on “Add Domain” button
- You will then be given some code that needs to be added to your domain to verify it. If it doesn’t come up, simply refresh the screen and you will see the details. Add this code to your domain/website or pass it onto your developer to do that for you.
- Once you have added the code click on “verify” to ensure it is entered correctly
Set up your allowed 8 events in “Aggregated Event Measurement (AEM)
AEM is being implemented by Facebook to give us some control back to run effective ad campaigns when Apple users opt out from being tracked. Moving forward, you will only be able to track 8 unique conversion events per verified domain (including sub-domains). You won’t be able to optimise your ads outside of these 8 events so choose wisely.
To set up your 8 events:
- Go to your Business Manager
- Go to your ad account in Ads Manager
- Select “Events Manager” from the menu in the top left corner
- If you have more than one pixel ensure you have the correct one selected
- Scroll down and click on the “Aggregated Event Measurement” tab
- Click on “Configure Web Events”
- Click on the domain you’d like to add the events to
- Click “Edit Events”
- Choose the 8 events that you would like to track
- Reorder the events by priority. The order of the events is important – prioritise “purchase” over “add to cart” and “lead”. If an iOS user opts out of tracking, only the highest-ranking event from a visit will be reported. Remember you can only have 8 so you may have to remove ones that aren’t so important.
- Press “submit”. The events will take 72 hours to come into effect.
Download your historical data
You will lose historical data in your ads reporting. So that you still have a record of the data to refer back to in the future, download your data by following the instructions here: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/205067636197240
Start using UTM Parameters
By using UTM Parameters in your ads you will have back-up data within your Google Analytics account to verify the conversion reporting you receive in Ads Manager
Make building your email database your top priority
While this is what I always recommend it is well worth mentioning again as it is now more important than ever. You can’t rely on the Facebook Pixel for your retargeting to your website audience so your email database will be vital for reaching your warm audience.
What else do you need to know about the changes?
Changes to attribution window
Facebook currently reports on a 28-day window. If someone views our ad and then takes any action in the following 28 days, then that first ad that was viewed is given credit that sparked that client’s journey with us. With the upcoming changes, as per Facebook, the “28-day click-through, 28-day view-through, and 7-day view-through attribution windows will be supported for active campaigns targeting Apple users.”
You will only be able to track:
- 1-day click
- 7-day click (this will be the default once this Apple update comes into play)
- 1-day click and 1-day view
- 7-day click and 1-day view (current default)
If you have been running ads in the past, these changes could see your conversions being reported in your Ads Manager be decreased especially if it takes clients longer to make a buying decision. It doesn’t mean the ads are less effective, it is just Facebook isn’t reporting on them. You should be using other tracking methods to get the full picture of the client journey with you and what aspects of your marketing are working effectively. You can’t just rely on your Ads Manager reporting.
Delays in reporting
There is going to be a delay of up to 72 hours in the conversion tracking of our active ads. You will need to be aware of this so that you don’t prematurely turn off an ad that you assume isn’t converting when in actual fact it could be, it is just that Facebook isn’t reporting the conversions yet. We won’t have access to up to date data like we do currently.
Don’t Panic
Now while these changes may all seem negative, I urge you not to panic if you rely on Facebook Advertising to market your business.
Changes are a given in life and if we want to utilise a platform (Facebook) that we don’t own and control than we have to roll with these changes.
Facebook is concerned about these changes and is doing everything possible to look after advertisers, because without advertisers, Facebook will take a massive hit as well. So learn as much as you can, roll with the changes and if necessary, look for other marketing opportunities in addition to your Facebook Advertising. After all, as business owners, we should NOT just rely on one source bringing in our leads and growing our businesses. We need to diversify and have a safety net in case that one source is ever taken from us.
Does this all sound a bit overwhelming? Do you need help with the technical side of things as well as strategic marketing? I offer technical assistance with all areas of your marketing and customer relationship management as well as strategic marketing consulting and support. If you want someone on your team that knows this like the back of their hand and what works in different industries than I would love to chat. Get in touch here.
Anita McLachlan says
Brilliant article Jayne. Thank you for taking the time to assist and to explain. One Question, when you mention ‘other apps’ that will be affected, will this mean Google as well? YouTube? Thanks heaps. Anita xx
Jayne Day says
Hi Anita, Yes any Apple app that tracks their users. xo
Nicole says
Hi Jayne, I tried to do the “Identity Confirmation” for my ads I place in the USA. I’m an exporter. But FACEBOOK is asking for a US Passport number, which I don’t have. Any ideas as to work around for exporters? cheers Nicole
Jayne Day says
Hi Nicole, Many of Facebook features are glitchy at the moment with all the changes that are happening in the background. I would suggest checking back to see if it gives you other options moving forward.