How iOS14 Tracking Updates Impact Advertisers
Apple’s planned release for iOS14 in relation to privacy has been on the top of mind for any company dealing with mobile advertising. Privacy has always been important part of peoples lives. When computers and phones entered our lives privacy has become a thing of the past for users who are uneducated on how to limit the types of data companies can track from devices. 3rd party companies have found a lot of different ways to identify users across multiple devices and create profiles selling this data to different companies. Phones specifically in the past had pushed their built in features related to privacy in the areas of settings that a large amount of users are unaware they have. With Apple’s iOS14 update coming there are new ways Advertisers will be impacted in targeting and tracking if they are not prepared properly.
Over the years, AdTech companies have been constantly improving targeting and tracking users mobile devices in an attempt to create the most custom advertisements and most accurate attribution data. Apple and other mobile providers have pushed to increased privacy for individual users which has caused new problems for advertisers each time. New problems are again appearing with Apples new iOS14 privacy changes with their introduction of the SKAdnetwork.
At first glance Apple’s new changes looked like they will have a large impact on mobile advertising companies. However 57Blocks was able to help a $1B client launch Apple’s SKAdnetwork in their platform within 2 weeks of seeing the announcement.
How Ad companies track on mobile devices today
Customized ads for every user is basically the holy grail of digital advertising. Delivering custom ads based on each user’s interests or past trackable experiences results in higher conversions for any company that is in digital advertising. Every type of digital advertising screen has its own method of tracking and delivering ads to specific audiences; browsers on desktop and mobile use cookies and mobile apps generally use a specific device identifier.
The two widely used mobile device identifiers are Apple’s identifier for advertisers (IDFA) and Google’s Android Advertising ID (AAID). Cookies on browsers have a limited life since users can clear their cookies any time, basically rendering the data collected obsolete. Users can reset their mobile ids however they are hidden in a spot that users usually won’t find unless they dig deep or look up how to reset the IDs.
If a user does not limit the amount of data that can be tracked on their phone, AdTech companies will get the users IDFA directly. Advertisers can then create profiles based on IDFA or AAID can create a pretty robust profile for a user. These device identifiers also allow advertisers to track users across different devices, for iOS if you browse on either device using the same Apple ID data companies can confidently assume you are the same person. This allows advertisers to deliver personalized ads to either of your devices as well as measure campaign performance attributing impressions or activities like clicks or app installs.
Types of restrictions users can do to protect the type of data being tracked
iOS has had a few different tracking restrictions and experiences added in over the past updates. Limited Ad Tracking (LAT) allowed users to opt out of targeted advertising, when enabled this set the user’s IDFA to all 0’s.This essentially rendered the users IDFA useless to AdTech companies looking to gather data. In the beginning LAT still passed IDFA with a request to companies not to use IDFA. Most companies did not always honor the request, and this made LAT pretty useless as it wasn’t behaving as most users would expect. After iOS10 however Apple stopped sending the IDFA and only sent out the zero’ed out data.
iOS 13 added a new location tracking data for apps to capture if the user allowed it. When adding an app users had a choice to allow companies to track their location and given 3 different options, Allow While Using App, Allowing Once or Don’t Allow. Users can also manage their settings through the location data controls section in their settings.
Opt out changes compared to existing feature
iOS 14’s Privacy section indicates quite a few changes when tracking ads, the item that will have the most significant effects on AdTech and MMP companies is the App tracking Controls and transparency.
Opt in and opt out features will still be relevant once iOS14 updates have been released. First the device needs to ask if they are allowed to track you on each app. If you opt in then an Ad network receives your IDFA directly from your device very similar to how it exists currently. If you opt out then ad networks receive a zeroed out IDFA tag.
Now the zero’ed out IDFA tags are a problem for advertisers trying to retrieve attribution data. The solution that Apple is going to be using is SKAdnetwork, which is Apple’s way of providing app installs without sending any user level or device level data to the ad networks.
How the new SKAdnetwork works
Picture from — https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/skadnetwork
What is challenges does SKAdnetwork create?
Advertisers using SKAdnetwork have access to Source App information which provides the specific apps that the install or reinstall occurs on. It should be noted that conversions will only be counted as the last-click model rather than view-through conversions. Last click means if a user sees 2 ads from companies A and B for the same app and clicks on both, the last ad clicked before the download will be counted as a conversion rather than both counting.
This last-click model being forced upon all dps’s will impact performance for mobile advertising campaigns as most count conversions with view-through and any click conversions rather than only last-click. Advertisers will have this challenge to explain to clients that the potential lower conversion numbers appearing after the switch is caused by a new methodology of tracking rather than a lower performance of campaigns.
Apps using the SKAdnetwork framework will require all of the attribution data to always pass through SKAdnetwork before going to AdTech platforms or MMP’s. Using SKAdnetwork does not provide the IDFA to Adtech or MMP’s when sending back conversion data. So every time this framework is used IDFA will be held back and restrict AdTech companies to retarget the actual IDFA tag that is attributed to the conversion.
Per app Campaign ID’s are limited to 100 per ad network, if users want to create new Campaign IDs they will need to remove old or existing. This will stop the tracking through the SKAdnetwork framework for these old campaigns. Users and companies will need to be proactive in their approach of how they handle activating and deactivating a large amount of Campaign ID’s as to not lose any potential data.
What does each type of companies need to build to support SKAdnetworks?
Ad networks also need to register with Apple allowing developers to configure their apps to work with ad networks. Ad network responsibilities information here.
App developers will need to configure their apps to participate in ad campaigns, info listed here.
Ad Tech Companies that serve ads on mobile devices will need to integrate SKAdnetworks within their platform when iOS14 arrives if they want accurate conversions counts when the user selects the opt out feature. Some companies have been proactive in the approach to add in this type of setup as soon as Apple released information related to setting up the SKAdnetwork. For example the client 57Blocks works with was able to release the SKAdnetwork setup within their system a few weeks after the Apple announcement.
After the announcement our teams discussed solutions of how to implement SKAdnetwork in their advertising campaign building tool quickly and effectively. Within a few days we had a plan of action of what needed to be added and who would build each component. Our teams were able to work together and after 2 weeks the SKAdnetwork feature was released on their Production environment ready to be used.
What other options do companies have to track or serve ads to certain users?
Device Fingerprinting may be an extra way to get around these new iOS14 tracking limitations. There are a few items that could be considered personal data which may cause Apple to revoke this type of tracking due to privacy reasons in the future.
A device fingerprint basically takes a snapshot of key information relating to the device the ad was served on. This is when the app is installed the information from the device is sent in an attempt to match the device with the fingerprint information stored. Since there will not be a 1 to 1 match this may not be the perfect solution however it does give an additional way to track installs for the time being. Below is a potential list that could be used for device fingerprinting, however the Personal data items may be a an item that could cause apple to revoke this type of tracking.
Personal data — IP address, Device name
Non-personal data — OS, OS version, OS build version, Brand name, Device model, Client time zone, Screen resolution, Screen scale, Carrier information, Hardware information, Locale information, Boot time
Email or Phone Number could potentially be another way for ad tech companies to track users for retargeting ads or attributing conversions to users.
Contextual targeting is an older method of targeting that was not always effective that had been improved upon by IDFA targeting. Ad tech companies will most likely need to rely on this method.
In the end what should ad tech companies, ad networks and app developers do?
The easiest answer is to be prepared, each company needs to get their SKAdnetworks setup properly and thoroughly tested before the final iOS14 push goes live. iOS14 privacy was supposed to be released in Q3 of 2020 however it was pushed back and released April 26th 2021.
Since each type of company ad tech, ad network and app developers need to work together to make this transition smooth they should be prepared and understand which setup each other needs to do as well. This way if a new company or developer enters they can help coach or instruct them on the easiest or quickest way to get setup and start working.
Our team at 57Blocks has done a large amount of research related to these new iOS14 changes and are able to assist companies to prepare their systems for this change along with any other changes in the future that come. Come visit us at 57blocks.io and we can work together to build something great.
