iOS 14 And Facebook Ads: What You Need To Do As An E-Commerce/Info-Product Business

2020, What a year it was​! Record-breaking CPM’s rising acquisition costs and then suddenly Apple announced a new feature with iOS 14 that now users can opt-out from being tracked from Facebook. ​

And we see a lot of you guys are worried about this change so we did some research and gathered some information from different sources and made some points that you need to do as an ​Ecommerce/Info-product brand that’s running FB ads.​ First, lets understand what this is all about.

What Is Apple’s iOS 14 Privacy and Data Use Update?​

This controversy surrounds three acronyms:​

• IDFA​

• SKAd Network​

• ATT​

Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) is a unique Apple ID assigned to every device that persists across a user’s applications. On Apple devices, IDFAs track, target, and personalize in-app advertising.​

SKAd Network refers to how Apple’s SDK — the set of tools governing how applications get created, run, and managed interacts with advertising.​

Once iOS 14’s privacy updates go into effect, app installs as the result of in-app advertising will be mediated by Apple’s SKAd Network.​ Luckily, this applies to app developers not other businesses.​

App Tracking Transparency (ATT) — or, “AppTrackingTransparency Framework” — is a new and universal prompt that will appear on all apps to all users.​

For eCommerce and info-product businesses, ATT is the issue.​

How Will iOS 14’s New Policy Affect Facebook Advertising?​

In early 2021, iOS Apps that collect data for advertising will begin displaying Apple’s ATT prompt. This will be an additional layer for privacy​

Co-founder of Disruptive Digital, Maurice Rahmey tweeted: When a similar prompt was introduced by iOS 13 regarding geographic information, opt-in rates to allow sharing “with apps when they’re not in use” dropped from 100% to below 50%​

What Do You Need to Do as an Ecommerce/Info-product Brand?​

1. Verify Your Domain in Facebook Business Manager​

Verifying your domain is the first, most-immediate step. To track activity from iOS users after the ATT prompt, Facebook will introduce “Aggregated Event Measurement.”​

2. Pre-Select Eight Conversion Events per Domain And Prioritize​

In total, Facebook will be limited to eight conversion events for each domain. Those events will be ranked manually within Ads Manager: that is, prioritized for tracking and optimization.​

This feature has yet to be released. Rather, it’s a preemptive measure.​ Through some websites stated that the highest priority event (i.e., Purchases) will be tracked — even for users that opt-out of ATT. For users that opt-in, you’ll still be limited to eight.​

This presents two challenges. 1: Retargeting. 2: Custom conversions for ecommerce sites with robust analytics.​

3. Enable Value Optimization And Only Set Your Own in Two Cases​

Value Optimization (VO) is a key ingredient in Facebook’s ad platform. Essentially, VO predicts the revenue value of individual users based on numerous factors brought together through machine learning.​

Facebook then applies that estimate at scale to “bid for your highest value customers.”​

For businesses that already use VO, existing values will be automatically moved from Business Manager to Event Manager and “assigned based on historical data.”​

If you use CBO with VO already enabled, no action is needed. Only if you’re bidding manually or if your ad account is brand new should you anticipate setting VO yourself.​

4. Establish Historical And Seasonal Benchmarks for Delayed Attribution​

28-day click-through, 28-day view-through, and 7-day view-through attribution windows will not be supported. Historical data for these windows will remain accessible via the Ads Insights API.​

To understand the total impact of your ads, either download the still-available 1-day, 7-day, 28-day performance directly from Ad Manager or use a program like Supermetrics to pull those same ranges directly into a Google Sheet​

5. Invest in Retention And Diversification​

Diversify your advertising channels​. Prioritize a Healthy Traffic Mix of Facebook and Google (Google Shopping, search and YouTube)​ and also prioritize developing SMS and an email marketing strategy​.

SMS and email are simultaneously relational and profitable, plus it also accelerates customer lifetime value.​

You can also check out Facebook’s official post about this new update on their Facebook for developers site.​

Hope this will help all of you guys! Let us know how it worked out for you in the comments below.