Apple's clampdown on Facebook data could hurt lead-to-sale ad performance, unless you move fast
The data privacy landscape has shifted yet again. We marketers and advertisers are left scratching our heads as Apple makes yet another devastating move to restrict the data we can view and assess from digital ad campaigns. Advertising platforms like Facebook, that rely on data from millions of users to deliver targeted ads to the right audiences, have been impacted the most.
If you run ads on Facebook, you’ll want to know what the latest privacy situation is, and how to deal with it so that you don’t lose out on leads and, ultimately, sales.
Apple’s iOS update, the ATT prompt & your revenue
Since Apple released its iOS 14 updates, advertisers using Facebook Business have experienced significant changes in the amount and quality of advertising data we can retrieve from the ads we run. This is primarily because of the new app tracking transparency (ATT) feature.
When iOS 14.5 was launched on April 26, iOS users began to see a new prompt whenever they opened an app for the first time after the update:
App tracking transparency (ATT) prompt
This is the app tracking transparency (ATT) prompt, an in-app prompt that asks the user for permission to allow apps to track their activity, not just within the app in question, but also when they use other apps and websites.
The user’s response to this prompt determines whether or not the identifier for advertisers (IDFA), a device identifier randomly assigned to the device, will be activated. Prior to the update, IDFA was activated by default and allowed app publishers to collect user-level data. With the update, however, IDFA is deactivated and requires the user’s explicit permission to turn it back on—either by selecting “allow” in the prompt, or manually in settings.
To paint a picture of the extent to which data collection and consequent revenue are affected by this simple alteration, Nieman Lab has reported that, since the iOS 14.5 release, the worldwide opt-out rate is an alarming 89%. In the US, that number is 96%. And given that the loss of personalisation has been shown to reduce Audience Network publisher revenue by more than 50%, the consequences are not negligible.
Inevitable, high opt-out rates result in loss of personalisation, which in turn leads to loss of revenue.
Data restriction & alternative frameworks
The key implication of ATT that advertisers are struggling with is the significant loss of user-level attribution data. With the better part of this data now unavailable, Facebook has had to turn to alternative methods of measurement:
1. Private Click Measurement (PCM)
Apple first put forth a pro-privacy, cookie-less ad measurement feature in 2019, designed for use in Private Browsing mode, which would produce attribution reports but delay them by 24-48 hours. With ATT now in play, Apple has implemented a modified version of this, now called Private Click Measurement (PCM), that is on by default in iOS 14. The attribute reports are designed so that the data cannot be attributed to any individual user, and is therefore highly restricted in multiple ways, including event time association (due to delay) and cross-browser/platform activity.
2. Aggregated Event Measurement (AEM)
In response to ATT, Facebook introduced its own protocol, Aggregated Event Management, to track and measure web events from iOS 14 users. According to Facebook, AEM is designed, like PCM, to support consumer privacy, but also to address key advertiser use cases that were left out.
3. SKAdNetwork
Apple’s privacy-friendly SKAdNetwork is a framework for mobile ad campaigns to attribute impressions and clicks to app installs. It provides general conversion data but does not show user-level or device-level data, making it far more limited than IDFA.
How this affects Facebook advertising
As AEM is now the primary tool for measuring events in most pixel conversion campaigns, including lead generation and e-commerce, most advertisers will notice two significant changes:
Conversion event limit
There is now a limit of 8 conversion events (both standard and custom) per domain that can be used for optimisation. On top of that, ATT opt-out user activity will only be measured on one of these events—the one set to the highest priority. Previously, unlimited pixel conversion events (and up to 40 custom events) could be tracked.
Purchase cycle visibility loss
Attribution window settings have been changed, no longer supporting 28-day click-through, 28-day view-through and 7-day view-through attribution windows. The default attribution window is now set at 7-day click, but 1-day click is also supported.
The main consequences of these changes are:
Decreased quality of Facebook’s optimisation algorithm, affecting targeting performance, and
Reduction in custom audience retargeting pools, affecting retargeting effectiveness
Loss of visibility impacts targeting performance.
Immediate steps to take
1. Verify your domain
Now that you need to configure your 8 priority conversion events, you will need to first complete a domain verification to confirm that you are the sole owner of your domain in Business Manager. Only the verified account will be able to carry out the next step.
2. Define 8 priority events
With the conversion event limit now in place, you need to choose the 8 events on the domain you want to have processed within the AEM framework. Some good options to include in lead generation campaigns include ‘complete registration’, ‘submit application’, ‘lead’, ‘contact’, ‘subscribe’, ‘contact’, ‘schedule’, ‘view content’ and ‘find location’. You can find the web event configuration tool in Events Manager.
How to adapt in the long run
Digital advertising paradigms are highly dynamic and constantly evolving. While short-term solutions can stymie revenue loss for the time being, building an agile digital ecosystem is the most reliable long-term strategy to manoeuvre the ever-changing regulations landscape and gain a competitive advantage.
1. Utilise broader, more holistic statistical models to measure ad efficiency
In pursuing adaptiveness, advertisers stand to benefit from a multifaceted approach to assessing ad performance. Frameworks like marketing mix modelling (MMM) use statistical analysis to process advertising and marketing data observed over time across various sources within and beyond your company’s marketing ecosystem—enabling you to be privacy-forward under any circumstances.
2. Focus on developing a first-party data strategy & enhancing value exchange
In this volatile privacy landscape that ATT is only a part of, the businesses that focus on their own first-party data tend to rise to the challenge. If you establish a solid first-party data strategy that makes the most out of data obtained from willing customers who trust your brand, and maximises the value of whatever data you have, you will be not only prepared for inevitable developments, but also able to demonstrate transparency to your customers and build their trust—rendering them more likely to consensually provide you with more valuable information in the future.
3. Instead of maximising ad reach, focus on optimising every lead
While quantity is valuable in measuring data, too many advertisers fall short in the analysis and optimisation of that very data. In a world where companies fail to follow up on 70% of lead submissions, you have the opportunity to enforce a lead-to-sale strategy with innovative tools and technologies that optimise each lead without relying on multiple event data points—giving you a significant advantage over the competition.
If you’re interested to find out more about alternative approaches to measure data, lead optimisation and more, let us know and we’ll be in touch with you for a chat.