Apple’s iOS 14.5 Update: Campaign impacts and how best to prepare

Apple’s iOS 14.5 update is rolling out this coming week, and with it comes Facebook’s new prompt to opt out of data collection. Over the next two weeks, you will gradually see campaigns become limited due to Facebook’s Aggregated Event Measurement solution. Here’s what to expect:

• 1-day click-through opt-out data will be modeled.
• 7-day click-through and 1-day view-through attribution settings will no longer include iOS 14.5 opted-out events.
• Action and demographic breakdowns will be deprecated for offsite events.
• Attribution setting default will change to 7-day click-through for newly created ad sets and web event campaigns.
• 28-day click-through, 7-day view-through, and 28-day view-through attribution settings will be fully deprecated along with the Comparing Windows feature. (see below for more details)
• Attribution methodology will shift from Impression Time to Conversion Time.

As Apple’s iOS 14.5 update rolls out, clients can expect to see some impacts to their reported campaign results, but only for tactics that that run on mobile devices. Some things to keep in mind:

• The privacy change will only impact ads served on mobile or iPad devices, and is not slated to impact Apple desktop/laptops at this time.
• Ads will still appear on iOS devices, but targeting and reporting capabilities may be limited, depending on whether a user allows or declines tracking permissions. If a user opts out, ads will no longer be as relevant or personalized to them.
• Ad Targeting tactics that we can expect to see a change in: Retargeting and Prospecting
  • Many targeting types (including retargeting to users based on device-level targeting and prospecting based on audience attributes) will no longer work for users that have opted out of sharing their IDFA.
  • Platforms like Google and Facebook have other deterministic variables they can use to identify devices (email, phone number) but other programmatic platforms that don’t have such information are likely to see a reduction in targetable audiences. This means that retargeting audiences will shrink, and prospecting will be less granular.
  • Leveraging first-party data will increase in importance to execute and track campaigns, as platforms will rely more on the user’s unique identity versus web browsing attributes.
• Ad Measurement*:
  • While Apple has announced a replacement API (SKAdNetwork) that will allow for conversion data to be passed back at the campaign level, we’re still going to see a reduction in the fidelity of data that mobile measurement partners can use to identify fraud and performance across mobile campaigns.
  • Most platforms (Facebook, Google, Snapchat, TikTok, DSPs, MMPs, etc.) will be using SkAdNetwork, and Apple Search Ads will have its own framework. The network enables those platforms still to track attribution and measurement, though limited. As noted previously, advertisers will be capped at eight conversion tracking events.
  • You might see fluctuations in delivery and performance for ad campaigns that run on iOS, with the biggest impact being on ROAS.
  • Moving forward, conversions will be reported based on the time the conversion occurred, versus when the ad impression was served.
  • Delivery versus action breakdown will no longer available. This means you will still see a breakdown of “where” the action took place (whether they were on Facebook, Instagram, etc., what type of device the click occurred on, placement, and browser), but Facebook will no longer provide a breakdown of the conversions by demographic info such as age, gender, location, etc.
    • Targeting against demographics will still be available, but advertisers will no longer be able to see the data associated with each segment