Apple’s latest changes with the iOS 14 update includes the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy that’s enabling users to further protect their privacy on Apple devices. From a consumer standpoint, online control over one’s privacy is always a good thing. But the change seems to have a lot of advertisers scrambling to adapt.
How Users Engage ATT
Apple has already begun to require that all apps in the App Store show a prompt to their users on their devices that upgrade to iOS 14. The prompt allows the user to “Allow Tracking” or prohibit tracking which will block certain data collection and sharing. This makes the user more aware of whether or not they are being tracked by the apps they’re using.
How ATT Affects Campaign Targeting
From an advertiser standpoint, it can affect how we receive and process conversion events on our digital campaigns from tools like the Facebook pixel & Google Pixel. If our campaigns include advertising on mobile apps and target as well as report on web conversion events from Facebook and Google tools, users can block that data through ATT.
For users who have opted out, if we are running a retargeting campaigns which are based upon tracking on iOS 14 devices, we’ll be limited in how we can personalize our display ads based upon their browsing and purchasing history. This also will limit our reporting on campaign performance and conversion events for both app and web users.
OAK Believes in Solutions, Not Problems
We’re always committed to providing our clients with strategic advertising using data to refine our digital campaigns. Here’s what we’re going to do in response to those changes:
- Review pixels that will no longer have available conversion events
- Replace ad sets as needed
- Update to Facebook’s SDK for iOS 14 version 8.1 which will allow us to still personalize ads delivered to iOS 14 users and will allow us to get reporting on app conversion events
Since ATT is a new development as of Jan 28, 2021, we’ll be monitoring the effects of this update from now on. As we learn more, we’ll provide updates and additional resources to support our clients’ advertising campaigns as they become available. As always, feel free to reach out to us if you have any concerns or questions.
