If you haven’t heard by now, the Apple iOS 14 update was recently released and it will affect Facebook and Instagram ads. For marketers who utilize Facebook advertising for their clients, we’ve got some important information to share with you. 

Users will start to see a “pop-up” that they can click to opt-out of data tracking on both apps and websites that are owned by other companies. 

While there will be many effects of this change, we believe that these are the most important ones to track and follow as we navigate through this update: 

  • Pixel tracking from Facebook ads: the things that we are used to tracking such as Leads, Purchases, Add-To-Cart, etc will not be as accurate anymore because people can opt-out of their device being tracked.
  • Optimization: due to the fact that tracking will be limited, the information used to optimize ads will not be as accurate, making optimization more difficult. 
  • Retargeting: moving forward, when you create a retargeting campaign, people who visit your website that have done the iOS 14 update may not see your retargeted ad. 
  • Creating Audiences: again, due to the fact that if they’ve done the update, we will no longer know if they’ve visited your website and therefore cannot put them in a retargeted group or lookalike audience. We are hopeful that they may still appear in engagement audiences.
  • App Advertising: if there is an App that you are looking to advertise, Facebook will not be able to optimize around it because of the lack of information it will now have to create that optimization.

This change is something that will affect a ton of other advertisers as well including Pinterest, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Tik Tok, YouTube, and Google.

What Does This Mean For Advertisers?

Changes in this space happen as technology evolves and companies learn more and more about how their products are being utilized. The biggest challenge we can see with this update is how we can now shift our business decisions knowing that we will have less data as it relates to iOS 14 devices. It certainly doesn’t mean that we move away from ads, we’ll just need to learn what we can do and make decisions accordingly. 

We know that our reporting will change because of the lack of data that we used to have. These updates will undoubtedly affect the way that we are used to using Facebook pixels. We’ll have to learn how to adapt to the changes so that we can create successful campaigns. Facebook pixels will still provide information for us, even if the updates will have changed the amount of information we have. 

Moving Forward

Our team at beMarketing is watching this new update very carefully. As more information becomes available, we will be able to share more about how our company is adapting to these changes for our clients. 

To learn more about this topic and how we may be able to assist your company with a Digital Marketing Campaign, give us a call today at 484.261.1149!