iOS14 Update - Marketing Impact

Prepare for iOS 14 with Merkle Sokrati and Branch

Continue Optimizing your ad campaign performances while safeguarding your customer's privacy.

iOS14 Privacy Changes decoded for an advertiser

Understand how your advertising will be affected by the privacy changes that Apple made in its newest iOS release. We'll also help you with the precise steps you can take as a business owner or marketer to continue ROI-effective advertising.

What you will learn from this video -

Impact of iOS 14 on app and web advertisers (yes, even web advertisers are not in the clear!)
Apple's new reporting framework for ad-driven app installs, SKAdNetwork, and its limitations for ad platforms like Facebook Ads
Limitations on effectively tracking conversion events, retargeting audiences, creating dynamic ads personalized to user behavior
Check if your app SDKs and website conversion pixels are prepared to continue optimizing for the events that matter to your business
Actionable resources to prepare your ad accounts and digital assets for a privacy-friendly advertising future

Meet The Presenters

Vikash Chandra

SVP - Business Operations

Vanessa Yeoh

Sr. Sales Engineer, Branch

What's changing iOS14 onwards

Apple is introducing privacy enforcements which might make it tricky for advertisers to create personalized ad campaigns & effectively measure performances.

We understand these changes are necessary to protect privacy yet difficult to navigate and might be disruptive to your business while we adjust. Which is why we are organizing a video series to help you prepare for the following changes:

The series will cover everything you need to know about the ATT Opt-ins, IDFA Approvals & attribution models such as SKAN, PCM & AEM that address these privacy issues but have some limitations.

How this affects your marketing campaigns

What does this means for your ad campaigns performance

In the short term while we all adapt, businesses’ ability to target, optimize and measure performance for both app and mobile web advertising may be limited. (Aggregated & Delayed reporting, no view-through conversions, broken deferred deep links, loss of cross device & cross domain measurement)

Embrace alternate attribution models

Apple's new respective standards for App and Web Campaigns, both SKAdNetwork (SKAN) & Private Click Measurement (PCM) restrict data that can be shared across businesses and ad platforms. But we believe this is necessary for safeguarding consumer privacy.

Need to own your Customer Data

Marketers have long relied on user identifiers like device IDs and cookies to personalize their customer experience and optimize their ad campaigns. Brands need to invest in their 1st party data & customer identity solutions to avoid over-reliance on 3rd party identifiers.

Future of Marketing

Brands have a common vision of delivering a personalised UX across the customer journey, while also executing more effective, high RoAS acquisition campaigns. This vision is only as good as a company’s ability to leverage customer data & relationships without over-reliance on 3rd party tracking like cookies and device IDs.

Some of the best investments for a future-proof marketing:

Customer Data Platform (CDP)

A CDP enables marketers to own, build, and control a cookie-less identity resolution and manage audience segments for personalized, cross-channel activations.

But as with any tool or platform, simply adopting a CDP will not magically solve challenges and demonstrate ROI.

Mobile Measuring Platform (MMP)

With multi-channel marketing strategies becoming imperative for app user acquisition, each ad network claims conversions for the same conversion. MMPs serve as a 3rd party source of truth allowing marketers to discover where their users are coming from, in line with latest attribution standards like SKAN.

Beyond attribution, most MMPs also offer solutions for - web-to-app customer journeys, prevent Ad Frauds, personalized deep links and customer LTV reporting.

Conversion API

Many advertisers today rely on browser data from Pixels. But the reliability of browser data is not assured. Direct integrations with ad platforms overcome these limitations and can also stitch together CRM data and offline conversions for full-funnel optimization.

As a Facebook Marketing Partner, we can help you implement Facebook's conversion API (CAPI) for reliable server-to-server data sharing and improved full-funnel visibility, so you're optimizing for outcomes that matter.

Still have question? We're here to help.

What privacy changes did Apple Make?

Apple introduced new privacy-centered changes with iOS 14 that limits access to iOS advertising ID (IDFA) without an opt-in consent from app users. Apple has also introduced their own alternate privacy-safe frameworks for mobile app attribution (SKAdNetwork) and web conversions tracking (PCM).

What is App Tracking Transparency (ATT)?

ATT is a new framework for making app-tracking consent request to users' mandatory for accessing IDFA. This opt-in happens through a modal prompt that is displayed inside the app.

What happens if a user declines the ATT prompt?

Device ID based attribution will not be possible for app install campaigns. Only aggregated data via SKAdNetwork will be available.

Do we recommend implementing the ATT opt-in prompt?

If you use ad networks, MMPs, internal user IDs based on IDFA or technology partners that depend on IDFA access, then Yes!
We understand Apple's language in the prompt is very strongly worded that might alienate users. We recommend apps to show a softer prompt first to help users understand why they should opt-in, segment & time it right so new user onboarding isn't affected.

Can we still track app installs and in-app events?

If you're using an ad network like Google, Facebook that has implemented Apple's SKAN attribution, then you will still be able to measure app install at an aggregated (campaign) level using Apple's alternate aggregate attribution model (SKAN). For any in-app events or conversion value data from iOS 14 apps, you must configure your app events for SKAdNetwork or use a Mobile Measurement Partner. Even with this, SKAN is meant to attribute app installs only, not lower funnel in-app events. So, app re-engagement campaigns to drive in-app actions from iOS 14+ will be severely limited to only users who have opted-in for tracking consent.

What is SKAdNetwork? Are there any limitations to this alternate attribution?

SKAdNetwork (SKAN) is a privacy-safe mobile app attribution framework that Apple introduced with iOS 14. SKAN can function without IDFA access or ATT consent. But SKAN provides only aggregated attribution and there's a 24-48 hours delay before iOS sends app event conversion values to ad networks. Depending on how each ad network and MMP implements their SKAN-based solutions, the limitations vary.

Will this affect your Facebook Ads performance?

Yes. Besides the aggregated & delayed reporting limitations, the number and type of app events you send to Facebook will be affected too. Facebook & Instagram will start showing ATT prompts for dual consent opt-in. As per Facebook's communication with Sokrati, attribution window will be limited to SKAN's 30-60 day click-through (no more 1D/7D/28D click-through, 1D view-through windows). Reporting breakdowns at age, gender, placement, etc. will not be available. Existing retargeting audience size will decrease as more users update to iOS 14+ until they opt-in to ATT prompts. Deep-links & dynamic ads targeting iOS 14.0+ devices will default to mweb instead of mobile app, hurting UX and conversion rates.

Will this affect your Google Ads performance?

Yes. But unlike Facebook, Google will not implement ATT prompts for IDFA consent in its own apps. Google will apodt SKAdNetwork framework to measure iOS app campaigns. Google's ACe (App Campaigns for engagement) reach will be impacted since SKAN is only meant to attribute app installs. Advertisers will need to conslidate iOS app campaigns to 8 or less & Only tCPI or tCPA bidding will be supported (no tROAS bidding).

Will mobile app deep-linking still work?

Apart from ad attribution and tracking impact, the user experience will also be indirectly impacted. Apple has clarified ATT user consent will be needed for "passing any unique identifiers or creating shared identity of the user". Even using deep linking solution providers such as Branch will be delayed until users opt-in. Using deep-links in ads for app-engagement will depend on support from each ad network. Facebook Ads will not be supporting deferred deep links for SKAN campaigns and any dynamic ads targeting iOS 14+ devices will default to mweb instead of app.

Do these changes also affect web campaigns?

Yes. While the ATT & SKAN frameworks only impact iOS devices (mobile), Apple has also introduced a new standard for iOS 14: Private Click Measurement (PCM) for all advertisers who rely on website pixel events for conversion reporting.

What is Apple's Private Click Measurement (PCM)?

Apple is applying a new standard for iOS 14: Private Click Measurement (PCM), for reporting campaign effectiveness. PCM significantly restricts data that can be shared across businesses and platforms. As of now, it doesn't fully support app-to-web conversion tracking and cross-domain measurement.

What is Faceboook's Aggregated Event Measurement (AEM)?

In early 2021, Facebook launched their own protocol for measuring pixel events for iOS 14: Aggregated Event Measurement (AEM). As per Facebook's communication with Sokrati, PCM supports user privacy and key use cases such as app-to-web conversions missing from PCM. It still limits web advertisers to only 1 domain and 8 conversion events tracking.

Are probablistic matching or fingerprinting ID methods also going away in addition to device-level (IDFA) attribution?

Apple's ATT framework scope extends to tracking "session ID, fingerprint IDs, and device graph identifiers". This necessitates all predictive, probablistic or fingerprinting methods to obtain user opt-in. If you're using these, they may still serve as a fallback when IDFA is not available even after opt-in or for tracking web-to-app customer journeys. Branch's predictive modeling uses a huge number of samples, collected over the user’s anonymous profile, making it much more accurate than a single data point.

Can we expect similar privacy changes at Google's (Android) end?

Very likely. Google placing similar limitations on the GAID only seems like a matter of time. With rising privacy concerns, IDFA for iOS is gone, cookies for web is serving notice period, GAID for Android seems next in line. This means that the app marketing industry should prepare for a future without any platform-wide identifiers.

If this is how the future looks, what can you do to future-proof your marketing from such external changes?

The future of marketing is to ensure privacy and personalization co-exist. As marketers, you will either be caught in an always-reactionary state, responding to every external privacy policy enforcements. Or you can choose to take control of your data and be responsible for your customer's privacy and marketing performance. Investing in first party data solutions like Merkle-powered Merkury identity resolution or a CDP, Sokrati's server-to-server integrations with ad networks like Facebook, Google and adopting MMPs like Branch will become imperative.