You may have noticed that Apple recently released iOS 14.5. It’s the first iOS version that will enforce Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policies, which will impact how marketers measure mobile ad performance moving forward.
For Apple users, the update means they’ll have more control over which apps are tracking their actions. The new setting is all about whether the app can access the unique, device-specific IDFA (ID For Advertisers) to allow the user’s actions to be tracked across sites and apps (e.g., by 3rd party data collectors like Google and Facebook).
While your marketing strategy should be shifting to rely on your own first-party data and identifiers, there are some steps you can take right now to ensure your performance doesn’t suffer due to the new iOS release.
First off, make sure to monitor your campaign delivery and performance as you may see some fluctuations that cause you to adjust your targeting, budgets and bids. Luckily, Google has already released some privacy-centric features such as conversion modeling to help. Plus, they continue to share additional tips and resources for handling the update including:
App-focused campaigns
- Consolidate to 8 or fewer app install campaigns for each of your iOS apps to maintain optimal performance
- Implement SKAdNetwork by upgrading to the latest version of Google Analytics for Firebase
- Migrate targeted bid settings off of tROAS and on to tCPA
Web campaigns
- Implement a first-party tag like gTag.js or Google Tag Manager across your site
- Test to make sure that your website allows arbitrary URL parameters to minimize errors with auto-tagging
- Enable Audience Expansion or targeting expansion on Remarketing and Customer Match campaigns and/or include Similar Audiences to make up for any reach issues
Lastly, if you find yourself contending with campaign issues as a result of the iOS 14.5 update, please reach out and we’d be happy to help you navigate through the changes. And keep in mind that if you haven’t already begun to shift your marketing strategy to rely primarily on first-party data to prepare for upcoming privacy changes, it’s time. And we can help you with that, too!