You may or may not have heard a new operating system is available to download from Apple, iOS 14. What you may not have heard is that there are changes coming to the new operating system that may affect your Facebook ads. The upcoming iOS update is giving its users the option to opt-in or out of tracking on mobiles. Which may be great for personal privacy, it means advertising on Facebook just got a whole lot harder.
iOS Update
Apple announced that changes with the new operating system will impact how Facebook can receive and process conversion events from tools like the Facebook Pixel. This is because Apple requires all App Store apps to show a prompt to its users on iOS devices, asking the user for permission for the app to track them outside the platform. The policy will prohibit data collection unless they have opted in.
How are businesses affected?
The new update will affect any business that advertises on mobile apps or optimises, targets, and reports on Facebook conversion events. If iOS users choose to opt-out of Facebook’s tracking, the knock-on effect will mean Facebook cannot track user behaviour. Targeting options will be weakened, which will mean more wasted spend and less personalisation. Basically, if you rely on the Facebook Pixel, your ads will be affected. Including;
- Building custom audiences from your website for remarketing.
- Optimising your ads for conversions.
- Tracking conversions and attribute them back to your ads.
Facebook responded to the new Apple operating system by saying it will negatively affect small businesses.
Equestrian Businesses
Equestrian businesses with smaller budgets and a need for many targeting options to define their audience will find this change damaging to their ad’s performance. The ability to track events and behaviour, particularly remarketing, conversion tracking or lookalike generation, that many equestrian businesses rely on will no longer work as effectively.
If all users opt-out of tracking, you will no longer be able to advertise to those individuals via remarketing in the future on their mobile device. Facebook has even said that they predict the loss of personalisation to result in 60% fewer website sales from ads!
What can you do?
As equestrian marketers, we can’t say that this update isn’t a huge blow to the technological progress ads have made over the last few years. However, not all is lost! Our equestrian marketing experts are here to help you create an alternative Facebook ads strategy. Contact us here