iOS 14.5: The Game-Changer for Digital Advertising – Everything You Need to Know
If you're in the digital advertising world, you've likely heard about iOS 14.5 and the impact it's had on the industry. This update brought major changes to how apps can track user data, ultimately affecting targeted advertising. In this article, we'll dive into everything you need to know about iOS 14.5 and how it's changing the game for digital advertising.
On September 16, 2020, Apple released the iOS 14 update with the intention to give consumers more control over the data they unwillingly shared with publishers and advertisers. During a time where data privacy was an important issue for consumers, the update was widely accepted by consumers across the board. Apple even did a nationwide marketing campaign about data privacy for consumers around the time of the release of iOS 14.
With the iOS 14 update, Apple drastically limited what advertisers and developers were able to track in terms of behavior and user activity. For iOS devices, Apple provides an IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers), which is a unique random number identifier for advertisers that is assigned to every apple device. IDFA was designed to help advertisers track user behavior within applications or browsers. Furthermore, IDFA does not collect any personal identifiable information and the user has the ability to reset their IDFA at any time.
Then Apple released the iOS 14.5 update..
Apple released the iOS 14.5 update on April 26, 2021. The update immediately turned the digital advertising industry upside down. Apple introduced app-tracking transparency (ATT) that enabled users to opt-in or opt-out of app tracking and turned off IDFA by default for every user. This meant that each user will have to individually allow each app they use to turn on IDFA.
How did iOS 14.5 negatively impact Facebook & Instagram ads?
Since the iOS 14.5 update, Facebook has had to completely rebuild their ad tracking capabilities. This is because the update effectively crippled their ad tracking technology, which was primarily based on IDFA. This has caused them to lose millions in revenue, as they are now unable to accurately track ads and ad performance. In addition, the update has also affected their ability to target users effectively.
Three main areas where the Facebook ads platform was negatively impacted:
- Targeting – Since the pixel technology is not accurately tracking anymore, the retargeting audiences and lookalike audiences have been severely impacted.
- Reporting – Advertisers have major inaccuracies in their conversion ad reporting. When the update was first released, many advertisers saw a massive drop off in attribution.
- Optimization – Advertisers heavily relied on the algorithm to optimize their ad campaigns. The update immediately resulted in Facebook losing key data points that their algorithm used to optimize ads effectively.
What is the iOS 14 solution for digital advertisers?
wetracked.io is a tool that helps advertisers accurately track their digital ad campaigns. wetracked.io customers use wetracked.io to:
- Unlock new visibility on their ads by getting the true ad performance based on the accurate Gen-2 Comet Pixel.
- Save wasted ad spend by proactively turning off unprofitable ads before they overspend and dip into hard earned profits.
- Increase ad profits by accelerating winning ad campaigns faster using realtime accurate ad & sales data.
By using wetracked.io, advertisers can ensure that they are spending their money on ads that are actually effective, rather than wasting their money on ads that are not performing well. In addition, by optimizing their ads based on click-through conversion attribution, advertisers can target their ads to the right audience and improve their chances of converting them into customers.
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