Apple’s iOS14 update - What does it mean for Facebook Advertising?
What does the latest Apple software mean for Facebook Advertising?
What’s the story?
Apple has announced changes to user permission prompts on the new iOS14 which is now rolling out across their brand new devices. Facebook will begin to show Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) prompt on iOS14, each app will need to ask user permission to track their activity across the web. This will affect all apps that track peoples’ activity in order to inform their advertising or personalisation services - including Google, Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram etc. It’s envisioned the majority of Apple users will be on iOS14 by Q2 to Q3 of 2021.
Apple’s request for users to opt into tracking will affect how Facebook receives, processes and reports data from the Facebook Pixel and will subsequently affect the ability to track and market to potential and current customers via Facebook and Instagram ads.
Facebook’s view;
Facebook has created a campaign championing the effects of ATT on the small business owner with headlines as ‘Standing up for small business customers and their communities against Apple’. They’ve taken out press coverage to substantiate their argument and PR to support their view of these changes.
Apple’s View;
To understand the introduction of the AppTrackingTransparency’ (ATT) framework it’s worth referring to the Apple Manifesto which centres the user and their privacy at the heart of it and a driver for this change.
“Privacy is a fundamental human right. At Apple, it’s also one of our core values. Your devices are important to so many parts of your life. What you share from those experiences, and who you share it with, should be up to you. We design Apple products to protect your privacy and give you control over your information. It’s not always easy. But that’s the kind of innovation we believe in.”
Impacts
Here are some things which we are aware of that will be impacted, industry views and discussion continues around the effect of users not opting into the workarounds, with the help of Facebook and Depesh Mandalia. The following has been created to help you understand the changes to any data you may see within your Ads Dashboard:
1. Some custom and lookalike audiences will be affected
As more people opt-out of tracking on iOS 14 devices, the size of your Website Custom Audiences (for example, audiences of website visitors, people who have added to cart, purchasers etc) may decrease. Remarketing and retargeting to warm audiences will therefore be affected.
In addition, when excluding these audiences, those exclusions may be less accurate (for example, if I exclude recent website visitors from a campaign, the ads in this campaign may still be shown to website visitors on iOS14 who have opted out of tracking).
This will also result in weaker Lookalike Audiences that are built from Website Custom Audiences (for example, a lookalike of people who have visited your website, a lookalike of people who have added to cart or a lookalike of recent purchasers). This may impact the success of campaigns using these Lookalike Audiences.
It is currently understood that there should not be an impact on the quality of audiences built off of actions taken within the Facebook and Instagram apps (for example, audiences of Facebook or Instagram Engagers).
2. Reporting will be delayed
Real-time reporting on your Facebook analytic dashboard will not be supported and data may be delayed by up to three days.
3. Conversions will be attributed to the day they take place
We are used to conversion events (for example, Add to Cart, Initiate Checkout, Purchase) being attributed to the same day the user clicks on the ad, which is not necessarily the same day as the conversion event happens. Moving forward, conversion events will be reported based on the time the conversions occur.
For example, if I clicked on an ad on Monday but didn’t buy it until the next day (Tuesday), historically the purchase would have been attributed to the Monday (the day I clicked the ad) but moving forward it will be attributed to the Tuesday (the day I triggered the conversion event, in this case, a Purchase).
4. Some results may be incomplete or estimated
Metrics will not include all events from iOS14 users due to the fact some will opt out of the tracking. Facebook has said that statistical modelling will be used for certain metrics to account for conversions by users on devices that have opted out of tracking. In some cases, data will be partial. According to Facebook, it’ll be communicated on your Facebook analytic dashboard when a metric is partial or modelled.
5. There will be no support for data breakdowns
Currently, we are able to breakdown our Facebook reporting data by certain delivery and action parameters – for example, age, gender, region and ad placement. This will no longer be supported.
6. The default attribution window will change
Currently, Facebook can report conversion events that have happened within 1 day of viewing an ad, or 28 days of clicking on an ad. This is known as the attribution window. A 28-Day Click/1-Day View attribution window is what most accounts will be using as it is the default setting.
From mid-late January, the default for all new or active ad campaigns will be set at a 7-Day click attribution window. 7-Day Click/1-Day View will be an option, but 28-Day Click will no longer be available.
So, historically, if I clicked on an ad for a product I like on Monday 1st January but decide to wait until 26th January to buy it, my purchase would have logged on the Facebook ad dashboard and we could track that Facebook had a part to play in that conversion. Moving forward, this purchase would not be reported on the Facebook analytic dashboard because it occurs outside the new 7-Day window.
This will make your reported ROAS (return on ad spend) look worse. To what extent will depend on your customers’ typical time to conversion. If you sell low priced products that customers usually buy within 7 days, your reported ROAS won’t be affected much. If you sell higher-priced items that customers take their time over considering before buying (for example holidays), expect your reported ROAS to be more greatly affected.
7. A maximum of 8 conversion events will be reported
Facebook will now allow only 8 conversion events per domain. If you are using the standard eCommerce set of conversions – Page Views, View content, Add to Cart, Initiate Checkout and Purchase (which most of you reading this will be) you will be unaffected by this change.
For Android users or those that have opted-in to tracking on iOS14, all events (up to the maximum of 8) will be reported.
For those on iOS14 who opt out of tracking, Facebook has assured advertisers that the highest priority event a user triggers, will be still be tracked and reported. The remaining events will not.
For example, if you prioritise your events as Purchase > Initiate Checkout > Add to Cart > View Content (with Purchase being most important) and a user who opted out makes a purchase, you will only see the Purchase event reported. If the user does not make a purchase but adds a product to their cart, the advertiser will see the Add to Cart event reported.
It’s understood that Facebook will prioritise these and then you’ll be able to model yourself. This shouldn’t affect eCommerce, as not requiring over 8. However, custom events like %view on video etc would be.
What do I need to do?
1.Complete Your Domain Verification
Verifying your Domain ensures that you are “official” in the eyes of Facebook and as far as we are aware will be necessary for you to perform certain operations, such as edit your 8 priority conversion events. Domain verification gives you domain ownership and control to edit event configurations
Here’s how:
1. In Business Manager, navigate to Business Settings
2. On the left-hand menu click Brand Safety > Domains
3. Select your Domain from the available list or click “Add” if no domains are present (and add your website address.
4. Follow any of the three verification processes — DNS Verification, HTML File Upload, or Meta-tag Verification and follow the steps to Verify your Domain.
5. Once you have completed one of the verification methods, head back over to Business Manager and click Verify. You may need to refresh your screen and/or wait a little while before it will verify. If it doesn’t verify immediately give it a few hours, come back and click verify again. Remember to click Verify with the correct section depending on the method you chose to verify your domain (DNS Verification, HTML File Upload, or Meta-tag Verification)
2.Install Facebook’s Conversion API.
The Conversions API (CAPI) helps Facebook track user activity based on information completed on your site rather than Pixel events and will help attribute more
What is it?
Conversions API (CAPI) is a revamping of what Facebook previously called Server-Side API (SSAPI). Server-Side API has been around for a while and was a code-heavy option that allowed brands to create custom actions/events that could then be passed from a site’s server to Facebook for attribution.
What does it do?
Conversions API builds on the benefits of SSAPI while adding new integrations and partner apps to simplify the installation process. It is intended to improve the overall data that is being sent from your site to Facebook to provide better insights and learnings of your campaigns.
Why does it matter?
For example, we already know that there are ad blockers that block Facebook ads from being able to attribute sales to the ads being served to a user. We know that over the next two years the ability to effectively attribute these actions is going to diminish as browsers begin to phase out first- and third-party cookies. However, while ad blockers (and browsers) block cookie data from being passed on the browser side, they do not have a way of blocking the data that is passed on the server-side. So it will only become more valuable in time to be passing this data from your server and sales to your ads.
There are 3 different ways to begin the implementation process. You can identify which fits you best based on the following:
If you have Shopify, you can take action and set CAPI up now. If you head to your Shopify site, integrate the Facebook Sales Channel App under ‘apps’. Once set up is complete head to settings. From here proceed to the data settings where we can enable CAPI.
If you are on WordPress, WooCommerce or another CRM you can use their plugins to set it up similarly to Shopify.
If you have a custom site you can use something like Zapier to pass data, but there is a cost to it. You can also hard code/have a dev person set this up on your server.
If you need help understanding how to set up tracking and verification for your site, let me know. I can help demystify and troubleshoot any problems you may be having.
3.Choose up to eight events to track.
You should be able to do this now within ads manager: You can decide on the prioritisation dependent upon performance reports and your goals with advertising. You can change these if you wish. Recommendations for common eCommerce buying cycle include the following:
General buyers cycle - Purchase, Initiate Check Out, Add to Cart, Lead / Subscribe, Search, View Content
To configure the aggregated event measurement:
Go to Events Manager.
Click the pixel you want to use.
Under Aggregated event measurement, select Edit events.
Read through the introduction screens and click Next.
Find the domain you want to configure events for.
Click Verify domain. If you've already verified your domain, you can skip to the next step. If you can't edit events because another business owns the domain, contact the domain owner for assistance.
Domain verification is required to edit event configurations if multiple pixels are set up on your domain but they're not all owned by the same Business Manager account. This ensures that there is no conflict between Business Managers or ad accounts as to ownership of the aggregated event measurement event configurations.
Domain verification isn't required to edit event configurations if you only have one pixel on your domain, or if multiple pixels are set up on your domain but they're all owned by the same Business Manager account. However, domain verification is still recommended in these cases.
Click Edit events.
Bear in mind that you can configure a maximum of eight conversion events. Turning on value optimisation uses some of your eight conversion events. You can see the number of event slots filled at the top of the screen as you edit your configuration.Select your pixel or custom conversion under Pixel/Custom conversion.
Choose the event that you want to configure under Event name.
If you choose a purchase event, you have the option to toggle value optimisation on or off.
Note: You must turn on value optimisation in your configuration if you want to use value optimisation in your iOS 14 ad campaigns. For optimal performance, events with value optimisation turned on should be placed in higher priority slots. Learn more about value optimisation.Select the number of value sets that you want to set up under Assigned events.
The Assigned events column tells you how many event slots each event configuration is using. For purchase events with value optimisation turned on, you can choose how many value set ranges you want under Assigned events. The higher the number, the more value ranges you will send with your event. Value sets take up multiple event slots, which reduces the overall number of events you can configure. Learn more about value sets.
4. Switch on Auto Advanced Matching
Turn on the Auto Advanced matching within your Business Manager > Events Manager. This will allow Facebook to use data that people have provided your business, such as first and last name, email address, postcode. This will support conversion and retargeting campaigns. Making your ad spend more efficient.
5.Update Your SDK (if applicable)
If you’re an app advertiser or monetise apps using Audience Network you need to take action ASAP on updating your SDK and code to comply.
6.Prepare For A Further Reporting Loss
Facebook already loses a decent % of ads tracking due to cookie blockers and technical issues which may prevent data from reaching Facebook. Here’s what I recommend:
Take a review of how accurate Facebook currently is by taking Facebook’s revenue and conversions and comparing that to what your analytics platform reports (e.g. Google Analytics) for Facebook traffic and what your back end data shows. This is easier when Facebook is the majority of your sales.
As with most software updates and changes to technology, these things are evolving all the time. Please let me know if you have any questions or want any help with this.
Sources
Depesh Mandalia on CCPA https://depeshmandalia.com/ccpa-facebook-advertising/
Framework: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/adsupport
Apple’s ATT framework for developers: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/apptrackingtransparency
Apple’s location privacy update: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT203033 and https://digiday.com/media/apples-new-privacy-features-rattle-location-based-ad-market/
Apple’s Privacy Explainer: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/user-privacy-and-data-use/
Apple’s Privacy Initiative https://www.apple.com/privacy/
Facebook Domain verification: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/245311299870862 and https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/domain-verification
Apple’s SKAdNetwork developer kit: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/skadnetwork
Facebook’s iOS14 announcement https://www.facebook.com/business/news/preparing-our-partners-for-ios-14-launch
Facebook’s iOS14 newspaper story: https://www.engadget.com/facebook-ios-14-privacy-changes-new-add-090000011.html
Setting Up Facebook’s CAPI on Shopify https://www.getelevar.com/shopify/implement-facebook-conversion-api/ and https://www.foxwelldigital.com/blog/2020/10/7/facebooks-conversions-api-capi-and-how-to-implement-it-with-your-shopify-site
