Social media is a range of powerful online platforms that enables businesses to connect with their target market to build brand awareness, increase sales and drive traffic. This is accomplished by utilising the social networking services as promotional and engagement tools to build brand identity and attract its primary audience to its products and services. It is therefore vital that social media advertising is a part of an integrated marketing strategy of a business for it to remain competitive.
However, Apple has announced a new privacy move ahead of the launch of iOS 14.5, predicted to be unveiled in late April, will have an impact on businesses that utilise social media advertising. Named as “Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT)” prompt, the system will notify users in detail of what user data social media platforms will track before app installation. An authorisation request regarding user’s data privacy will then follow, providing users with an option regarding their tracking authorisation status. If users choose to opt-out, advertisers will not be able to track the events and conversations of those users, limiting tracking data needed to measure and optimize social media marketing strategies.
Why is iOS 14.5 a problem for Facebook?
Facebook has claimed that the new privacy-based measure will “harm the growth of business and the free internet”. This is due to Facebook’s heavy reliance in tracking usage data of individuals online activity regarding conversations, ad purchases, likes/shares, and events. This is to enable Facebook the ability to identify the interests of platform users to help businesses target ads to their primary audiences. However, the iOS 14.5 ATT will enforce Facebook to seek permission of data collection from platform users, with anticipation that many will choose to opt-out. Without the tracking data of platform users, targeting Facebook ads will be affected due to the lack of information regarding interests and activity patterns. Facebook in response to iOS update has announced new functions and changes to aid
advertisers in adapting their social media marketing strategies which are as follows:
Aggregated Event Management (AEM)
To minimise the impact of data loss, Aggregated Event Measurement (AEM) allows Facebook to track events of iOS 14 users who opted out whilst respecting privacy options regarding their data. it means that advertisers are limited to tracking a maximum of 8 conversions per domain and ranking them in order of importance when it comes to reporting. Although AEM offers less data to users in terms of reporting numbers, it does not affect ad delivery optimisation and retargeting, therefore may only affect how advertisers perceive their ads effectiveness.
AEM means advertisers will still be able to track you, but the amount they can track you is curtailed.
New Ads Limit Per Page
Predicted to be launched in the summer months of 2021, Facebook will now enforce an ad limit on each individual page, restricting the number of active campaigns a business can run at a single time. Although campaign volume is limited, Facebook highlights its advantages by reducing business costs as well as improving ad performance by enabling personalised options. Running a high volume of ads at once can result in fewer ads leaving the learning phase, with every four in ten running ads failing to exit. This highlights the limitations improvement in optimising
ad performance by reducing the number of ads each page can run at once.
Facebook Analytics (Discontinued)
Facebook Analytics is a tool to help analyse data on the Facebook platform in terms of reach, impressions, and engagement. Yet it is to shut down its Analytics and Insights features from June 30th, 2021, until then users can access reports and explore insights, with the option to export data into CVS files from Facebook Analytics onto personal desktops. It is suggested that this may be a response to Apple’s digital privacy initiative regarding data tracking and user’s ability to opt in or out. However, Facebook has suggested alternatives for analytics such as business suite, ad manager and events manager for aid in understanding data and optimising advertising whilst respecting privacy of users.
Facebook Analytics may be leaving but it is being replaced by Facebook Business Suite.
Removal of 28-day Click Attribution Window
In support of Apple’s digital privacy initiative that is affecting how social media platforms collect user data, Facebook has begun its process in removing the 28-day attribution window for Facebook Ads to a 7-day click and 1-day view by late Spring. This means that once a user clicks on a business’s ad, Facebook can then report conversions for up to 7-days. Analysis is then applied to the dataset with the use of statistical modelling, specifically chosen by Facebook to aid in the interpretation of limited information and to identify how much data is unreported due to iOS 14.
Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook, has stated his belief that the social media platform may be in a stronger position after the iOS update. In an interview, he stated that Apple’s update may “encourage more businesses to conduct commerce on our platforms, by making it harder for them to basically use their data in order to find the customers that would want to use their products outside of our platforms”, highlighting predicted increase in Facebook traffic regarding customers and businesses. Additionally, In response to the update Facebook has been improving and adding additions to ad formats for better user experiences and outcomes for advertisers.
examples include:
● Facebook group ads in development
● releasing creator studio on mobile app
● adding polls to video ads
● adding multiple text options
● updating story ads to enable conversations in messenger
with many more to come!
Make the most of the latest updates and utilise the upcoming features to stay ahead of the competition and advertise on Facebook effectively. Got any questions? Get in touch with our Facebook expert today: info@littlemediaagency.com
