With The iOS14 update imminent, and all the doom and gloom from Facebook about this being the end of personalised advertising and the death of the small business on Facebook, we thought we’d share some of the important takeaways from the biggest impact to social media in recent memory.

The update can be broken down into a few major points:

1: iOS14 Users will be asked to opt in or out of online tracking by EVERY app they use.

While this is a positive change for users, giving them more control over who has access to their data, brands that use this data to target potential consumers are going to suffer.
We expect to see a drop in the number of these users that can be targeted and the info we know about them.

2: Each domain can now only track 8 Facebook event codes… MAXIMUM

This is a big one for brands who use extensive custom conversions and lots of event code utilisation on their website (which should be all of them!). It also means there will be a lot of tense conversations about what actions and conversions are most important to your brand. We know, it’s like choosing your favourite child, but it has to be done.

3: Attribution, Optimisation & Targeting

The reduction in data availability as a result of these changes will also mean we will have less accurate and smaller audiences, and the performance of our campaigns will inevitably decline. No one knows by how much yet though.

Final thoughts

How this will all shake out, no-one really knows. We won’t have to wait for long though, Apple has announced they’re going to start rolling out iOS14 the week commencing 26 April. Despite this, we won’t see significant changes until a large percentage of the iOS user base completes the upgrade, which, according to previous upgrade reports, could take months.

It may not be all doom and gloom, however. Sure, in the short term there will be challenges in ad optimisation and tracking, but much like how 2020 saw a release of numerous new features and updates to Platforms like Facebook and Instagram Shopping, this new change could see the platforms find more creative ways to do the things we rely on them to do in the long term.

We’ll keep you updated with changes as and when they happen. Hit us up in the comments if you have any questions.

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