Still deciding whether to use Facebook Ads to attract new clients? iOS14 has made it harder – but Rosie Reynolds Marketing are here to help!

Apple have recently released a quick flurry of updates to their mobile operating system, iOS.

These updates have caused quite the stir in the media due to the impact they have on the way iOS user’s data is handled and how that impacts the world of marketing and advertising.

The operating system used by Apple’s iPhones and iPads (iOS) has historically allowed apps installed on the platform to send information, about users and how they use the app, back to the developers. The data gathered would be used for a range of purposes, like service improvement. Services like Google Search that we might think of as simple tools have now implemented complicated feedback mechanisms, predicting your behaviour in the future to make your experience with the service smoother and more enjoyable.

The other major function of gathering user data, that we’re more interested in, is for advertising and marketing. Many of the major services and platforms marketers use for their campaigns rely on user data to put advertisements in front of individuals who might be interested in them. The recent changes to iOS allow users to opt-out of their data being gathered. Without as much or as accurate information, adverts are more likely to be seen by people uninterested in them, meaning people are less likely to click through, call, or buy your product.

iOS has a massive user-base here in the UK, with a few sources placing the market share among smartphone users comfortably above 50%. It’s unlikely all these people will immediately opt-out of sharing their data, but a significant blow to targeted advertising is inevitable.

 The Apple iOS 14 update and how it has affected advertising

iOS 14, and more recently iOS 14.5, has implemented some significant changes that will allow users to opt-out of having their data tracked by any app on iOS. With more than one update being released in quick succession, users that didn’t opt-out the first time have been given the opportunity to opt-out again, which has caused a cascade of users choosing not to share their data.

Targeted advertising, as we know it today, works by analysing user data gathered by a few different methods. The data is then used to create a profile of a person as a changing record of their needs and interests. To decide which advertisements Facebook shows you when you’re scrolling through your timeline, the application checks this record to find out what type of advertisement you would be most interested in.

So why is it changing?

In recent years, the use of user’s data in marketing has come under scrutiny because of its use in the American presidential election in 2016, and by Cambridge Analytica during the Brexit campaign of the same year.

Unprecedented influence on democratic politics caught the eye of both the British Parliament and United States congress. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and several other tech CEOs were called in front of national inquiries to defend their use of targeted advertising.

A change towards increased user privacy is generally viewed as positive by customers, and Apple has a history of banking its reputation on user privacy. In 2016, Apple famously denied a request by the FBI to provide them with a method of bypassing iPhone security features.

Discussions about privacy are nothing new, but the changes proposed by Apple indicate the biggest shift in recent years. Because of the impact the changes to privacy features will have on the ability of apps on the iOS platform to gather information on users, both Google and Facebook have loudly voiced their concerns.

How does this affect us?

Businesses that utilise Google or Facebook’s marketing features, will feel a drop in performance now that the apps have reduced access to user data. As a result of the changes, a marketing budget dedicated exclusively to Google or Facebook advertising may not stretch as far as it did previously when trying to use the same methods.

The lack of information prevents both platforms from being able to reliably place your advert in front of relevant customers, based on their earlier engagement with your business.

Generally, the changes will make it more difficult to make informed decisions on the efficient allocation of marketing budgets.

While the benefits of user privacy are plain to see, the negative impacts of the incoming privacy changes will be felt more painfully by smaller businesses with limited marketing budgets, than by their giant competitors. Facebook are taking steps to try and limit the damage to its marketing ecosystem from Apple’s changes, but there will have to be some fundamental changes to the way Facebook gathers and uses marketing data to really get around it.

What can you do about it?

Considering the shake-up of privacy and its relationship to marketing, it’s more important than ever to diversify the distribution of your marketing budget across several platforms.

Small businesses and marketing agencies aren’t really the target of these changes but might feel the worst of the consequences. The marketing tools used by Google and Facebook, reliant on user data, have been one of the best ways smaller independent businesses have had to effectively compete with larger rivals. Having a much larger marketing budget means less reliance on specifically targeted advertising, with higher conversion rates that are invaluable to smaller organisations.

Take advantage of other services and marketing avenues that don’t rely as heavily on the iOS platform to put your ads in front of relevant potential customers.

Making sure your business takes the most comprehensive approach possible to its digital marketing will be key in avoiding the worst.

What are we doing?

Rosie Reynolds Marketing have decided to come up with a comprehensive strategy to try and mitigate the worst impacts of this change.

We will be introducing a three-part marketing funnel strategy:

• We will run a traffic campaign for at least 10 days (Setting the ads goal as “web visitors”, encouraging as many people as possible to visit the website to populate the google pixel installed on there)
• We will run a conversion campaign (the goal here will be set as “sales/leads” and we will use the data gathered from the traffic campaign above to set the audience)
• We will finally run a retargeting campaign (using the Facebook pixel, we can retarget anyone that has shown an interest in previous posts or advertising campaigns from the 1^stand 2^nd part of the funnel)

Due to the latest updates, it has been recommended to install a conversion API on websites to help keep costs to a minimum and reduce the cost per click.

Unfortunately, the main issue that has arisen from these recent updates is that it has decreased audience sizes and overall reach of advertising campaigns and it will take some time for the industry to adapt to this new landscape.

When we introduce steps two and three of our three-step marketing funnel, we will use several lookalike audiences, targeting people with interests similar to the page or service we manage.

We will also adjust the approach that was widely used before (selecting several interests) and focus on a smaller selection of interests when requiring more detailed targeting.

Although some fallout from the changes to iOS will be unavoidable, this methodology should insulate the campaigns we run from some of the shock.

While we’d like to see a better compromise between increased calls for privacy and targeted ads that didn’t put the brunt of changes on smaller businesses and marketing firms, for the time being what we outlined above means we’ll be able to continue deploying efficient and comprehensive marketing campaigns for our clients.

The changes to iOS highlight the need to have detailed and thorough marketing campaigns. The already complex landscape of advertising is only getting more difficult to navigate effectively. Especially now that platforms and services used by marketers like us have begun to branch away from each other on policy, it is important to make sure you have access to the best expertise and experience possible to get the most for your business.

If you need any advice, guidance or someone to create and manage your PPC advertising campaigns, including Google Ads and Facebook ads, contact Rosie Reynolds Marketing on 01453 798555 or email contact@r-reynolds.com.

 

Rosie Reynolds Marketing are a Gloucestershire based marketing company that helps companies locally and UK wide grow their business with effective marketing strategies. They have recently been awarded Google Partner status, a tough to obtain stamp of approval from Google themselves.