What’s the deal with Apple’s iOS 14 Update?

It’s been all over the news: Apple is releasing their iOS 14 update to iPhone users, and some are worried it will affect Facebook ad performance. Unfortunately, there has been conflicting information about the extent of these changes and how they will impact advertising on Facebook. This article summarizes the three main takeaways of this update.

1) This only affects Apple/iPhone users.

Remember, this update only affects those using Apple products. In the United States, approximately 60% of smartphones utilize Apple’s operating system, while the remaining 40% run on Android. Also, the United States is unique in that most users use Apple; in Europe and other parts of the world, most people don’t use iOS, so they won’t be affected by the update.

2) The update makes it more difficult to track users outside of Facebook.

Have you ever been on a company’s website and later saw their ad on Facebook? Do you wonder how this happened? Well, this occurred because the company sent their website data to Facebook, and then Facebook showed you the company’s ads because they knew you were interested in their products/services.

With the update, Apple basically made it more difficult for Facebook to receive this data from third-party websites. In other words, Facebook cannot as easily track a user’s activity off of its platform. This has many implications: retargeting is now more difficult, Facebook can’t as easily “attribute” a sale or conversion to a specific user, and ad analytics are fuzzier. This only applies to Facebook ad campaigns that take users off of the platform (such as Conversion ads).

3) This minimally affects Lead Generation ads.

Lead Generation ads prompt users to complete the following steps: click on the ad, provide your contact information, and submit the form. They never leave the Facebook platform. This is a huge benefit of Lead Generation campaigns! Facebook does not have to worry about tracking those users on websites that it does not control. All the issues related to tracking, attribution, and reporting disappear because we don’t have to worry about pixels, tracking, etc. In short, Lead Generation ads are minimally affected by the iOS 14 update.

So should I run Facebook Ads?

Absolutely. There is not a better time to run Lead Generation ads on Facebook. Every step of the user journey for a Lead Generation ad occurs intra-platform, so you don’t have to worry about the effects of the iOS 14 update. Send us a message today so schedule a free social media strategy consultation!