In a recent blog post, we laid out how to best prepare your Facebook Ads Manager for Apple’s new iOS 14.5 update. However, as Apple has announced that the rollout will begin the week of April 26 and gradually become available to users, we’re going into more detail today on the specifics of the update and what you can expect in your Facebook ads over the coming weeks.
What does the iOS 14.5 update do again?
As a refresher, this update will allow users to stop third-party apps from tracking their data in the background. However, with fewer user data, the update means that it will likely be more difficult for digital marketers to target audiences, optimize ads, and ultimately drive conversions.
In regards to Facebook Ads Manager specifically, the platform has announced that there will be changes to their business and advertising tools, campaign set up, targeting, delivery, measurement, and reporting features in response to the update.
What we expect to change immediately
App campaigns With the rollout of Apple’s new advertiser experience, SKAdNetwork API, any mobile app campaigns that do not support this tool through the Business Manager will be suspended for users with the 14.5 update. Additionally, any campaigns using the SKAdNetwork API will trigger a 72 hour reset to help minimize the risk of incorrect attribution.
Reporting
The following changes will go into effect immediately:
- 1-day click-through opt-out data will be modeled.
- 7-day click-through and 1-day view-through attribution settings will no longer include iOS 14.5 opted-out events.
- Action and demographic breakdowns will be deprecated for offsite events.
- Attribution setting default will change to a 7-day click-through for newly created ad sets and web event campaigns.
- 28-day click-through, 7-day view-through, 28-day view-through attribution settings will be fully deprecated along with the Comparing Windows feature.
- Attribution methodology will shift from Impression Time to Conversion Time.
What we expect to change over the course of a few weeks
Aggregated Event Management (AEM)
By day 14 of the rollout, all Facebook marketers will see conversion campaigns using the new Aggregated Event Management tool and can expect:
- A limit of 8 events per domain for optimization in campaign creation.
- Ad sets will be paused if they are optimizing for an event that is not configured for AEM.
- Ads without a selected domain for tracking will be paused.
- Modification to some web event configurations, including reprioritization, will automatically pause ad sets that are impacted by the event change.
Performance and Audience size
Given the nature of the update and how much it will change within Facebook ads, digital marketers should anticipate changes in both performance and audiences across campaign types.
- Audience sizes will be reduced due to users opting out of data tracking.
- Ad delivery and reporting will both be changing and will likely cause performance to fluctuate.