This month, Apple will officially roll-out the mandatory iOS 14 update for all Apple mobile phones.

This update, centered on tracking transparency, will provide an opt-in prompt to users on each app, allowing them to choose whether to allow third-party sites, such as Facebook and other social media sites, to track their user data.

User data can include things like conversions and website visitors/tracking, which can affect audiences used for retargeting. Essentially, the iOS 14 update will change the ability of brands to gather accurate data about their audiences and implement effective, targeted marketing on social media. 

While this may sound dire, don’t panic. It’s time to arm yourself with knowledge and take the necessary steps to protect your reporting. And yes—there are solutions that can be put in place to soften the blow. Let’s get into it:

How will this update appear to users? 

Users will be shown a prompt when exiting an app for a website. The prompt will ask users if they would like to allow their activity to be tracked across other companies’ apps and websites. Users can then opt-out of tracking or allow tracking. Here’s an example of what the prompt will look like:

What does this mean for Facebook advertising?

The big question. Simply put, the updates to iOS 14 will lead to less tracking of people on mobile devices. Unfortunately, this will impact the Facebook pixel  and everything associated with it: Conversion tracking, optimization, custom audiences, targeting and so on. Here’s what you need to know: 

• Website visitor audiences for retargeting will be smaller.
• The attribution window is changing. 7-day click attribution will remain, but 7-day view-through attribution will be eliminated. 28-day attribution of any kind will no longer be supported, and historical data for those attributions will only be available via the API.
• Your conversions reported through Facebook will decrease, because there will be less conversions being captured through tracking.
• Tracking will be limited to eight conversion events per domain—think leads, add-to-cart, purchase events, etc.

What can I do to help?

While we’re still working to fully understand the depth and breadth of adjustments that will need to be made to properly attribute results to social media efforts, there are a few things you can do in the meantime to ensure you’re as prepared as possible for the change. Here are the steps we recommend:  

• Enable Advanced Audience Matching . With Advanced Matching, you can send Facebook hashed customer information along with pixel events, which can help attribute more conversions and reach more people.
• Implement Facebook’s Conversions API , a Facebook Business Tool that lets you share key web and offline events, or customer actions, directly from your server to Facebook’s. Best practice is to use Conversions API in addition to the Facebook pixel.

• Verify domains in Business Manager. Domain verification establishes which Business Manager account has the authority to configure and prioritize the eight available conversion events for a given domain.

 
While this update and its repercussions may seem daunting, big change often opens the door for big opportunities. As our understanding of the iOS 14 update deepens, we’ll keep you up-to-date on solutions to keep your reporting accurate and your targeted marketing successful.