Marketing’s new enemy? Apple’s policies changes and its consequences

How can Apple’s changes significantly limit your marketing efforts? Earlier this month, tech giant Apple launched an update about its privacy setting on its iPhones. These changes bring a lot of problems for advertising and marketing agencies. Here, we will explain all you need to know to understand how apple’s changes badly affect your brand’s marketing efforts.

Key context points

• Facebook put out an ad on December 16 in which it accused the US Company Apple for a change in its privacy settings. The platform claims that this setting hurts small businesses that rely on targeted ads to promote their brand.
• Apple is in the process of making settings change for iPhones. The company claims that it makes these changes in the name of the privacy of its users. This, in turn, affects the mobile advertising of the devices.
• Many expect that this change will badly affect advertisers’ ability to target ads the way they do. This is because many people are likely to not accept it.

Impact on custom ads

Apple’s changes will limit the ability to reach and shrink.

Not only that, but it also affects how people engage in different mobile and web devices.

As a result, this will make it harder for you to understand performance, control who sees your brands’ ads, and make future decisions about your advertising budget.

Once this measure takes effect, many brands may see a huge drop in global performance and ad personalization, and an increase in cost per action.

These changes will limit your ability to:

• 

  Deliver ads effectively to people based on their engagement with your business.

• They will limit the study and report of conversions for certain customers.
• Make sure you deliver your ads to the most relevant audiences frequently.
• Accurately attribute app installs to people using iOS 14 and later.
• Prediction and optimization of cost per action.
• The allocation of budgets efficiently.

This new measure will make it harder for small companies or startups to reach their audience.

This means it will limit its growth and its ability to compete with large companies.

For example, today a bookstore could spend $50 on a relevant and personalized ad and earn 5 sales. In contrast, without using their own data to personalize an ad, that business would spend $50 and could only earn 2 sales.

We don’t expect that the proposed changes for iOS 14 will cause a total loss of customization, rather they are a move in that direction.

New businesses may grow to advertise. However, many companies don’t agree with Apple’s plan to change the way they do digital marketing.

This is because it will be very hard for many small business opportunities to keep up.

Facebook criticizes Apple’s privacy policy on iOS 14

The world’s most famous and used social media platform posted on its website some claims against Apple about its privacy changes.

They say that these measures “threaten the custom ads that millions of small businesses rely on to find and get clients”.

Facebook argued that Apple’s new tracking rules “about profit, not privacy”.

They also believe that Apple is acting against the competition.

How are they doing this?

Through using their control over the AppStore in a way that benefits its bottom line at the expense of creators.

How can Apple’s changes significantly limit your marketing efforts? The platform was in charge of making a small campaign in protest of these measures on Wall Street:

“We’re standing up to Apple for small businesses everywhere.”

They are the words of some of their ads. Plus, they have a whole new web portal on the upcoming changes iOS 14 will make and how they affect the way apps use ad tracking tools.

This ad tracking is done with the Apple identifier, IDFA.

“Without personalized ads, Facebook data shows that the average small business advertiser stands to see a cut of over 60% in their sales for every dollar they spend” the Facebook print ad reads.

“While limiting how personalized ads can be used does impact larger companies like us, these changes will be devastating to small businesses, adding to the many challenges they face right now.”

Finally, this specific feature is called App Tracking transparency.

It aims at giving users more control over their data, says Apple. This setting shows the type of data that all applications get from users.

Apple’s response

On the other hand, Apple responded to Facebook, saying that they are only defending their users. How can Apple’s changes significantly limit your marketing efforts?Owners of these devices will be able to choose between the data that companies get about them and how they use it.

“Facebook can continue to track users through apps and websites, as usual, app tracking transparency in iOS 14 will only require that they first ask for your permission,” Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted.

This isn’t the first time this happened, it’s the second. Last August, Facebook stressed that the feature badly affects Facebook’s ability to offer targeted ads to iPhone users.

This, in turn, could have a crushing effect on the business of the social media giant.

Apple’s big privacy change

Many professionals in the advertising industry expect a change to IDFA. This comes from the fact that technology companies are now focusing on privacy as a feature of their products. However, when Apple announced it at its WWDC event last June, the industry started to look for a plan B.

Companies were still looking for ways to communicate with users when this messaged showed up. In the same way, they now know how valuable it’s for the company to choose to participate.

However, Apple still has many methods that won’t allow them to achieve it.

The tech giant already said that developers can’t urge users to accept tracking permissions. Much less can they create their apps in such a way that they only work when accepting them.

Apple’s solution for marketers

If the participation rate is low, companies that make money through apps won’t be able to use that data little by little.

For this, Apple has its own solution for digital advertisers who know what the new ways to keep advertising are.

The company recently updated its “SKAdNetwork“. This will be available to advertisers through Apple. How can Apple’s changes significantly limit your marketing efforts? However, this doesn’t offer data as specific as what companies used to get before.

Thus, many advertisers don’t like it and, as a result, won’t use it.

“Apple has almost withdrawn its support for third-party ad monetization without offering a solid replacement to publishers and marketers,” Sergio Serra, product manager at mobile technology company InMobi, said in an email to CNBC. “While SKAdNetwork is a good attempt to mitigate the problem, it cannot be a scalable answer as it lacks many important aspects.”

Facebook, for example, said in August that when testing it, they saw a drop of over 50% in publisher revenue through its Audience Network.

This tool allows mobile software developers to offer data-driven in-app ads from Facebook.

Facebook also accused Apple and its iOS changes of moving ad-supported free internet to paid apps and services. In this case, Apple can take its 30% cut and fit the ability of small businesses to do custom advertising.

The impact of these measures on the marketing industry

For some time now, the marketing industry has seen a huge setback around the world.

This summer, a global group of marketing leaders wrote a letter to Apple about their concerns. Some of the issues they included in the letter were competitive issues caused by the change. Because of this, they requested the company to work together with the industry to create standards.

A popular topic for the ad industry is the potential impact on companies offering free, ad-supported apps. How can Apple’s changes significantly limit your marketing efforts? Even if consumers don’t enjoy ads, would they be willing to shell out money to use all their apps? And if not, will those apps survive?

But this is a much bigger protest coming toward much greater consumer privacy.

The most famous search engine on the internet, Google, is also making changes.

They are working towards getting rid of the compatibility with third-part cookies on its chrome browser. In this search engine, cookies are used as a way to track users on many websites. All of this to target their ads and see how they work.

Some industry experts hope that Google will follow in Apple’s footsteps and create its own mobile ad identifier.

To be more specific, they hope that the company creates its own app for Android devices by the coming year. However, Google decided to not comment on this.

How will the industry adapt?

The change leaves it up to app developers and companies to figure out how to change or risk the future of their business.

Many industry experts told CNBC that they expected a more clear explanation from Apple. On the other hand, some turned to industry Slack groups to put together responses by talking with competitors.

Some of the methods they intend to apply do not work and are not welcomed by users.

When Apple announced the change at its WWDC event in June, it suggested that it would limit fingerprints. This will work as a method of tracking users and targeting ads while browsing the internet and using apps.

Many changes for an uncertain future

Apple says in its policies that companies can’t get data from a device to only identify it. Some people in the ad industry don’t see any possible solution for this. How can Apple’s changes significantly limit your marketing efforts? They don’t think that it will ever be viable to see the identification of a device as a violation of Apple’s new policies.

It is not yet clear how Apple will control those methods. Thus, leaving the window open for companies to try any type of solution to face the consequences of rejection from Apple. Some actors in the ecosystem are looking for new ways to move forward amid the change.

On the other hand, many companies are looking to put money on trying to figure out if an app’s audience would like to download another. So, if a business could find out that apps users are likely to download a dating app, they would put money on it.

The implementation of the IDFA changes is one of the scariest changes for many startups. Besides, it also puts the fear of God on those who want to become known through ads. Some of these companies may even disappear if they can’t figure out how to move forward. Thus, everyone is trying to find a way to work in a way that aligns with the direction that privacy standards are headed.

BluCactus, your ally in Digital marketing

BluCactus international marketing agency serves clients all over the world. How can Apple’s changes significantly limit your marketing efforts? Our specialty? The creation of web designs and SEO positioning in online searches. Besides, our group of experts is dedicated to helping businesses and brands succeed in one of the most competitive sectors in the market, the digital world.

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