How the Apple iOS14 update is affecting Facebook & Instagram advertising campaigns [ Part 1 ]

How The Apple iOS14 Update Is Affecting Facebook & Instagram Advertising Campaigns [ Part 1 ]

Effect #1 – Facebook & Instagram Audiences Sizes Have Been Reduced

We are only but a few weeks into the Apple iOS14 Update and as expected, the iPhone users who opted out from Facebook tracking have disappeared from audiences for our cold prospecting and retargeting campaigns.

If in a one such prospecting campaign we had, an audience of 1,000,000 prior to the Apple iOS14 Update the size would now sit between 700,000 and 900,000.

With the same with retargeting campaigns. If we had 10,000 web visitors that we could retarget with ads, this audience would now be down to 7,000 – 9,000, so you can immediately see the impact of Apple iOS14.

So the question is “If that’s all we had to deal with, just the reduced audience size and nothing more, who would have been the most affected… larger companies or the local ones.?”

Larger Companies –
because large brands and corporations have enough budget to impact tens of millions of people every one to two months, they will feel how their slice of the “prospect audience pie” has been drastically reduced.

Local Companies –
because to impact your locality, your target geo-graphical area (unless you have a very large population), does not require much budget (£150 to £1000 for example) and is something you can do in also one or two months.

And what about those in the middle? We answer that with another question…
How important is it for a company that can take 12 months to impact every potential customer at least once, the fact that now it will be able to do it in 10 months because the refinement in audience is smaller? Rather insignificant in fact let’s take this whole negative and what the Apple iOS14 Update is doing is leaving us with a refined market of people that are happy to be tracked and marketed to.

“Phew”…
we hear business owners and internal marketeers sigh…. If only it had all ended up with a smaller audience… but it hasn’t.

We still have a few issues to look at “How do we reach those, that opted out” – this is still up for debate and discussion – so ensure you follow us on Instagram for Updates on this.

But the real problem brands and businesses at the moment is the behaviour of Facebook Pixel, which has not reacted well at all to the Apple iOS14 Update, it is behaving like a petulant child at present and ones thats throwing all its toys out of the pram as its not getting it’s own way like it has done for many years.

We know that the market place is full of “Paid Social Marketing” people (some of which have completed courses of 6 weeks to label themselves Facebook experts, but we want to post as much details as we can to help internal teams understand what’s going on, to allow them to be informed of these changes and the REAL first hand impacts to allow them to question their agencies and Facebook Marketing Experts.) 

We will dive deeper into Facebook Pixel’s condition over the coming weeks and will post our findings.

But until then, we invite you follow us on Instagram where we post our latest news… and don’t forget to continue letting us know how your campaigns are performing after the Apple iOS14 update changes.

 

 

Author: Graham Paffett

A seasoned luxury goods & services digital marketer with over 20 years Exp. A specialist in developing "disruptive" digital campaigns and strategies for FMCG brands both within the UK and International. • Paid Social (inc. Facebook/Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn & Pinterest) • SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) • PPC (Pay Per Click) • CRO (Conversion Rate Optimisation) • ASO (App Store Optimisation) • Direct To Consumer & B2B Digital Strategy Specialist • Social Media Marketer