The new protection function “App Tracking Transparency” implemented with iOS 14.5 seems to be more of a problem than expected on Facebook. The social network has now announced this in a blog entry with which Facebook is primarily aimed at its advertising customers.
In this, the company swore its advertising customers to “That the increasing headwind from platform changes, especially the latest iOS updates” will show up again in the third quarter than was the case in the second quarter. The costs for achieving the respective advertising goals are said to have risen significantly for many customers, which is recently mainly due to Apple's new data protection measures.
With new tools to the old status
At the same time, those responsible are trying to spread optimism that the efforts to develop new technologies to improve data protection will soon bear fruit. The aim is to minimize the amount of personal data processed and still create the possibility of showing personalized advertising and measuring its effectiveness. At the same time, however, Facebook asked for patience – the effort “will take time”. At the same time, the development should be counteracted with its own new tools.
The company also stated that the poorer results are partly due to fewer reports on the social network. For example, Facebook stated that iOS web conversions were spent around 15 percent too low overall and that the real numbers of actions on advertising, such as sales and app installations, for many advertisers are in real terms higher than the reported values.
Most of the users denied tracking permission
It was already apparent in spring 2021 that advertisers will have to struggle with Apple's new settings: According to a study by the mobile analytics company Flurry, the proportion of users who decided to use advertising tracking after the changeover should be determined , at the time it was just five percent. The analysts also do not assume that the proportion will increase significantly in the future.
portion less than expected
Up to iOS 13, Apple Apps granted free access to the Identifier for Advertising (IDFA), which represents an advertising ID that is uniquely assigned to the respective mobile device. Similar to Android, this can be deactivated by the user if desired. With the function introduced with iOS 14.5, however, users now have to explicitly declare their consent to tracking by apps. At the time of introduction, advertising companies and developers assumed that only around two thirds of iOS users would refuse their consent – the figures presented just a few months later speak a much clearer language.
In order not to suffer any losses, Facebook and the Instagram network, which is also part of the group, sometimes developed a certain “creativity” Without consent, Facebook runs the risk of no longer being free in the future. This procedure is allowed by Apple, but Facebook went a step further and linked the use of both apps to the approval for tracking. At the same time, the company threatened an antitrust lawsuit against Apple. In April of this year, Facebook and nine of the largest German media companies and advertising networks, including Axel Springer Verlag, called the Federal Cartel Office.
Even if experts have been with them in the past have given Facebook little chance of the legal dispute, the conflict is likely to continue for some time.