How iOS 14 could affect your ads & what to do about it

Do any of your clients use iPhones (or any other Apple product)? The answer is most likely yes. Due to the large number of iPhone users today, you should be aware of the new iOS 14 update and how it affects your firm’s marketing (because it does!)

To give you a quick recap: the iOS14 update is currently changing the entire marketing game. Primarily for a big player today: Facebook. The update relates to data privacy from the users’ side. Now Apple gives users the option to opt-out of sharing their tracking information with other third parties like Facebook.

The latter is an essential platform for all industries, law firms included. There are thousands of statistics that can prove this point. But one, in particular, stands out: Facebook has 2.74 billion monthly active users. Additionally, it’s the third most visited website after Google and YouTube. Today, many leverage Facebook to target and reach possible clients through advertising campaigns.

Now, let’s revisit the update. It’s causing quite the commotion, especially amongst advertisers and marketers using Facebook. Let’s dive into everything your firm needs to know about the new update. 

 

The iOS 14 Privacy Update Explained

We briefly scratched the surface with what the new update is about. Now, let’s dig deeper. Users are increasingly opting out of something called IDFA. The Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) is a random identification assigned by Apple to every user device. This identification helps businesses identify the users’ behavior without revealing personal information. IDFA was the means in which marketers were able to accurately track iOS users for the longest time. Today, this has changed.

Apple heard its users’ concerns when it came to data privacy. Consumers want a better user experience that requires data on the part of the companies to do so. However, 67% of internet users worldwide are more concerned with their online privacy than they’ve ever been. What’s more, 81% of users in the US believe their personal information is vulnerable to hackers. As a fruit of these concerns, iOS 14 was born.

With iOS14 users can activate an option called LAT, limit ad tracking. This means users who opt out of tracking show up as blank data for marketers. Roughly 20% of iOS users cannot be tracked with IDFA because they enabled LAT to date.

Here’s a visual example of the new notification that comes with the update:

So, where does that leave businesses? Does it mean there’s no data to track? Let’s hop onto the next chapter…

 

Challenges and opportunities with iOS 14

Will all these updates affect the profit and outcomes of your firm’s campaigns? Let’s look at the scale.

Challenges with the iOS14 update

• It affects marketing performance, specifically PPC efforts like targeting and reporting conversions.
• It’s changing Facebook’s attribution. The attribution allows marketers and advertisers to see users’ actions after clicking on an ad and before the conversion, giving them a clearer insight as to users’ general behavior during their decision-making process. Before, the attribution was set to 28 days. Now, the attribution is set to only 7 days.
• It’ll affect the ability to understand and control ad performance.

Opportunities with the iOS14 update

• Facebook will still allow businesses to track every single conversion event. This means it will follow what you set as a priority, e.g., monitoring users who click to book a call.
• There will be a higher focus on metrics related to conversion. For example, Facebook will still show you the following: number of purchases, when they were made, how profitable it was, etc.
• Because Facebook will allow tracking bottom-line results like purchases, the bottom line results will be more relevant. This means that businesses will need to place a little more focus on statistics like the number of purchases and cost per purchase (case). Consequently, many will need new marketing efforts to maximize bottom-line results.
• The ones doing the most to gather data through, e.g., their website (AKA first-party cookies), are one step ahead. The reason? They’re collecting their data on their own website without relying too much on third-party cookies from Apple.

 

How law firms can respond to the new iOS14 update

It may seem like your firm is just diving into the unknown with limited data, but it doesn’t have to be this way. To help you brace through, here are 4 actionable steps you can follow:

1. Leverage 1st party cookies. This means collecting data with the help of cookies instead of solely relying on third-party cookies from Google and such. Although there are many efforts your firm can apply, one excellent action would be to add registration forms across your website. If you’d like to learn more, we’ve previously covered everything your firm needs to know to prepare for a cookie-less future.
2. Optimize your goals with Google Analytics. You can create Google Analytics goals aligned with what you want to track on Facebook. This is how you’ll get a better vision of the performance metrics you want to measure.
3. When possible, consolidate campaigns. In other words, it’s best to be attentive and strategic with how many campaigns and ads are launched.
4. If you are launching many campaigns, A/B tests the frequency and times of the day the ads pop up to the same users.

 

Move your firm forward

Although users can opt-out of app tracking, they’re still spending just as much time on social media channels, and you can still reach out to them through advertising.

Even though the online ad ecosystem has been disrupted, you can ensure a steady stream of calls and cases by keeping the lines of communication open from all angles, whether that’s social media, your website, or any other channel your audience can communicate with you from. 

If you’d like to learn more about iOS, learn more about legal PPC, check on your firm’s health, or, better yet, create a better strategy for your future campaigns, we’re here to help out.

 

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