Apple have some of the most exciting launches within the tech world and with these big phone launches comes updates to their phones software. Their newest launch of IOS14 is one of the biggest to date and will have an impact on how we track app based campaigns in the future.
Although the update is readily available for people to download, a future version will end the collecting of iPhone identifiers for advertisers (IDFA). This is due to Apple’s strong measures to prevent services from tracking users across apps. Facebook & other social apps use the IDFAs for targeting and exclusions for app specific events (installs, in app events).
This in turn will mean that when the update comes to fruition, any app campaign launched in the future will lack targeting and measurement capabilities.
In the future people will have to opt in for the IDFA’s to be shared to other apps like Facebook. This move is big for measurement in the app world and Facebook have taken a stance to create their own tracking IDFA’s which will reduce the impact on the platform. However, they are in the process of building this feature, unfortunately with no confirmation on when this could be rolled out. This means that as an agency we are going to have to look at ways to ensure when Apple does start restricting the use of their IDFAs that we have strategies in place to reduce the impact to our advertisers.
We, along with the rest of the advertising industry, continue to await Apple’s final policy details regarding upcoming changes to iOS 14. Given Apple’s delayed implementation of the user permission requirement, all of the leading social networks will continue collecting IDFA on IOS 14 through their own apps in an attempt to reduce unnecessary disruption to advertisers. We recognize that changing guidance from Apple creates challenges for preparing for the impact of iOS 14 but we hope to have some solutions in place for when they do make the switch.
