If you are an iPhone user, then you should have noticed those pop up boxes that appear once you open any app following the iOS14 update. But do you actually know what you are allowing or denying?
The box will ask you to choose whether you want to ‘Allow tracking’ or ‘Ask app not to track’ ... do you recognise it now?
What does iOS14.5 mean for users?
By selecting ‘Allow tracking’, you are confirming to Apple that you are happy for tech firms including Facebook to track your activity within that particular app and use this to inform their cross-platform advertising.
If you choose to ‘Ask app not to track’ then you will be denying Facebook and others the ability to track your activity within the app, and they will therefore not be able to use this data to determine what kind of ads to show you across their platforms.
The update brings about a large shift in control and clarity for the iPhone user, around activity tracking and advertising - and it has been a long time coming. However, this has inevitably led to issues with advertisers (and Facebook themselves), who have become reliant on the data from iOS apps to inform their advertising strategy.
What do the iOS14.5 changes mean for advertisers?
As a digital marketing agency, we will be waiting for the data from the opt-in clicks to better determine what the impact will be from the update. But it is clear to see that there are already issues arising for Facebook advertising in particular, due to the iOS update from Facebook’s tech giant rivals, Apple.
The current data we have as of early May 2021 is alarming, with an opt-in rate of just 6% in the US and roughly 15% worldwide. Source: https://bit.ly/2RdHicN.