Facebook’s Upcoming Privacy Changes – What Advertisers Need to Know

If you thought conversations around user privacy and tracking were finally over with the death of Chrome’s 3rd Party Cookie … think again! Apple has announced its own plans to introduce changes to the way mobile app users are tracked and identified within iOS14.

From early 2021, apps within the App Store must give users the chance to opt out of their data being tracked across 3rd party apps, in compliance with Apple’s App Tracking Transparency Framework (ATT).

So, what does this mean for Advertisers on Facebook?

The implication of these data changes will be seismic for businesses who rely on being able to monetise via apps, by delivering highly targeted and personalised ads to consumers. As more iOS14 users opt out of from their data being tracked, audience data pools will decrease, therefore impacting advertisers’ ability to reach customers by retargeting.

If the culling of targeting capabilities wasn’t enough to handle, Facebook’s attribution windows have also been decimated from the previous default of 1-day post-view and 28-day post-click, to 1-day post-view and 7-day post-click. That really effective performance campaign that you were shouting from the rooftops about might not look so impressive once these changes come into play.

What are the key actions that Facebook Advertisers need to take?

Domain Verification
The first step advertisers should take is to verify their domains to help prevent any disruption for future campaigns. Domain verification must be done for the effective top-level domain plus one (eTLD+1) and will include all subdomains that fall underneath it.
It is also key to note that if the domain pixel is used by multiple businesses or ad accounts, domain verification should be completed as a priority.

Aggregated Event Management (AEM)
The second step that advertisers need to ensure is in place is Aggregated Event Management. This is Facebook’s tool to allow for the measurement of web events from iOS14 users. Under the new regulations Aggregated event management limits domains to eight conversions that can be used to make optimisations. So, in short, businesses must ensure they prioritise the key events they want measured in Facebook – failing to do so will result in Facebook automatically (and randomly) assigning priority to these events and campaigns. Furthermore, pixels assigned to these events will no longer be available for optimisation and activity may be paused (without the ability to reactivate!)

You’ve Made the Changes – Now What?

In order to mitigate the new changes, businesses should review how they plan to approach upcoming campaigns and their best practices with a focus on bid types, audience definition and optimisation events. Analysing these changes will allow businesses to prepare for future performance challenges and ensure they still deliver campaign success. In the meantime, sit back and wait for the next advertising shake up… it’s probably around the corner.

We’re here to help.

These changes and the potential impact can be overwhelming to navigate, but we have a team of experts standing by to support your business on technical implementation, adjusting your Facebook strategy, and setting up for long term success.