If you’re running any ads or doing any online work you’ve seen the warnings in your ad accounts about the impending doom of IOS 14.
The online marketing world has been in a stir about this since at least late 2020.
What’s going on here and why all the turmoil?
Let’s start at the beginning.
Apple has decided to come out in favor of online privacy and has stated that they’re going to protect your online data and not share it with anyone else without your consent. However, the way it’s worded the expectations are most are going to chose not to share their data.
However, they haven’t stated they won’t use it for themselves.
All the other companies are in a tizzy because people who use Apple devices are a large chunk of the online world.
And the famous tracking that many of the companies have developed that has led to better ad performance may suffer.
By the way, having Facebook show me ads of products I’m interested in is much more valuable than going through a stack of ads in the Sunday paper that are for stores I have no interest in.
The other item to keep in mind is that this change by Apple affects all of the social media platforms – Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Snap Chat, Tik Tok, Google, etc. Everyone who uses online marketing.
But I digress.
What does all this mean for advertisers?
Facebook has come out on the side of “the little guy” advertisers saying these changes are going to hurt them and Apple is evil (my words not theirs exactly).
And there is some truth in this too.
It will make it more challenging for smaller businesses to get started and get accurate results from Facebook so they know if they should continue their ads or not.
However, will it be the end of Facebook and Online Marketing?
The short answer is: NO.
But it will change.
People have short memories and online marketers are no different from others. Just 10 years ago, in 2011, much of the tracking we’re talking about losing didn’t exist. We hoped we would get it and there was promise, but it wasn’t possible. And businesses thrived and grew without the new data.
Was it as efficient? Probably not.
Was there more testing? Yes.
Was it “harder”? It was different.
Back in the day, before 2011, we didn’t have the Facebook ads manager to show us the results at a glance.
We had to look into our CRM or order system and see where the orders came from and then estimate how we did.
Was it fun? Nope.
Did we do this profitably? Sometimes.
What I’m trying to say is that yes, Facebook and all online marketing will be as powerful as ever, however, we may not be able to see that as easily as in the recent past. And for the next few months, no one knows. We’ll have to see what happens once everything is active.
Until then we can only guess how many people will opt-out of tracking, and how well the limited data we get back will work.
So my recommendation is to keep at it. Don’t stop your marketing if it’s working, and you’ll know by if your sales are growing.
If you’re getting the results you want, keep at it. If not make changes and test that until you are getting the results you want.
One final observation.
Facebook is correct, it’s going to be harder to be a small business doing Facebook marketing yourself.
It’s challenging to get started on your own and now you’re going to have to integrate your CRM or sales program software with Facebook ad spend to see how well your advertising is working.
This adds a level of complexity.
While we deal with this regularly for our clients, it can be challenging to get set up and to use it.
If you’re advertising now and doing it yourself and you want to discuss what it would look like to get help with your Facebook and Online marketing, feel free to reach out to me.
You can schedule a time on my calendar at www.gosocialexperts.com/callbrian30
Brian
P.S. I continue to believe that Facebook and online marketing are one of the keys to successfully growing your business to the level you want. This is just one hiccup along the way. There are always challenges and we will work out how to successfully navigate these changes.