With many Apple device users now having the option to opt out of IDFA tracking and exercising their ability to do so, this has naturally had an impact on how social media advertising campaigns across platforms like Facebook and Instagram, which rely on this sort of data, can be effectively run. However, under Apple’s policy, even if the user opts out of letting a website or app track their IDFA, website owners and social media advertisers can still legally use other information that can be useful for social media advertising.

In response to this change in how data is collected and processed, Facebook has brought out a new tool within its ads platform called Aggregated Event Measurement. This breaks down certain actions (for example, someone adding an item to their cart or initiating the checkout process), instead of relying on the pixel to track website visits as it did before. Facebook defines this as:

“A protocol for ad performance measurement which processes web events from opted-out devices to help you run effective ad campaigns while supporting customer choices regarding ad tracking within our Facebook platform.”

The next step for advertisers

In order to use Aggregated Event Measurement and continue advertising to iOS 14 users who have requested that their IDFA not be shared, social media advertisers on platforms like Facebook and Instagram have had to do some initial groundwork, and slightly adapt how they set up campaigns.

These steps have included:

• Verifying website domains within Facebook: this means adding some code to the header section of your website and verifying this action within the Data Sources section of Business Manager. This simply tells Facebook that you own the website your ads are sending users to, and should allow you to optimise your objectives and ad sets for the best results.
• Configuring up to eight web conversion events: for example, tracking when someone has added a product to their basket on your website, visited certain pages, or customised a product. These need to be set up and prioritised by individual importance to your business within Ads Manager, with actions demonstrated on your website through the Events Set Up Tool. Be sure to get your priorities right though, as only one event can be set up within each ad campaign, and the results will differ vastly according to which one you choose.

Further down the line – and while you’re starting to see how your different ad sets will perform with these changes – we’d also suggest tweaking your targeting. This could include broadening your targeting to reach new types of customers, and tapping into your engaged audiences more often.

We hope this whistlestop tour of App Tracking Transparency and Aggregated Event Measurement has been useful. If you’d like to find out more about how we can help with setting you on the right track with the iOS update, contact Jim on 01208 895089. Or visit our social media page to find out how else we can help you with social media.