Facebook expects profits to be hit by iOS 14 ad tracking restrictions

CyberTech · Aug 11, 2020

Facebook representatives have reportedly reached out to key advertisers about how Apple's forthcoming ad tracking limitation in iOS 14 will affect them all.

Announced as a privacy feature, Apple's forthcoming iOS 14 will require users to choose whether or not to allow ad tracking. Facebook reportedly expects a significant number of users to refuse it, and has been trying to work with advertisers concerned at potential loss of revenue.

Ad tracking is the feature that lets an advertiser know that someone buying a product from a certain place online, was driven there by an ad in, for instance, a game. To facilitate it, Apple has a random device identifier tag called an IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers) which lets companies track the effectiveness of ads without gaining a user's personal data.

Cortex · Aug 12, 2020

Well i of course will refuse - Hold on I just remembered I don't use Facebook

CyberTech · Aug 27, 2020

Facebook continues to warn advertisers about the effects of the privacy and tracking changes that Apple has planned for iOS 14. While a pair of earlier reports indicated Facebook’s concerns, the company has now published a blog post detailing how advertisers will be affected by iOS 14’s new anti-tracking features.

In the blog post, Facebook explains that it and many advertising partners rely on the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) feature. This is what allows advertisers to track users across different apps and websites. With iOS 14, however, Apple is adding a new privacy protection such that developers will be required to ask for permission before tracking a user across apps or websites.

Facebook now says that it will not collect IDFA through its own apps on iOS 14 devices because of the changes to Apple’s policy. The company says that this is not a change it wants to make, but one that is “forced” by Apple’s iOS 14 changes and one that will have a drastic effect on its Audience Network ad platform for developers.

For developers and publishers using Audience Network, our ability to deliver targeted ads on iOS 14 will be limited. As a result, some iOS 14 users may not see any ads from Audience Network, while others may still see ads from us, but they’ll be less relevant. Because of advertisers’ reduced ability to accurately target and measure their campaigns, app developers and publishers should expect lower CPMs on Audience Network and likely other ad networks on iOS.

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