Today, Internet technology giants hold the banner of privacy protection high. In response to the upgrading of iOS privacy protection, digital advertising platforms have begun to release advertisers’ guides. Facebook's official response to the iOS upgrade can be said to be the strongest, and Facebook has always been one of the most outspoken critics of Apple's new privacy protection policy. Its spokesman said that the impact of iOS 14.5 on Facebook's business will be controllable, but in the midst of it all, what concerns us most is the impact on small and medium-sized developers and enterprises relying on personalized advertising.
Behind the statements of Facebook and major advertising platforms, the hearts of countless online advertising practitioners also have similar doubts: "Is Facebook advertisement reliable or not?" "Does Facebook advertisement be automatically optimized, and the crowd being automatically matched still useful?" "Does Facebook advertisement need to shift from iOS platform to Android platform?"
So, what's the actual situation? Let's talk about the data.
Since Apple's mandatory update of iOS 14.6 (identical with 14.5, including the update of the privacy policy for all users), advertisers’ advertisements for Android users have increased significantly. According to historical data, Apple Devices account for 70% of Facebook advertising expenses. From the first week of the mandatory update of iOS, the ratio of Apple users began to decline. With the improvement of iOS 14’s popularity, its ratio of advertising expenses fell to 66%. While on the other hand, the advertising expenditure is gradually inclined to Android users, and the advertising volume for Android users has increased from the historical average of 20% to 26%.
Moreover, the CPM values of Android and iOS users have also changed historically. The CPM value of Android end users is nearly 20% higher than the historical average, while the CPM competition of iOS users is slightly lower than that of Android users. This shows that the advertising competition of Android has become fierce, leading to the increase of CPM bids. On the other hand, for those advertisements that do not specify the launching equipment, the algorithm of the Facebook advertising platform is tilting the focus of advertising from iOS to Android.
On the other hand, B2B advertisers have witnessed a significant shift in advertising to Android devices since June. With the decline of Apple investments, Android WOW (week over week weekly sales) increased by 13%. In contrast, spending on e-commerce and retail brands has remained stable, but in this area, the ratio of advertising service index of iOS devices has been high and has maintained the trend of transformation to Android since June.
Should the marketers of Facebook advertising take action?
Affected by the changes of application tracking transparency, some data of the Facebook advertising platform will inevitably lose its original reliability. Should marketers then adjust their marketing activities on iOS as soon as possible?
It's too early. At present, we don't recommend any adjustment to the advertisements. In fact, the Facebook official has launched an algorithm optimization for the update of iOS 14, namely Conversions API (also known as CAPI, formerly known as Server-Side API). CAPI allows advertisers to send events directly from the server to Facebook's interface. These events will be used in future measurements, reporting, and optimization. The purpose is to send them directly to the Facebook platform on the premise of protecting the users' privacy.
In addition, Facebook officials suggest that advertisers use the Conversion API as an aid while using Pixel, to achieve the best omni-channel tracking and more reliable data exchange. In this way, Facebook's advertising optimization algorithm will be more effective and reliable.
The shift of major platforms from iOS to Android is a major trend. Under the trend, each brand has its own business choices and key decision points to take action. When determining what these mean to your performance, paying close attention to brand data is more important than ever. We suggest you make wise decisions by taking advantage of the lessons learned from Android and iOS.