Apple recently released this informative PDF that supports their plans to take a stand to improve the transparency behind what personal data is and isn’t shared when you use their device and the apps that run on it.

The overarching theme being that users will now need to opt in for the device or its downloaded apps to track them in the way they were designed to. Personally I’m all for transparency – it’s one of the core values of ARK.  But how is this going to affect your digital marketing in 2021?  

First up it’s about the tools you have available to follow the digital journeys people take on their path to becoming a customer. Most think of this as a simple affair. For instance the prospect searches for a service, clicks on an ad or non paid listing and then converts.  And whilst some people will follow a path like this many don’t.  Some take journeys that include many platforms – Facebook – Google – YouTube – Pinterest etc across multiple site visits before hopefully they end with the lead or purchase action.  

Obviously following a user through a complex digital journey is a challenge. It used to be helped by the platforms themselves and their own proprietary tracking technology. By using these tools you could look further forward than their first time a user on their network viewed or clicked on the ad you served them.  

So Facebook used to let you follow the user behaviour many days after a person had seen your ad or had clicked from your ad to your site.  Now with this change only those that allow this tracking to occur will be measured and even then the time span has shrunk down to 7 days after a click and 1 day after a view.

Now not all platforms capture the same amount of data on their users or have shared them in the same way as say Facebook so their reaction to this change from Apple is different.  Pinterest for instance is taking quite a different approach. 

So what’s Google doing with the change? Well as I write this it has chosen not to update any of its apps on the Apple Appstore so I take it that it’s just thinking things over.  

Nevertheless in nearly all situations where Facebook is involved there’s a rethink required to how you attribute success to this channel. 

Contact us today and we can discuss the platforms you are using and how this change affects the measurement solutions we have running across your solution.