How Ecommerce Brands Can Prepare for Apple's iOS 14 Update

Over the last few decades, we have seen growing concerns about customer privacy and security online.

Currently, Apple is adding yet another layer of security in its next iOS 14 upgrade with its"App Tracking Transparency" attribute, which will require apps to get the consumer's permission before monitoring their information across apps or sites owned by other companies. This information is used by companies to personalize advertising for those users.

If you invest in electronic advertisements or have a mobile app for your company on the Apple Store, the forthcoming iOS 14 data privacy changes can affect your company.

Here is what you will need to know about iOS14's effect on advertising.

What--and when--is Apple's iOS 14 upgrade?

You are probably already familiar with the cookie cutter consent pop-ups which you see on just about any website nowadays; consider this as the mobile edition.

The upgrade for Apple iOS 14 will need app developers that share customer information to third parties for marketing or advertisements monetization purposes to inquire iPhone and iPad users for permission to monitor their information, such as across other apps and websites to be able to deliver personalized advertisements to those users. Previously, users may have been chosen in by default. This new policy is only going to affect Apple product users, but that is no small number--roughly half of the American population owns an iPhone.

You'll start to see this pop-up because you open-up apps in your telephone:

Along with pop-ups, under"settings" users will also have the ability to review and make changes to which apps have asked permission to monitor their data.

The beta version has just launched--we have begun to find pop-ups for pick apps--with the changes being expected to roll-out widely in Spring 2021.

How Apple iOS 14 can impact your business

While the shift is attempting to satisfy the demands of online shoppers for greater customer privacy (one recent poll indicates that 97 percent of Americans are somewhat or very concerned about protecting their private data) what it means for ecommerce merchants is that there'll be less information to use in advertising targeting.

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You are most likely to be affected by this change if you:

  1. Use digital advertisements for your company
  2. have your own mobile iOS app that shares information with third parties for advertising personalization purposes

While only time will tell the specific effect of this change--the authentic opt-in rate will differ from business to business. Using GDPR banner ads as a proxy, consent rates can vary based on a variety of factors: One study cited by TechCrunch suggests that approval rates on similar GDPR notices averaged 50.8percent on mobile and 26.9percent on desktop.

TechCrunch reports,"Hence the conclusion that when European net users have been given an honest and real choice over whether they get monitored around the world wide web, the overwhelming majority would choose to protect their privacy by rejecting tracking cookies."

How advertising on societal channels like Facebook will be affected

This change affects all advertisement platforms that collect information for measuring and targeting ad performance. However, we have chosen to concentrate on Facebook in this article since it is one of those platforms with the broadest reach and the strongest targeting choices, meaning that your shop likely relies on it to get a healthy part of your internet advertising.

If Facebook is not able to monitor users' actions across apps beyond Facebook, its targeting choices will be effective--when a user has visited your online store, you may no longer retarget them onto their iOS social stations, unless they agree. This will probably mean that consumers will see less relevant ads. It's also worth noting that you can still retarget users that have enjoyed your FB page with Facebook advertisements, because this information is present in the platform where the advertisement is running

This shift in Facebook monitoring will disproportionately affect specific formats, such as Facebook's lively advertisements for retargeting, which reveal particular products to individuals (based on, for instance, items previously abandoned in their online carts). This reduction of personalized advertising will make it tougher for manufacturers to fill the top of the funnel.

The effects of this will vary for every merchant based on how much of your advertising budget is devoted to ad platforms like facebook, how much traffic electronic advertising drives to your website, and how heavily you rely on third party data to achieve new and present customers. You might also find variance in opt-out rates based on where your clients are usually from--certain nationalities may be more or less inclined to opt-out of monitoring, with Americans being one of the world's most privacy-sensitive.

The issue isn't only in the reduction of personalized ads--it is that generic advertising may actually do a disservice to your brand; 90 percent of customers state that messages from businesses that are not personally related to them are"annoying."

For its part, Facebook declared it will start displaying a prompt on its mobile app that is intended to encourage users to permit ad tracking. The prompt will incorporate information from Facebook on how it personalizes advertisements and utilizes data.

How advertising will be affected if you've got your mobile app

Apple will need app developers to inquire iPhone and iPad users for permission to monitor their data.

If your shop has its own mobile app and users opt to opt-out, Apple's policies do not let you run advertising campaigns based on your customers' in-app behaviours on digital advertising platforms, such as retargeting advertisements on Facebook. Only if users opt-in for the your app and the social platform will you be allowed to conduct targeted advertising campaigns on third party platforms based on actions they take on your app.

How your development team can prepare for the Apple iOS 14 upgrade


 

If you have an iOS mobile app

If you operate a mobile app on iOS to your company that shares customer information to third parties for promotion purposes, you probably will need to implement this pop-up requesting permission to monitor users. You may find more details about Apple's developer site.

If you run electronic advertisements

For every platform you advertise on, we advise that you know what changes will need to be made for iOS 14. See guidelines for advertising on Google and Snapchat right on their aid centers.

Facebook has developed a list of modifications to their advertising optimization and reporting along with a recommended set of activities for companies to take into account. The entire list of recommendations is available on the Facebook Business Manager help centre and a customized version can be found from the Resource Center tab in your Ads Manager, but we have listed a few important actions below.

If you send Facebook advertisements optimized for conversion events on your online shop,

  • Moving forward, you'll be restricted to the use of eight conversion events per domain for optimisation. Should you use more than eight occasions today, you'll have to prioritize the best 8 in Facebook Business Manager.
  • Domains with pixel events shared with numerous Facebook Business Managers will have to be confirmed in the appropriate Business Manager. Domain verification establishes which Business Manager account has the ability to categorize and configure the 8 available conversion events for any given domain. Learn how to confirm a domain

Shopify's Facebook Channel enables you to connect and manage your own sales and marketing activities on Facebook properties. You can customize the amount of information you share with Facebook once you've got all necessary customer approval, to maximize ad spend for Android, net, and iOS traffic.

Install the Facebook channel now


The way your marketing team can prepare for the Apple iOS 14 upgrade

Here are actions you can take to maximize your ad spend overall, and to continue to provide a personalized experience to users who do agree to monitoring.

Concentrate on building your customer database and enhancing customer retention

With a greater reliance on utilizing Lookalike Audiences, now's the time to refocus on building your email subscriber list and client database. Likewise customer retention will continue to be one of the strongest approaches for increasing profits, as it results in up to 95 percent more earnings. Loyalty programs, subscriptions, and personalized email campaigns can all serve this function.

Provide a carrot to opt-in

According to some 2020 survey conducted by Pollfish, 38.6percent of iOS users could possibly allow themselves to be monitored --but only if there was a digital reward given in exchange.

In case you've got your own mobile app, you might think about inviting users to opt-in with incentives like access to exclusive items, discounts, free samples, or a loyalty program.

Be certain that you talk to a legal expert about lawful and App Store requirements around offering a financial incentive for information sharing and collection for the jurisdiction in which you operate, like the California Consumer Privacy Act.

Monitor return on ad spend (ROAS) and correct budget allocation as needed.

As we have outlined above, iOS 14's effect on advertisements will vary widely from one merchant to another based on a variety of factors. Now's the time to engage your marketing staff in paying close attention to ROAS and readjusting it necessary.

Experiment with different ad types and replicate

If you have been contemplating testing different ad campaigns--if that be copy or on new social platforms--there is no moment like the present. Writing for SEO (including Google Ads) will continue to be significant, but remember to write for people, not just bots.

Finally, for those clients who do opt-in, be clear about your activities and intentions

At a 2018 study conducted at Harvard Business School, researchers found that being honest about targeting practices may cause more click-throughs and buys. When shoppers were shown ads with messages such as"here are things recommended based on your clicks on our website," they were more likely to be engaged--and finally to make purchases--compared to when no message was current.

"The most personalized, perfectly targeted advertising will flop if the customer is more concentrated on the (un)acceptability of the way the targeting was performed in the first place," wrote the study's authors.

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