Advertising on Facebook has become more challenging due to Apple’s AppTrackingTransparency framework in iOS 14.5. Here’s how advertisers are adapting their strategies in the post-IDFA reality.

Apple placates mobile advertisers: iOS 15 will allow advertisers to get postback data directly from Apple, rather than going through an ad network—a huge help for marketers hungry for data in a post-IDFA world.

Neustar senior vice president of product and general manager of customer experience Steve Silvers and eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Nicole Perrin discuss some misconceptions about cookie deprecation, what marketers should do to prepare for the loss of third-party cookies and react to the loss of Identifiers for Advertisers (IDFAs), and more about future approaches to addressability.

eMarketer was pleased to moderate a Tech-Talk Webinar featuring InMobi’s Robyn Meyers, vice president, West Coast brand partnerships, and Sergio Serra, senior product manager, SSP, along with Advertiser Perception’s Lauren Fisher, vice president, business intelligence. They highlighted the changes, how advertisers are currently thinking about Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), and the best path forward.

In a future without third-party cookies or the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), brands and publishers will increasingly need to reckon with and resolve consumer concerns as they pursue alternative strategies that require first-party data. Part of their response will require clearer messaging, but it could also mean offering users benefits in exchange for sharing data.

Although a growing percentage of ad spending around TV content is happening through addressable, programmatic, and connected TV channels, making advertising more accountable, holistic campaign metrics that cut across the linear and digital domains remain elusive.

IDFA isn’t dead yet: New AppsFlyer data suggests that tracking opt-in rates could be much higher than the industry’s expectations, a spot of optimism that could make it worthwhile to keep collecting Apple’s Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA).

TikTok’s new marketing tools focus on customization and commerce: It’s taking steps to make advertisers feel comfortable on the platform and heavily push social commerce.

While the CAID was up to Chinese data privacy standards, it directly contradicted Apple’s privacy update, which limited advertiser use of its Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA). That put Apple in a tight spot: either cave to CAID and give advertisers in China an unfair advantage over those in other markets or cut out China altogether.

High-level departures spell more trouble for Facebook: The company’s long-time CTO will step down next year as Facebook addresses a flurry of negative press.

Facebook is rethinking privacy: A recent interview suggests that the company knows it needs to retool how it targets ads to reflect a growing privacy-conscious segment of its users.

The framework will require users to opt in before any app can collect the IDFA, a persistent mobile device identifier. Most in the mobile app industry expect opt-in rates to be low.

Apple is facing yet another potential hurdle to IDFA: As Chinese tech companies work on a new way to track users on mobile devices, Apple will be faced with either barring a slew of Chinese developers altogether or forging ahead on a policy with no teeth.

AppsFlyer also reported finding that IDFA availability could be affected by the way app developers set up their SDKs to load. If developers make sure to call their attribution SDK a few seconds after displaying the prompt, they can make sure to capture all possible IDFAs.

As the digital landscape evolves, with third-party cookie deprecation on the horizon, and the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) becoming opt-in, achieving strong customer connections will become even more challenging.

The situation on the iOS side differs because Apple will soon require each app to ask users if they would like to opt in to sharing the IDFA. Without an explicit opt-in to share an IDFA, app developers and advertisers won’t be allowed to do any type of user-level cross-channel tracking.

Now, increasing restrictions on data collection, changes to Apple’s Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), and the death of the third-party cookie will mean that winning brands must reduce their dependence on third parties, and place a greater focus on first-party data and owned channels. In short, they’ll need more direct-to-consumer (D2C) marketing, and less (though still plenty) advertising.

Apple has recently been pushing marketers to use its privacy-friendly framework, SKAdNetwork—but the feature has been limited in the past, and marketers didn’t have a lot of incentive to use it while the IDFA was still around.

For Facebook, data loss includes user-level data posted back from IDFAs as well as the Facebook pixel, the piece of tracking code placed on brand websites. As of Q3 2021, iOS 14.5+ adoption among US social media app users had effectively reached full impact.

Most attention paid to iOS 14 is on the App Tracking Transparency framework, which will compel app developers to notify users if they want to track and share their data using Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA).

How we got here: Earlier this year, Apple began forcing developers and ad partners to get consumers to opt in to being tracked, instead of relying on Apple’s Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) tool. Since the changes have gone into effect, more than 80% of Apple iOS users have opted out of tracking.

Legacy trackers like third-party browser cookies and Apple’s Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) are being phased out or have changed entirely. Facebook and other platforms have struggled to find new models that satisfy old needs.