With the spiking rise in privacy concerns and bombarding advertising promotions based on data accumulation, customers are becoming alarmed about their information’s safety. Apple is one company that took the initiative and altered its privacy policy with proactive indicators. The company successfully safeguarded their customers while giving an impactful space for marketers to work inside.
Some of these changes are very promising. The improved Apple’s SKAd Network suggests that Apple has eased things for app publishers and created a favourable environment for them. Also, some sophisticated tools for marketing are made available as well. These facts sparked numerous changes. For example, it is believed that opt-in rates for app tracking will face between 0 to 20%.
Though it comes with many advantages, it has its own share of disadvantages. Here are some reasons why IDFA’s relevance is becoming negligible.
Pick for IDFA Status –
Incepted through iOS 14, apps need to take permission from their users to use IDFA for advertisers. In other words, apps need to take prior permission to track the users across before the actual tracking takes place. A notification pops up generally after first launching the app or when a certain feature is to be availed. For example, while signing with a third-party SSO.
After hitting the option “Ask App Not to Track”, the app is restricted to access the device’s IDFA and gives the same effect as “Limit Ad Tracking”. In simple words, until a user gives prior permission, all identifiers can be singled out.
However, Apple gives app owners and publishers the option to customise the notification text, which could help to a certain extent. However, the core of the message notification and the idea behind the message concerning individual privacy will always have the same impact on the majority audience.
This is a clear indicator that a world without IDFAs is possible.
Checking the IDFA Status –
Apple sanctioned the use of the Advertising Tracking Enabled function. Hence, to check if a customer has enabled measurement, developers will need to cross-check the AppTrackingTransparency framework.
Shift to SKAdNetwork –
Apple has made substantial changes to the SKAdNetwork; it validates the advertised led app installations. This maintains transparency among the customers and bolsters confidence. Some of these changes are listed below-
Apple has employed timers, indicating that conversion rates won’t be immediate right after the installation. This step is most likely to enhance the privacy quotient.
Apple also added a system to update conversion value. This might be an opening method to attach limited post-install KPIs to the critical conversion message.
Apple went ahead and added an option to redownload/reinstall crucial support, which is decisive to have.
Apple further added the feature of Source App ID to navigate, identify and recognise publishing apps.
A New App Privacy Section –
Apple introduced the App Store page in a slightly changed way. The page features summaries of your privacy practices along with the link to your self reported privacy policy. This consists of data accumulation through the app that’s allowed to track users plus data that publishers gather beyond the app and link to your user profile, such as location, history, web browsing information, and more.
Managed DSPs –
In a world without mobile IDFA, a clear distinction should be made between in-house DSPs facilitating advertiser-based programmatic media buying and managed DSP service, effectively as ad networks.
The core value proposition of managed DSPs are their device graphs or their data of device advertising identifiers paired with knowledge around which devices have been monetised and in which app. Once these graphs lose their relevance, managed DSPs will also lose their competitive advantage over other programmatic solutions and in-house DSPs.
The IDFA related changes were initiated with the introduction of iOS14. Here is a brief overview of all the IDFA related changes –
- Device IDFA will be made available to specific apps only based on their user’s description of applying pop-up after the app is opened. LAT setting will still exist at a device level. Hence, no apps will have any access to the device IDFA given that LAT is turned on.
- Apple uses SKAdNetwrok API to store metadata from numerous ad clicks and send a postback from the app to the advertising platform that triggered the installation. With iOS 14, new parameters are to be added.
- The postback to ad networks can include as many as 64 conversion event IDs through a 6-bit conversion value. It will also have a “redownloaded” flag indicating if the app is downloaded for the first time by a user.
- However, the postbacks will be delivered on a sequence of timers and include one conversion event per attributed install. In other words, the advertisers won’t get the accurate and absolute counts of events but the actual counts of highest value events that users complete within the conversion period.
- IDFA or ID for vendors will continue to function for publishers per device for all apps per device. This implies that the publisher will have a unique device identifier across its apps on different devices. Hence, if a user has installed 4 apps on his iPhone, we will have access to a unique IDFV for that user, which will remain the same from all three apps.
Conclusion
We can say that IDFA was living on borrowed time since the advent of Limit Ad tracking. It was foreseen by many, and its impact on the mobile advertising ecosystem is enormous. That’s why new mobile marketing tools and tactics have been launched in the market to fill the void and lead the way in the coming future. The clash of data and privacy will still strive to find the right balance. You need to pick the right marketing mix and find alternative strategies that will drive you to the growth and success you aspire to reach.
Hope this blog would have answered all your questions. For more information, feel free to reach out to us on our online portal, Trackier.
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