Minimize The Effects Of iOS 14 on Facebook Ads
To comply with Apple’s update, Facebook is making changes to their app-based advertising SDK. This is for advertisers who run ads for app installs and need in-app tracking to measure conversions and for apps who use Facebook’s Audience Network for monetization.
To comply with Apple’s updated SKAdNetwork mobile app package, Facebook advertisers are now limited to the following:
- One ad account per app
- Maximum of 9 campaigns and 5 ad sets per campaign
- Dedicated campaigns for iOS 14 users are required
- Maximum of 14 events tracked
- Reporting data aggregated at the campaign level with modeled (i.e. imprecise) results at ad set and ad level
- No breakdown of 1d, 7d, or 28d attribution windows
- No other breakdowns by demographics, device, placements, etc
- Slightly longer reporting delays
More details on limitations and future features can be found on Facebook’s developer blog.
At this time, there has been some misunderstanding that the above also applies to non-app install campaigns, but this is neither true or confirmed by Facebook.
Facebook warns that advertisers who heavily rely on the Facebook Audience Network will be impacted the most:
The good news is that Facebook is on your side and working around the clock on solutions and new features/tools to mitigate as much tracking and reporting issues from the iOS 14 update as possible.
Here’s the four most important things Facebook and I recommend you do today:
1. Adapt for eight conversion events — for optimization and reporting
Facebook will be setting a limit of eight conversion events (standard and custom) for optimization and reporting per domain, which you can set in your Events Manager under Aggregated Event Measurement.
- Facebook will automatically choose your eight events for you if you don’t specify them in order of volume
- Ad sets optimized for events, not in your eight will be paused
- You need to prioritize your order of importance for your eight events
- If someone opts out of iOS 14 tracking, Facebook will only measure one conversion event in your order of importance, so make sure your most important event is first (e.g. purchase)
In this example from Facebook, you can see the before and after changes to conversion events.
2. Complete your domain verification
If you haven’t done so already, make sure your domain is verified in Facebook Business Manager so you can claim ownership over your domain and track the activity of iOS users. If the domains aren’t verified, you won’t be able to edit conversion events.
To verify your domain, you need to either add a DNS TXT entry to your DNS record, upload an HTML file to your web directory, or add a meta tag to the <head> of your website. Then you’ll need to add your domain to your Business Manager settings. Full instructions and details can be found here.
If you’re verifying a domain on behalf of a client, make sure it’s being verified in your client’s Business Manager, not yours.
3. Update your Facebook SDK (if applicable)
If you’re an app advertiser or monetize apps using the Audience Network, you need to immediately update your SDK and code to comply with both Facebook and Apple’s advertising policies with iOS 14.
4. Prepare for further reporting loss
In my deep dive guidance for iOS 14, I cover several different options to recoup, or at least mitigate as much as possible, reporting data loss from iPhone users. I also cover how to understand and measure the impact of your data loss.
For the most accurate conversion data, you’ll need a 3rd party tool that uses first-party data collection and therefore will be largely unaffected (in terms of reporting) by iOS 14. My team and I use Wicked Reports, which can record conversions and do multi-channel attribution accurately with iOS 14.
More resources
If you need any help or assistance in how to implement or understand the upcoming/already here changes please feel free to reach out.