But Facebook has actually been preparing advertisers and users of its ad platform for this update (whose release was delayed) for over a year. In fact, Facebook had already made some significant changes to the attribution window, or the period of time that passes after an ad click in which a given ad will receive credit for the sale or conversion; previously it was 28 days, but it got shortened to 7 days.
However, that change was more a topic of interest for people doing performance marketing and optimization, as it could potentially make Facebook ads look less effective.
With the new iOS, on the other hand, anyone using social media advertising to promote their business now face more far-reaching changes to the Facebook ad platform.
Some of those newer changes to Facebook and Instagram advertising include:
– Advertisers can only optimize their accounts for up to 8 events.
– From iOS 14.5 onwards, demographic and placement breakdowns will not be available for website conversions.
– Finally, as a result of iOS 14.5 Facebook app users (and iOS app users in general) will now be shown a prompt asking for consent to the use of data for various purposes, one of which is advertising.
While the first item may be manageable for some advertisers, the second and last points are huge for any advertiser or business that uses social media marketing in Japan.
Many advertisers had built their entire account structure and strategy on demographic and specific performance data, and without this kind of detail, it will become far more difficult to implement and carry out such granular strategies.
Meanwhile, the prompt on apps asking for consent to advertise is a massive blow for Facebook as up until now they have been heavily reliant on third-party cookies to provide advertisers with the kind of performance that made the platform so appealing as a channel for promotion. Now, without explicit consent from iPhone users who have opted in, Facebook cannot use third-party data from other apps on users’ phones which limits their ability to track users.