D2C Survival Guide in the Post-iOS 14.5 Data Privacy Landscape
It has been one year since Apple’s rollout of iOS 14.5, and many advertisers are still struggling to find their footing. Here are three pieces of advice by Alexa Kilroy, head of brand, Triple Whale, for D2C brands to ensure their ad dollars are being spent effectively and grow their business.
Recent data by Statista shows that in 2021, more than half of iOS users chose to opt out of data tracking — overall ATT (app tracking transparency) opt-in rate by iOS users was just 46%. In the past, companies like Facebook could opt users in automatically and use this data to show customized ads and track their activity. They would then provide advertisers with attribution data to see the success of their ad campaigns. Post-iOS 14.5, however, many detailed targeting options have disappeared, making it more challenging for advertisers to maximize their resources.
Without clear visibility into the success of their marketing efforts, merchants must now figure out new ways to make the most of their ad dollars and reach their target customer base.
See More: How Diversification Helps Marketers Succeed in the Age of Digital Privacy
Here are three essential pieces of advice for D2C brands to make their way out of the murky post-iOS 14.5 waters and know that their ad dollars are being spent as effectively as possible, giving them the capacity to grow and scale their businesses.
Invest in Targeted, Entertaining Content
In a post-iOS 14 era of decreased visibility into ad targeting efficacy, tailoring ad content directly to consumers is critical for conversion. Many detailed targeting options (such as specific interest-based targeting options on Facebook) have disappeared, requiring advertisers to rely more on “broad” targeting and letting their advertising creative/copy lead the charge in catching the attention of the right audience.
The first few seconds of any piece of ad creative should still serve to ignite interest but must clearly display the product or service and visualize the demographic most likely to purchase. This helps quickly weed out viewers with low to no purchase intent and ultimately saves ad dollars in the long run.
Larger, more established businesses may rely more heavily on the ad platforms they know to work for them, such as Facebook. However, it would better serve smaller companies to invest in creative content more likely to perform on less oversaturated platforms like TikTok.
Platforms with low CPMs give advertisers more room to experiment. Based on data from over 5,000 brands currently using Triple Whale, aggregated industry data trends have shown that TikTok CPMs are a mere fraction of those of Facebook, allowing businesses to take more creative risks with this platform.
TikTok allows brands to use more out-of-the-box advertising and create content that truly captures viewers’ attention. With TikTok CPMs being so low, brands can test out different ad campaigns without breaking the bank.
Know Where Your Target Audience Surfs, and Explore Tailoring to Gen Z
More and more media buyers and businesses are diversifying their ad spend, with TikTok being the biggest beneficiary of the flight from Facebook (down 23.5%) and Google (down 6.4%) ads between Q4 of 2021 and Q1 of 2022.
The above-mentioned Triple Whale data reveals that while Facebook remains the dominant platform for ad spend, TikTok has seen over a 105% spend increase from Q4 of 2021 to the present. The data indicate that small-to-medium-sized businesses are the largest contributors to this ad spend growth.
With so many ad platforms to choose from, it is essential to be strategic about your ad spend allocation and consider the desired target audiences. Facebook is an excellent platform for marketing toward consumers age 30+, whereas TikTok has officially surpassed Instagram in popularity among Gen Z, according to eMarketer.
According to IRI Data, brands that resonate with Gen Z will see a revenue growth opportunity that is, on average, 14x greater over time as compared to other generations. Gen Z’ers have indicated that they are significantly more open to trying new products and purchasing from new brands than previous generations. In fact, being “the first” to try a new product can be a large motivator in Gen Z’s purchasing decisions. Video ads are also far more likely to capture Gen Z’s attention than other advertising formats.
Ultimately, this means that there is a significant opportunity for brands to strategically adapt digital advertising strategies by focusing ad spend on the platforms most relevant to their primary demographic and exploring the opportunity of targeting the Gen Z audience through tailored video content.
Consider That On-platform Data May Guide You Astray
Simply put, the reliability of on-platform ad attribution has plummeted. Advertisers frequently report situations where on-platform attribution reports no sales, but then detailed attribution tools show that there were, in fact, conversions from the ad or campaign. In other situations, a platform will grossly over-attribute sales performance to an ad or campaign that has hardly converted at all. As a result, spending, scaling, and ad creation decisions become skewed.
Beyond on-platform misreporting, there is also a significant lag in conversion attribution, which can be up to a 2 or 3 business day window. The combination of delayed and inaccurate data attribution leaves advertisers running the risk of turning off a successful campaign only to see its value after it is too late. Turning the campaign back on after time offline effectively “resets” the campaign, and this leaves advertisers with no guarantee that the campaign will perform again once thrown back into the serving algorithm.
Lastly, for expert media buyers, detailed performance results have vanished. Post-iOS 14 ad visibility makes it such that social media platforms such as Facebook no longer attribute conversions to the placement of the converting ads (ex: Instagram reels versus Facebook desktop news feed). So media buyers with significant technical skills can no longer fine-tune their spending on the best possible opportunities.
Due to these changes, additional data analytics tools, which exceed the capabilities of in-platform monitoring, are essential for tracking where ad-spend dollars truly result in conversions. Accurate data is non-negotiable for spending efficiently and scaling successfully.
See More: How Useful Will Google’s New Topics API Be for Marketers?
“Where Once I Was Blind, Now I Can See”
There is no need to be shooting in the dark! Businesses still feeling the impacts of iOS 14.5 should not panic — they simply need to adjust their methods for accessing critical data. Knowing that your ad dollars are being allocated as effectively as possible is crucial to the growth of your business.
While iOS 14.5 certainly made it more difficult to track attribution and conversion data, it is far from impossible to grow and scale in this new world. Taking steps like tailoring ads more precisely, creating engaging and entertaining content, and investing in an ecommerce data analytics tool may feel costly. But it can save businesses money, time, and effort in the long run.
At the end of the day, ads need to target the correct consumers across the correct channels creatively, tracked through accurate data analytics tools. Doing so will allow merchants to focus on what they know best: running their stores.
As a D2C brand, how are you making sure your ad dollars are being spent effectively in a post-iOS 14.5 era? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
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