What We Know – Apple’s Impact on Facebook Ads

This is what our team currently knows surrounding the impact this change (update) from Apple will have on brands/businesses currently running ads on Facebook.

*Facebook’s Pro-Active Opt-in*

In an effort to get ahead of the situation, Facebook will be implementing its own preemptive opt-in ahead of Apple’s own. This opt-in is to provide context to the changes being instituted by Apple and reduce the number of customers blindly opting out of advertising data collection. This introduces an unfortunate situation of essentially a double opt-in for users, but according to Facebook, options surrounding this step were minimal.

Facebook Ad Campaign – Data Limitations

The constraints instated by Apple are (for the time being) going to constrain the data attribution capabilities that Facebook has provided up to this point. The following are some of the limitations we currently know about that may impact the way brands advertise on Facebook as of January 2021.

Data Constraints – Conversion “Events”

When we (or any SMB) is setting up an ad campaign on Facebook, “events” are of vital importance. Facebook can track standard events such as a customer adding a product to a wish list, custom events via website code, or custom conversion events covering anything from custom information form fields to unique high-value conversion activities.

Attribution Constraints – Timelines and Campaigns

Other features that Facebook Ads brought to brands (and agencies) were attribution windows and the ability to test near-endless campaigns. An attribution window, as noted by Facebook, is the number of days between when a person viewed or clicked the ad and subsequently took an action.

After the IOS 14 update, these attribution windows will also be seeing changes. In fact, the short version is that the majority, if not all, of these attribution windows will be seeing some changes (for the time being).

Here is a shortlist of data and attribution changes you should be aware of:

• Attribution (reporting) will be delayed by 3 days.
• 7-day click attribution, 1-day click, and 1-day view attribution are still in play. 
• 7-day view and 28-day click/view attribution are gone.
• Retargeting pools will be smaller due to the conversion window for iOS 14 being only 7 days (not 28).

Campaign Constraints – Time to Consolidate

We discussed earlier the constraints being placed on measurable “events.” Well, additional constraints are coming to volume and depth of campaigns on Facebook. Granted, if you are not a broad, worldwide brand with multiple ad accounts running 100s of campaigns, this may not affect you as greatly as some of these other changes.

After the IOS 14 update, these are the restrictions we currently know about that will be taking place for brands running Facebook ads.

1. Businesses are limited to 1 ad account (this shouldn’t be an issue for most).
2. Brands are limited to 9 campaigns max.
3. Brands are limited to 5 ad sets per campaign

Time to Prepare – What You Should Do Right Now

Yes, there are changes coming that will be impacting advertisers of all sizes when it comes to Facebook. But this doesn’t mean that we can’t prepare or that the wheels stop moving! 

This is just one of the preemptive steps Facebook is making—but here are some recommendations we are advising all of our clients to do ASAP.

1. Verify Your Website Domain 

Domain Verification provides a way for you to claim ownership of your domain in Business Manager. There are a variety of ways to get this step done, according to Facebook, which includes:

1. Adding a DNS TXT entry to your DNS record to confirm that you own the domain.
2. Uploading an HTML file provided by Facebook to your web directory and confirm domain ownership in Business Manager.
3. Adding a meta tag to the section of your domain home page.

As the description provided by Facebook to complete the addition and verification of your domain are quite detailed, you can follow along step by step using this link for Facebook Domain Verification.

If you are having issues along the way, don’t hesitate to reach out to your National Positions team for assistance. 

2. Gather/Download Your Historical Ad Data

If you have run or are running ads currently we want to be sure the current data you have is not lost. This data can still be of immense value in building and launching your campaigns in 2021. Projections will be based on existing data that will no longer be available to you after the iOS 14 update is in effect. 

*Note* If your Facebook campaigns are being managed by an agency (like National Positions) reach out to your account manager to have them complete this step. National Positions is taking this preemptive step for our clients, but nevertheless, we advise you to reach out to your account manager to ensure that your available historical data is gathered correctly. 

Here are the steps to exporting (downloading) your Facebook ad performance data directly from the source:

1. Make sure you are in Facebook Ads Manager.
2. Click Export and then Export Table Data.
3. Select an export option in the dialog that appears:
   • Save as .xls: Export your data to an Excel spreadsheet.
   • Save as .csv: Export your data to a comma-separated values document.
   • Export to Facebook Ads Manager for Excel: Export your data from Ads Manager to Facebook Ads Manager for Excel, which is an add-in that allows you to download and analyze your ad performance data from your Facebook ad accounts in Microsoft Excel 2016. Learn more about Facebook Ads Manager for Excel.

3. Implement Conversions API

This one is pretty straight forward—reach out to your Facebook Ads manager to implement Conversions API. Moving forward, Facebook Conversions API is going to be a very valuable tool so being sure that it is implemented correctly will be paramount.

In essence, Facebook Conversions API will allow you to add offline events and customer interactions directly back into your Facebook campaigns to improve performance, measurement, and overall profitability. If you would like to know about all the bells and whistles, you can get the full story on Conversions API from Facebook.

More to come…

For the moment (as of Jan. 2021) these are the steps that we are advising our clients to take to lessen the impact that will be had on their overall advertising and performance on Facebook and Instagram. As we gain more information we will be keeping this blog updated with any additional recommendations regarding the launch of iOS 14 and the response from Facebook. 

For any immediate questions, concerns, or assistance, please contact your National Positions team member, call us directly, or send your email to [email protected] and we will have a team member reach out to you directly.

What can we say? 2021 is off to an interesting start!

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