Dave Granfield
IOS myth busted.
Uh, you’ve seen it here first. I’m Dave Granfield. We’re about to do a podcast episode.
Uh, you guys have been lapping up our content about Apple’s iOS 14 update and ATT the technical jargon about what Apple is doing to protect its users, privacy, but also how it’s affecting Facebook advertising, Instagram advertising.
So I’ve got Jay Janus, our agency COO on a zoom call just here. And we’re going to do an episode and bust four myths about Apple’s iOS 14 update and how it will affect your advertising. So sit down, get comfortable, have a listen to this. And Jay, are you ready, mate? Let’s dive right into what Jay and I talk about.
Dave Granfield
Hey Jay. Hey. Hey, doing good.
So I haven’t had you on a podcast for a little while. You’ve been a little bit, uh, busy. Let’s just say, I didn’t say life is good for you. Um, keeps you on your toes.
What I wanted to ask you is, or I want to do go shot per shot with you today on a few myths about iOS 14.
Jay Janus
Yeah. That’s probably where my head’s been for the last little while now. So yeah. Sounds great.
Dave Granfield
So for those who don’t know, Jay’s been really busy just with Facebook iOS 14 Apple’s security updates.
Obviously, we’ve already done a few little posts and video content about that iOS 14 now. There’s been a lot of information getting out there. Some of it’s accurate, some of it’s not.
You were doing a lot of dial-ins with Facebook talking to our rep directly sitting in on a lot of their webinars and trying to just learn what to make of it as Facebook genuinely was probably learning to make of it as well.
Dave Granfield
What are the some of the things that you’ve been seeing on Facebook groups that are hearsay or myths or things that, um, maybe aren’t as accurate that people need to be careful of what they’re listening to and then what are some of them we’ve got, I think two points each of these myths that we can discuss?
So what’s the chatter in the Facebook groups right now in the communities that are involved in sort of ad buying and Facebook ads?
Jay Janus
Most of its centred around just pivoting. Now I didn’t see businesses, pivot in order to adjust their business, um, and, and understanding what the impact might be, um, and mitigated movements as possible. Really that that’s where I would say that I the agency
Jay Janus
…have a good understanding of the platform. That’s the conversation that they’re having. The other conversations that are happening with the guys who are not so familiar and not aware, of what’s actually happening and talking about workarounds and hacks and that sort of stuff. Then two very completely different conversation.
Dave Granfield
So the workaround of the hacks is going to be a very interesting part of our industry moving forward because we’re going to have these peacocks who are promising what they can’t deliver, or promising that they’ve got a backdoor way of doing something.
But at the end of the day, the iOS security updates with that book, if you haven’t researched it, we’ll put some links below is directly from Facebook. It’s not just Facebook, it’s not just one platform, it’s advertising as a whole is going to change and tracking all the devices is going to change.
And there is no easy workaround. So that’s actually going to be one of them today, but let’s start with the one that I’ve seen a lot on Facebook groups and it is that Apple hasn’t actually implemented the security update yet. Right.
So iOS 14 security update, isn’t actually an active thing in your phones yet. So your results haven’t been affected by Apple’s changes. Is that a legitimate myth right now?
Jay Janus
Yeah, absolutely. Um, suddenly confusion comes in and logins that are in the series talked about the iOS 14 update. Um, and that’s exactly what it is, but there isn’t, I haven’t been any information of what form, what version of Balsam currently on my phone, on it, software version 14.4,
Dave Granfield
Definitely what I was just going to go look at her. I’m like, I think I’m 14.4 as well. So it’s not…
Jay Janus
Absolutely but saying that it’s coming. It’s not, there’s no indication so far that Apple is going to renege on that or pull back from that stance. It is coming. Um, and it’s an Apple instigated, um, thing that’s really taking place. And by Facebook, you know, digital marketing platforms, in general, are just adapting.
Dave Granfield
So myth number one, the security updates from Apple has not actually been implemented. They’re not in place, they’re not affecting anything that you do, but some of the platforms like Facebook are starting to make moves to change their platform, getting ready for a ride. And that’s where people might see a difference in something
Jay Janus
That’s been happening for months now. So yeah,
Dave Granfield
You can’t blame your ad results or your targeting results on Apple yet because they haven’t actually done anything. Is that easy enough to say?
Jay Janus
Um, no, not quite, but yeah, so Apple hasn’t made the change, but Facebook has, um, the, the not waiting for it to happen so that they’re making changes actively in preparation for that.
So things like attribution, windows and the aggregated events set up to, uh, domain verification, those sorts of things are facing moving forward early in order to, to prepare their customers and the businesses up, tell them the platform, all those challenges.
Dave Granfield
Yeah. So attribution windows is the 28-day attribution window shrunk right down this. Yeah, 8 pixel events. We did a two minute Tuesday on up this week about it how do actually prioritize those events that you want to track in the ability of tracking. Um, alright.
So point number one, Apple has not physically gone live with their update yet. Uh, point number two. Uh, do you do want to talk about that one?
Jay Janus
Yeah. So just around domain verification.
So we’re seeing a bunch of questions from clients. What is it, why does Facebook want all my information? Most of the things.
And so one of the concerns though, the domain issue, um, one information is Facebook actually receiving. So I think to bust the myths means employers need to understand what it is a little bit more so up until recently, you haven’t enabled to verify you’re domain on Facebook.
Um, and yeah, you can follow a professional page. You can connect it and point landing page to your website and install the pixel. And that’s kind of it.
What Facebook is asking now is that you would verify the demining so verify the location is in there too. Um, and in order just to prove the legitimacy of our issue, really, so Facebook in doing so, um, in that verification process, you just get a little one-line piece of code, which you just copy and paste into the head of your website or into DNS records and do a little update there.
And all that does basically Facebook does a quick scan of your website and, and can say, yes, this person in verifying has the ability to add that code to the website. Therefore they own it because they’ve got all the logins and I can do that process.
Dave Granfield
It’s not like it’s not, I’m a Google tag manager and putting a bit of Google tag JavaScript sign that you are in that container of a Google tag manager. And you can add your own script store, right?
It’s a, it’s a hand up ownership of your domain name and what I’ve seen through than those 8 tracking events. Um, you need to do the domain verification to actually claim ownership of your domain before you can do any of those event trackings.
So the guys that are sitting on the fence and go, well, Facebook stealing my data, Facebook tracking me. You’re not going to be able to play on the platform without doing it. And it’s not, they’ve always tracked you with their pixel, right?
It’s just a case of putting in up and saying, this is more than mine. I can prove it because I’ve verified it. Yeah.
Jay Janus
And I actually think it it’s a, it’s a good thing. Like it’s, it’ll help prevent, um, dodgy operators from, from being able to advertise the Tektronix through that verification process,
Dave Granfield
Point number three, it was, there are going to be sneaky ways to get around iOS 14 update, right? There’s going to be peacocks in our industry who come out and say that there’s a way around it and that they can still track. This is your point. So you’re speaking into this one, but I want to go backwards and forwards on a few things because we’ve talked about different ways of maybe getting tracking or getting the best tracking you can for your purchase events and your, your funnel, your, your progression. And what’s, what’s the myth and what’s the bust of the sneaky ways to get around iOS 14?
Jay Janus
So I would say there’s not really any sneaky ways to do it.
Um, Facebook is throwing everything out now as are the other platforms are trying to understand what can happen because it’s a bit of a shift and it’s a big shift for the company in general. Um, so it’s staying that there are ways, um, to attribute and track things that aren’t necessarily on platform subsidy, UTM parameters, um, and being able to keep and update immune by doing analytics.
So, and other analytics platforms and knowing where its are coming from, where actions are coming from, um, in terms of attribution windows, and tracking it back to the actual platforms such as Facebook that’s where things get tricky.
And that’s where the IOS 14, the, the prompt comes in, where someone opts out of tracking, then Facebook’s hands are tied at all and they can’t load that person. Um, web thought browsing behind that to Facebook, um, and attribution gets caught. So is there a way around that? No.
Dave Granfield
So there was originally told about first-party tracking, third party tracking Facebook, technically third-party tracking platforms like Klaviyo owning their tracking a little bit tighter and being first-party tracking. Is there illegitimacy around that? Like, can you push audiences through Klaviyo into Facebook to get around this iOS update?
Jay Janus
No, no, it looks like that’s a brick wall.
Um, so somebody opts out of tracking. So, so when they get the prompt from Apple that says something along the lines of, do you allow the Facebook platform to track you across your, your web activity? So you allow them to track you across multiple, multiple websites as you browse the internet.
If you opt-out of that, then Facebook unable to track you, um, Apple limit then from their browser limit the events that are tracked to one put on the event rather than currently every event, you know, previously every single event.
So as that rolls out and time goes on, um, there’s a potential where the visibility that Facebook has on your user’s activity and browsing will be hampered. And so the information they have about individuals will be, you know, rigid. All right. So
Dave Granfield
What about platforms like wicked reports? They have their own tracking ability is something like that. Going to give you the ability to extend out attribution windows again, and get true tracking for the per-platform basis.
Jay Janus
The platforms like wicked reports seem to be a fantastic way. You’re able to track attribution across multiple platforms, um, and track user interaction as well. Um, it operates in a very different premise to like it’s not pixel-based. It is it completely from what I can see, adheres to all of the current legislation and regulation around first-party data.
Um, so I can give you a really good insight and it’s a big platform that is spending a lot of money. You know a laboratory thing is they’re really handy, really cute, where you can get along, have granular insight into how, um, how your ads are performing and how are people finding out about your business and where those decisions are coming from.
Dave Granfield
Right? Yeah. So number one was iOS 14 updates hasn’t actually been implemented.
Number two was direct domain verification is genuinely legitimate on Facebook.
Number three was there’s going to be sneaky ways to get around this update.
Uh, number four is the myth that only Facebook will be affected by this, is that true or false? Right?
Jay Janus
Well, it’s, uh, any app that’s on the app store, the Apple app store that is tracking…whatsoever
Dave Granfield
So as soon as you download an app, like, I dunno, let’s find it out. I’ll go active campaign, the active campaign is going to probably get the similar notification pop up and say, does he want active campaign to track, uh, or LinkedIn or TIKTOK or Snapchat?
Jay Janus
Yeah, there hasn’t been anyway. [inaudible], you know, that other platforms is what there has been with Facebook. Um, but seemingly any app that tracks users across their web browser activity and, um, and can use a unique identifier on the______
Dave Granfield
So it’s not Apple versus Facebook. It’s not Facebook taking on Apple is genuinely apples, apples, genuinely concerned about the privacy of its users. And it’s something that they are implementing to make sure that Apple device users are safe and secure. It just so happens that Facebook, Snapchat, all these other platforms are going to be affected by it down the track.
And Facebook’s probably just the vocal bubble with the muscle behind it to start doing something about it early and to start finding a solution.
Jay Janus
Yeah, absolutely. And there’s a lot of conjecture around at the moment about Apple’s motivations for doing it either uses privacy either because they have their platforms coming forth. Is it for who knows?
I think time will tell on that. Um, but yeah, that’s the same across this app or iOS device wise, anything that where a platform can use the unique identifier to identify a person on their browsing activity and report it and store for the benefit of that, that platform, um, scrutiny
Dave Granfield
Alright, that’s four points. Anything else to add to this?
Jay Janus
No, that’s it. More to come.
Dave Granfield
All right. So the mix of iOS 14 updated Apple, um, pretty clean and clear on some of those myths it’s, well-documented now on Facebook and on Apple. There are definitely ways that you can research it for yourself. If you did want to find out a little bit more information.
Uh, Jay has his ear on the ground talking with Facebook very often at the moment and just working out for our personal customers with the agency, what we do moving forward. Um, yes, you are going to see a difference in your attribution window tracking. You are going to see a difference in how you’re attributing you’re an e-commerce store sales, right.
Or if you’re a lead generation business, how you’re attributing leads doesn’t mean you’re going to get any fewer sales or any fewer leads. Not necessarily. It just means that you’re going to be, you’re going to have to do your own research and deep dig a little bit deeper as to where your dollars were spent and where the return was from those goals.
Jay Janus
Yeah.
Dave Granfield
Let’s do an episode on that. Let’s do it, man. You know what? Let’s do it now.
I’m going to wrap this episode. I’m just going to finish talking to these guys and I’m going to wrap this episode up and then we’re going to do it straight away because you’re a hard man to lockdown and I’ve got you now. So we’ll do, we’ll just do it. Um, all right. So that’s it for this episode, the myths of iOS 14, update with Apple and stay tuned next week, or whenever we get it launched because Jay and I are about to actually chat about what we’ll be chatting about attribution, attribution, windows, and how moving forward. You’re going to track your advertising dollar on platforms like Facebook.
Alright guys, if you liked this little conversation, last time we did an iOS 14 Facebook update. It was probably one of the most popular videos that we’ve ever done. If you liked this, please subscribe to YouTube, subscribe to the podcast channel that you’re listening to us on. Um, hit the, like all that usual crap that people on YouTube say, we just genuinely want you to be able to watch it, listen to our content if you’re getting value from it. So, um, thanks heaps Jay. I’ll talk to you again in a couple of minutes…
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