Who doesn’t love a good fight between giants? Over the past several months, tech behemoths Facebook and Apple have been duking it out over how Facebook ad tracking plays out on the Apple iOS platform. Now, the fight has spilled into the streets, potentially impacting how your Facebook ads perform as you attempt to target specific customers or audiences.
Here’s the lowdown on what’s going on and how this could impact Facebook campaign management.
How the Recent Fight Started Between Apple and Facebook
Last year, Apple said they were working on a big update to their iOS that would prevent apps from collecting ad-targeting information without user consent. That would include the app for Facebook, one of the biggest social media platforms in the world.
This did not sit well with Facebook. Over the past months, what was originally an under-the-surface situation finally escalated to the point where it became a public spat when Apple officially launched iOS version 14.3 in January.
Now, users can see all of the data that Facebook collects on their Apple devices. It’s a lot — A WHOLE lot. Facebook responded with campaigns claiming that small businesses were being negatively impacted because they would not have as much available data to support their ad campaigns.
Facebook described the Apple iOS release as a “forced software update” that will “limit business’ ability to run personalized ads and reach their customers effectively.”
And in the other corner of the fight, Apple CEO Tim Cook responded by saying that his company won’t support companies that “mislead users” and engage in “data exploitation.” Yikes.
As the fight rages on, you might be wondering what you can do to continue utilizing your paid social ad budget effectively as you attempt to target the right customers with the right message at the right time. Let’s look into that.
Be Smart Using Facebook Ad Tracking Technology
For any business that uses Facebook advertising, you want to be in a position to optimize your conversion rate — whether it’s generating new sales, new leads, or new subscriptions. You want to get the best possible ROI from your ad spend through tracked conversions. It starts with an intelligent approach to the data that you do have access to.
While you may not have as much data as you once had because of the change to Apple data-sharing, you can still work with good, quality data to personalize your Facebook ads.
There are great tools from Facebook and Google that allow you to dive into the data, manage your campaigns, utilize UTM parameters, and continue to refine your targeting. Digital advertisers already know how valuable these tools are. Now, tools like Facebook Ads Manager are even more valuable to help you optimize your campaigns.
How Marketing Refresh Can Support Your Social Ad Spend
Paid advertising on Facebook or other social platforms is a mix of science and art. You have access to the raw, scientific data to inform decision-making, but you need the right touch to think through what the data means, how this translates to create a custom ad campaign, and then how to implement and measure each campaign.
That’s where we come into play managing paid advertising for clients on social platforms. We know how to crunch the data, and we have the expertise to implement effective ads, refine each ad set, and track the results.
- We understand how to utilize Facebook Pixel to measure ad performance.
- We can see how Google Analytics tracks conversions.
- We can help you take advantage of Facebook custom conversions.
- We will help you review conversions to see how your ad dollars are leading to revenue growth.
We are also very mindful of the need to be responsible in how we utilize available data to support your social ad spend. Our goal is to find the right balance of targeting your customers with personalized ads, while also doing so in a conscientious way that makes sure your company is not in any violation of data sharing policies.
Because of the data changes that have resulted from the Apple vs. Facebook brawl, we can help you take a smart and responsible approach to paid advertising on social platforms. We have the resources to carefully maximize your return on each dollar spent to generate more leads and business activity.
You don’t have to sit on the sidelines for this fight over Facebook ad tracking. We’ll help you stay in the game through our lead generation support.
Contact us today to discuss your goals. Let’s develop a strategy to support your company!
