The iOS 15 Attribution Solution

Apple’s latest iOS 15 update came into effect on 20th September 2021. Since then, it has been clear that this change has undeniably impacted marketers’ advertising efforts across the globe. We’ve caught up with our Commercial Director and Co-Founder Simon Brisk to understand more about the impact of this update, potential solutions, and Simon’s predictions for 2022.

1. First of all, what is the iOS update?

The iOS update is a cookie update that affects only Apple devices. This change blocks all tracking cookiesCookies are very small files that a website saves on a visitor's computer and uses to recognize repeat visits. across all Apple devices as default. It means that if people are happy to have tracking cookies used, they have to actively opt in to let Apple know. Previously, when someone was browsing or shopping online via an Apple device, advertisers could use browsing insights to serve relevant, timely advertising to potential and existing customers.

2. How has this change affected marketers?

For marketers, this change has resulted in a lack of visibility regarding advertising placements. So, any channel that relies on an advertising cookie has been affected. This includes:

• Google Ads
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• Bing
• YouTube

Not only does this lack of visibility make it harder for marketers to serve their ads to relevant audiences, it also impacts the ability to understand conversionA conversion is a desirable result on a website that leads to an action such as completing an order, filling out a form, or simply clicking on a link. pathways. It can cause problems by limiting your reach and by making it harder to determine where to invest your budgets within the paid search and social mainframes.

In particular, we’ve noticed this change impacts our remarketing campaigns by decreasing our audience size. For other campaigns, the issue was the inability to monitor ROAS (return on ad spend) accurately because conversions from Apple devices were not being tracked.

3. So, what steps have we taken to fix this?

Visibility is vital for monitoring and effectively optimising the performance of paid advertising. In order to do this, we needed to find a way to bypass the cookie data to ensure we could effectively monitor our sales performance and our ROAS. We’ve done this by implementing server to server tracking, ensuring that we have the information we need without SO if you bypass the cookie data, then you can monitor sales performance and ROAS from server to server tracking.

4. What tips do you have for people trying to maximise their efforts in light of the update?

A top tip is to make sure that all of your leads and all of your eCommerce sales are being communicated effectively. As long as you have GDPR consent, you can get these contacts directly uploaded to the platforms that you advertise on. So, if you’re using Shopify, and an eCommerce transaction happens, that needs to be fed back into Facebook or Google Ads or whatever advertising platform you are using. This information can be fed in through an API integration. This data should close the loop and give the needed clarity regarding advertising performance.

5. The term ‘cookie-less future’ has been thrown around a lot in the digital marketing world. What do you make of this and what do you predict for the future?

Well, that’s a good question! I can see it happening, but I believe it will happen slowly. However, there will be other ways to use tracking on a server level to provide the needed visibility that enables transparent performance analysis. In addition, Google Analytics 4 is being designed to provide insights into website key performance indicators (KPIs) without relying on cookies. I expect to see advertisers adapting to these changes and the demands of the market.

6. What recommendations would you have for people to get the most out of their ad spends for 2022?

To be able to get the most effective return, you need to make sure that all of your data is speaking to each other correctly. Also, split testing new ideas and concepts is crucial to maximising results, as the data is limited, but our need for success is greater than ever. Don’t underestimate the value of trying new formats and learning what doesn’t work as well as what does.

7. Do you have any tips to protect marketing budgets for the future?

We have been using some fantastic integration software called Zapier to help us clean up our attribution. This is an excellent tool for moving data from platform to platform. It’s super user-friendly and has made a huge difference to our insights post the iOS update.

8. Do you think Android will follow Apple’s lead?

I believe that they will have to, yes! That pressure is kind of there for them now; if they don’t do that, it’s problematic for them.

9. What are your predictions for 2022?

I think it’s an incredibly challenging landscape for a marketer. My hunch and something that I’m implementing myself is trying to get more out of Google Ads due to the level of intent that a user has when coming from this channel. It means for us; we see strong returns. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, more businesses have had to adapt to focusing on digital communications. This digital-first shift has been a long time coming, and I believe it’s here to stay, with people wanting options for how to communicate with businesses. As well as optimising your ads, continue to enhance your website’s presence in the search engines and usability to increase organic trafficOrganic search traffic (sometimes called natural or unpaid search) is the traffic that's driven to a website because of unpaid placement on a search engine results page. and build trust with your target audience.