According to Facebook, Apple’s iOS 14 could cause the revenue of its audience network advertising business to collapse by over 50 percent. The reason is stricter data protection.
For a long time, advertisers and platforms such as Facebook have been storming the innovations coming with iOS 14. The new version of the Apple operating system brings with it a decisive change: With the update, Apple users can prevent their data from being passed on to advertisers in the future.
On Wednesday, Facebook stated that the iOS update could cause its audience network advertising business to collapse by over 50 percent, as reported by CNBC.
Facebook audience network: a slump in revenue
The Audience Network from Facebook (as we know it) enables app developers to place advertisements in the applications targeted to its users with the help of the rich data from Facebook. To this date, advertisers have used Apple’s IDFA, a unique ID for users of Apple devices. Facebook and Co. can then use this to determine whether a certain advertising campaign has resulted in installing an app.
With the arrival of iOS 14, Apple has made it more important to protect its online users’ privacy. Whoever wants to access the iOS user ID (IDFA), which will continue to be offered by Apple, is dependent on those users who actively consent to the subsequent advertising tracking (opt-in). For advertisers, the ID is almost worthless.
Facebook wants to do without IDFA collection in iOS 14
Facebook announced that the company’s apps in iOS 14 would initially forego IDFA information. The Facebook SDK should be updated to support iOS 14 and Apple’s SKAd Network API. This means that advertisers will have fewer data available for the implementation and evaluation of advertising campaigns.
According to Facebook, the audience mentioned above network drop of over 50 percent could be even greater in reality than in the tests. They are working on short- and long-term strategies to support app providers in the face of these changes.
The group left open, which options Facebook specifically means. It is also unclear how much revenue the audience network advertising business is currently generating. Facebook itself sees its advertising business less affected. The new features of iOS 14 also have no effect on Android users.