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Jan 14 2021
IDFA deprecation is becoming a reality. From iOS 14 on, attribution models will need to change as restrictions on third party data-sharing increase.
With so much being talk about the IDFA and the Apple privacy policy, I wanted to make it easier for you (for ASOer, UA, or mobile marketer) to understand this change and what the industry consensus seems to be.
What is IDFA? The full name of IDFA is Identifier for Advertising, which mainly used for ads tracking with user id identify. IDFA can be turned off or on, and is the only official permission Apple gives to advertisers to access user information.
IDFA is turned off by default in iOS 14, but you can turn it on. 99% of iPhone users choose not to share IDFA, which is a major obstacle for digital media platforms to deliver accurate ads and blur the user profile. For users, you will receive far fewer personalized or relevant ads on your digital device.
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Every iPhone has an IDFA, which is a unique ID for each device, and can be understood as "a cell phone ID". iPhone is highly secure, and IDFA is a unique identifier related to device, which can be used to connect ads between different apps.
For example, after you search for a certain product on your phone, when you browse the web with your browser, the ads on that web page will show you the corresponding ads for that product. Of course you can reset or turn off your IDFA, so that others can no longer track to your behavior.
When Apple announced they would require every app developer to get opt-in consent from users before they could share their IDFAs with 3rd parties.
On June 23, 2020, Apple announced at the 2020 Worldwide Developers Conference that the privacy policy of iOS14 (originally planned to be launched in September 2020 and later announced to be postponed to early 2021 to adjust the privacy policy) will tighten the access to IDFA from being on by default to being off by default, and developers must ask users through prompts to access IDFA, which to a certain extent affects the accuracy of advertising effectiveness measurement and device identification on the iOS platform.
This move by Apple has caused great concern in the advertising industry, which relies on IDFA and big data. According to industry analysis, most users would prefer to turn off IDFA, but device ID is an important basis for Internet ad placement, especially for mobile ad placement. Through IDFA, advertisers can better deliver targeted ads and evaluate the effectiveness of ads.
IDFA is very important to the advertising industry, it is a very important component for the display of advertising effects and the accurate description of user profiles. Once IDFA is closed, effect attribution, recommendation, wake up and identification of user identity, on which Internet advertising depends, will be difficult to achieve, and hundreds of millions of Internet advertising businesses around the world will be affected.
Although many Apple cell phone users who resent ad push support Apple's move, the fact is that on the one hand, based on Apple's advertising policy IDFA on or off does not affect the number of ad pushes.
Some industry experts even said that closing IDFA will not make the ads less, but will only make them more flooded, because the ads cannot be placed with relative precision, but the ads cannot be left out, so they can only be "comprehensive coverage" and "high-frequency placement".
The are several aspects that would be affect, it would be harder to re-target users, and access to high quality audiences. The ability to measure the value your ad spend is able to generate and the ability to test creatives at the ad level on networks such as Facebook will also be affected.
Simply put, this new service, SKAdNetwork, allows advertisers to track which of their campaigns end up driving new users to install their app or complete a purchase; but does not divulge too much information about which specific ad the user viewed or clicked on.
The goal is to let companies know enough about the effectiveness of their ads to continue investing in them, but without giving them access to detailed information about their users.
SKAdNetwork still has many issues that marketers need to address, and ASO World is preparing for this short-lived new order and will embrace Apple's decision while bridging these gaps through innovation. We will use a hybrid solution.
We expect that some developers will continue to use IDFA in some way, at least in the short term. Others will embrace SKAdNetwork and try to better understand the performance of aggregated data through analytic and econometric modeling. We expect advertisers will use alternative user-level tracking methods to enrich their data to better perform ad measurement.
The Internet advertising industry's in-depth analysis and precise application of data information helps users to more easily access the content and services they are more interested in with less time and lower cost on the one hand; on the other hand, it reduces the operating costs of advertisers in business model transformation and promotion, making it more efficient and convenient to precisely reach target consumers, thus effectively boosting consumption, stimulating the vitality of small and medium-sized enterprises, and promoting sustainable and healthy economic development.
It seems that Apple has listened to the many voices in the ecosystem: developers, marketers, user acquisition leaders, MMPs, and ad networks who all yelled as one: “We’re not ready!” So Apple has announced that it’ll delay the enforcement of the privacy guidelines with iOS 14 until “early next year,” whatever that means.
It could be on January 1st. It could be March, April. No one knows. But what we do know is that Apple has granted a grace period of a few more months before user-level data for UA and ad performance measurement purposes are banned.
Retargeting was and continues to be a major growth avenue for many apps and games. The ability to advertise to lapsed users drove double-digit growth rates for many brands.
Evaluate whether cross-promotion is a good channel for you. If you work in a company that has a portfolio of apps or games, creating a strong cross-promotion system and process can drive tremendous growth, and using the IDFV you can still retarget lapsed users in one app when they use the other.
High-quality audiences are going to be replaced with broad, much less targeted audiences in networks such as Facebook. As Facebook already announced, they will disallow sharing audiences that advertisers have used so far with the iOS 14 specific ad account.
This means that with iOS 14, you can only create Lookalike audiences (LAL) using existing campaigns for iOS 14. These campaigns can only be based on interest, demographics, and, the conversionValue.
The conversionValue is a 64-bit value that you can report back to Facebook after an install has occurred, via SKAdNetowrk, to tell them which users you want to optimize for. That said, Facebook announced they’ll only take conversionValues reported in the first 24-hours, so comparing the amount of data you reported to Facebook so far (a stream of events and in-app purchases) to only a very early event, is clear to have a much lower ability to build high-quality audiences.
Facebook even reported that as a result, they expect a 50% drop in revenues for the Facebook Audience Network.
So for the day after, you need to prepare for a reality in which the audience that is exposed to your ads is much broader. Performance measurement is also going to enter an era of much less accuracy. One approach is optimizing the opt-in consent flow to increase the percentage of users that provide consent.
Some voices in the market are calling to extrapolate that user-level data to say something smart about the entire user population. For example, if you get 10% of users to opt-in and provide consent, you might be able to calculate ROAS on a specific ad by assuming these users represent the entire population and scale the revenues they generate to estimate how much revenue was generated by users that converted from that ad.
This approach is lacking, though, as it is only logical to assume that the 10% opt-in consent users do not represent the other 90%, and have significantly different characteristics, including their monetization profile.
Other voices are calling for using probabilistic models that use assumptions to estimate the likelihood that each user came from a specific ad. Without IDFA, though, that estimation will be grossly inaccurate to the point of probably being unusable.
Legal and compliant use of data is the key. The wide application of big data technology and the development of the Internet industry cannot be separated from the legal use of data. It is the basic operation logic of Internet advertising to bring into play the value of data elements in compliance with relevant laws and regulations to realize the matching of advertisers' needs, users' needs and media advertising resources, and it is the basic demand of the Internet advertising industry for data to interact among the ecological participants of various industries.
We should recognize and understand Apple's attitude of protecting user data security and personal privacy responsibly. However, in terms of the whole industry ecology, it should be considered more comprehensively. The protection of user data privacy and the rational use of big data are not contradictory, and IDFA is not something that can simply be shut down.
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Comments
Randolph Lawson
@Domingo Reyes The mobile ad market is worth over $300 billion and Apple owns about 27% of that, according to Digiday. If most users choose to opt-out, that could have a huge impact on the advertising industry’s access to Apple’s notoriously more affluent user base.
Andy Stokes
@Marcia Colon The are several aspects that would be affected, it would be harder to re-target users and access high-quality audiences. The ability to measure the value your ad spend is able to generate and the ability to test creatives at the ad level on networks such as Facebook will also be affected.
Andy Stokes
@Marcia Colon You can check out iOS 14 IDFA Tracking Turn off, How It Will Change Mobile Marketing? if you want to know more stories about the impact of Apple disabling IDFA, please feel free to contact me and I am always available to answer your questions, or you can visit ASO World for more information.
Roger Morton
@Jacquelyn Montgomery The full name of IDFA is Identifier for Advertising, which mainly used for ads tracking with user id identity.
Roger Morton
@Jacquelyn Montgomery IDFA can be turned off or on and is the only official permission Apple gives to advertisers to access user information. IDFA is turned off by default in iOS 14, but you can turn it on.
Roger Morton
@Jacquelyn Montgomery 99% of iPhone users choose not to share IDFA, which is a major obstacle for digital media platforms to deliver accurate ads and blur the user profile. For users, you will receive far fewer personalized or relevant ads on your digital device.
Lora Flores
@Colleen Hawkins The personalized ads are a result of cookies and an IP address. Cookies are text files in your browser that track information you've searched. Your IP address is kind of like your house address and shows where you are located. The balance between both of them is what gives the information to advertisers.
Edgar Richards
@Freddie Cannon "Internet Operating System" and "iPhone Operating System" (Apple) are the most common definitions for IOS on Snapchat, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Courtney Walters
@Silvia Gomez Apple's policy will prohibit certain data collection and sharing unless people opt into tracking on iOS 14 devices via the prompt. As more people opt out of tracking on iOS 14 devices, ads personalization and performance reporting will be limited for both app and web conversion events.
Marcus Robbins
@Shawna Elliott If you have previously downloaded the app and are not able to find it anymore on the App Store, there's a possibility that either the developer of Apple has taken the app off the App Store or the same is no longer available in your region. The best way to resolve this is to get in touch with the developer via their website.
Manuel Joseph
@Jake Underwood How does iOS 14 affect your Facebook ads? Businesses will be forced to turn to subscriptions and in-app payments.
Manuel Joseph
@Jake Underwood Less efficient and less effective advertising. Fewer website sales from ads.
Manuel Joseph
@Jake Underwood Drop-in Facebook app install ad revenue. The greater difficulty for small businesses to reach their ideal audience, limiting growth.
Winifred Reyes
@Willard Beck Go to the settings app and swipe down to search. Search: “identifier” or “reset identifier”. You'll see the Reset Identifier for news, stocks, books and podcasts. Click on one or each of these options and you'll get a toggle to reset next time you open that app.
Vicki Fitzgerald
@Katrina Ross When Did Apple Introduce Its IDFA? Apple introduced its IDFA in 2012 as a replacement for the Unique Device Identifier (UDID) and Media Access Control (MAC) Address to give users more choice and control over their privacy.
Arnold Nguyen
@Isaac Watkins Google Analytics can collect a lot of data about how people use a website. At its most basic, it will collect: Time of visit, pages visited, and time spent on each page of the webpages. Referring site details (such as the URI a user came through to arrive at this site)
Elena King
@Michelle Vega Firebase Analytics uses an event-based data collection model, which is unique to mobile apps. By default, Firebase Analytics ties in with the Firebase platform to track the number of events automatically.
Hugh Hunter
@Verna Tyler The Firebase SDK library uses an app-instance identifier to identify a unique installation of the App. ... On iOS, the SDK collects the Advertising Identifier if it is available. For IDFA to be available, a developer has to link in the AdSupport.
Ted Klein
@Shane Cole A mobile advertiser ID is an Apple or Android Advertising Identifier or a Facebook App Scoped ID. This page explains how you can get these IDs and how you can use them when creating custom audiences for your app ads.
Jan Watson
@Iris Walters The Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) is a random device identifier assigned by Apple to a user's device. Advertisers use this to track data so they can deliver customized advertising. The IDFA is used for tracking and identifying a user (without revealing personal information).
Rudolph Walton
@Marie Murphy The latest version of iOS and iPadOS is 14.4. Learn how to update the software on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. The latest version of macOS is 11.2.1. Learn how to update the software on your Mac and how to allow important background updates.
Caroline Barnes
@Ellen Maxwell The advertising ID is a unique, user-resettable ID for advertising, provided by Google Play services. It enables users to reset their identifier or opt out of personalized ads (formerly known as interest-based ads) within Google Play apps.
Alicia Christensen
@Joanna Mason Apple ID is an authentication method used by Apple for iPhone, iPad, Mac and other Apple devices. Apple IDs contain user personal information and settings. When an Apple ID is used to log in to an Apple device, the device will automatically use the settings associated with the Apple ID.
Patrick Owen
@Christine Reese Apple's Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) was launched back in 2012 to create an individual user ID that could support cross-device data tracking for advertising by third-parties. ... iOS 14 now enables users to choose whether they want to share their precise location (as in the past), or a broader, less precise radius.
Kelvin Miles
@Josephine Watson iOS 14 is one of Apple's biggest iOS updates to date, introducing Home screen design changes, major new features, updates for existing apps, Siri improvements, and many other tweaks that streamline the iOS interface.
Kimberly Burke
@Louise Wells When used with Google Analytics, Google Analytics will automatically log some FCM-related conversion events. Attribution for these events requires IDFA access.
Drew Cox
@Elisa Wheeler Each smartphone is uniquely differentiated from hundreds of millions of other smartphones by something called an ad ID. Google's version is known as GAID (Google Advertiser Identification) and Apple's is called IDFA (Identifier For Advertisers).
Tracy Caldwell
@Conrad Jackson Installs from iOS 14 users are tracked in the total Installs count in Apple Search Ads. ... Therefore, the sum of LAT On and LAT Off Installs may not match total Installs, because part of installs may be generated by iOS 14 users.
Craig Ballard
@Marion Reese It is like a tracking ID in a mobile phone instead of a browser cookie. There's an Android equivalent of IDFA, called a GPS ADID (Google Play Services ID for Android). Users can access their GPS ADID in the settings menu.
Joan Burke
@Spencer Gregory Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) is a unique, random, and resettable device identifier (IDs) assigned to a user's iOS device. ... These deterministic IDs are used to precisely track users who interact with in-app ads and track installs, depending on the goal of the campaign.
Kelli Hopkins
@Joy Guerrero Each IDFA contains no personal identifying information, or PII, instead serving to measure and identify user interactions with ad campaigns, installs, and in-app activity.
Austin Perez
@Shawn Warren At WWDC, Apple announced a major change in the way that brands gain access to their users’ IDFAs, potentially complicating existing marketing campaigns dependent on this key identifier. While brands were previously able to access a given phone or tablet’s IDFA after that user installed and launched their app without permission, that laissez faire approach is being swapped out for a new process that’s more focused on transparency and user privacy.
Roxanne Duncan
@Bob Neal Apple’s Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), launched back in 2012, is a random user identifier assigned to each user’s iOS device. The IDFA makes it possible for digital ad networks—such as Facebook and Google—to track the behavior of iOS users across a massive ecosystem of websites and mobile apps, making it possible for these networks to access individualized data insights that power the targeted ads that all of us see every day.
Neil Hicks
@Rafael Welch The purpose of iOS Limit Ad Tracking (LAT) is to improve user privacy. Before iOS 10, when users actively selected LAT, the OS would send a “flag” indicating the user's wish. However, Apple's IDFA identifier was still there and not all companies honored the requests (this is still the case in Android).
Andre Henderson
@Laverne Mclaughlin The Advertising Identifier (IDFA) is a unique ID for each iOS device and is the only way to offer targeted ads. Users can choose to limit ad targeting on their iOS device. ... Ensure that you select the correct answer for Advertising Identifier (IDFA) usage.
Sheldon Nash
@Archie Page By getting rid of the IDFA, Apple could make its platform more attractive to those who value privacy, consistent with the latest privacy-marketing ads for its iPhones and iPad. But the uproar from Apple's partners forced Apple to delay its move from mid-September, with the release of iOS 14, to sometime in early 2021.
Merle Haynes
@Orville Barnett In 2021, Apple will be launching its new IDFA and SKAdNetwork requirements. This change may not be ideal for everyone, but it has a lot of potential to bring about some new growth opportunities. As with most new things, not having a clear path into exactly what is in store can be daunting, but we are breaking into something new and can only assume that with new adventures comes new opportunities.
Merle Haynes
@Orville Barnett Whether you choose to embrace the changes coming to ad networks or choose to implement a hybrid of options, the new IDFA and SKAdNetwork requirements are coming and will likely involve significant benefits (and higher conversion value) for your search and advertised app products.
Shaun Potter
@Tim Roberson Apple has officially announced that it will be delaying implementation of its new iOS 14 privacy measures until early in 2021 to give mobile advertisers and mobile app publishers more time to prepare. The change was simple but massive: making the IDFA opt-in. The IDFA is Apple's identifier for advertisers.Sep 3, 2020
Marianne Hogan
@Eunice Neal The Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) is a random device identifier assigned by Apple to a user's device. Advertisers use this to track data so they can deliver customized advertising. The IDFA is used for tracking and identifying a user (without revealing personal information).
John Newton
@Tony Owens Each IDFA contains no personal identifying information, or PII, instead serving to measure and identify user interactions with ad campaigns, installs, and in-app activity.
Laurie Estrada
@Alfonso Martinez This will have very little if any impact on Invoca users. Invoca users typically track calls from mobile web and search activity, which does not have access to the IDFA anyway. This means that Invoca’s call tracking and conversational analytics functionality as it pertains to mobile web and search on iOS will not be affected.
Arnold Stevens
@Jeffrey Burns The mobile ad market is worth over $300 billion and Apple owns about 27% of that, according to Digiday. If most users choose to opt-out, that could have a huge impact on the advertising industry’s access to Apple’s notoriously more affluent user base.
Darla Wilson
@Sophie Perry Over 30% of iOS users chose to opt-out of tracking in 2020, and this is up 216% since 2016 according to research by analytics provider Singular. This trend shows that there is significant consumer demand for blocking tracking and ad personalization and could well be part of Apple’s motivation to make it the default setting. “We believe tracking should always be transparent and under your control,” said Katie Skinner, a manager for user privacy software at Apple, during its Web Developers Conference this summer. “So, moving forward, App Store policy will require apps to ask before tracking you across apps and websites owned by other companies.”
Darla Wilson
@Sophie Perry On the other side of the mobile fence, tracking opt-outs on Android have plummeted since 2016, now hovering around 3%. Again, this strange discrepancy sheds doubt on whether or not Google will follow Apple on device tracking settings.
Margie Cain
@Sarah Walters From a Home screen on your iPhone, navigate: Settings Settings icon > Privacy. Note If unavailable, swipe left to access the App Library. Tap Apple Advertising. Tap the Personalized Ads switch to turn on Switch On or off
Caleb Black
@Roosevelt Guzman iOS has historically been a reliable choice for mobile markers, with revenue 82% higher than Android and strong retention rates across the board. But Liftoff’s research finds Apple’s IDFA changes might tip the scale in Android’s favor, with 80% of mobile marketers viewing the move as bad news for iOS. Nearly a third of those surveyed plan on shifting more spend to Android over iOS (29.4%) with another 44% considering it.
Caleb Black
@Roosevelt Guzman Android is ready for its time in the spotlight. In the past year the platform has earned widespread favor from mobile users and marketers alike, chalking up more volume and more shoppers than iOS. New app releases on Android even outpaced iOS by a ratio of 3 to 1, driving 152% more app downloads with CPIs 4x lower than iOS.
Mamie Ellis
@Randall Roberts The are several aspects that would be affect, it would be harder to re-target users, and access to high quality audiences. The ability to measure the value your ad spend is able to generate and the ability to test creatives at the ad level on networks such as Facebook will also be affected. You can check out iOS 14 IDFA Tracking Turn off, How It Will Change Mobile Marketing? if you want to know more stories about the impact of Apple disabling IDFA, please feel free to contact me and I am always available to answer your questions, or you can visit ASO World for more information.
Christine Mason
@Stuart Garner The full name of IDFA is Identifier for Advertising, which mainly used for ads tracking with user id identify. IDFA can be turned off or on, and is the only official permission Apple gives to advertisers to access user information. IDFA is turned off by default in iOS 14, but you can turn it on. 99% of iPhone users choose not to share IDFA, which is a major obstacle for digital media platforms to deliver accurate ads and blur the user profile. For users, you will receive far fewer personalized or relevant ads on your digital device. IDFA is very important to the advertising industry, it is a very important component for the display of advertising effects and the accurate description of user profiles. Once IDFA is closed, effect attribution, recommendation, wake up and identification of user identity, on which Internet advertising depends, will be difficult to achieve, and hundreds of millions of Internet advertising businesses around the world will be affected.
