Apple’s App Tracking Transparency Updates & Impact

The impending roll out of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency prompt has left many advertisers scrambling to identify, and answer, many outstanding questions about the impact of their media dollars. What is left to learn? Who is engaging with our ads? Are my existing strategies reaching my target customer?

There is no doubt that Apple’s App Tracking Transparency prompt (ATT) will change the advertising game as we know it – the question becomes how. At Metric Theory, a Mighty Hive Company, we’ve outlined what you need to know about ATT, what changes you should anticipate, and how we can best prepare for this industry changing roll out.

About App Tracking Transparency

The App Tracking Transparency prompt will update privacy defaults for iOS 14 users to provide greater control of how their data is used on Apple devices. All users on iOS devices (14 and above) will now be served a pop-up upon opening apps, requiring them to explicitly opt-in to sharing their IDFA with advertisers – a unique tracking ID, specific to Apple devices, that allows user behavior to be tracked across mobile environments without the use of PII.

Should a user opt-out, advertisers will be immediately restricted in the data they receive about what actions a user takes, if they even convert at all, leading to potential under-reporting of media effectiveness. We anticipate that as an industry we will see significant opt-out rates, leaving advertisers with less data to curate a relevant and impactful ad experience.

What Changes Should We Anticipate?

At Metric Theory, we are anticipating impacts to reporting and targeting limitations on all ad platforms reaching an iOS user. This could include, but is not limited to:

• Reduced size in audience pools
• Increased overlap among audience targets
• Undefined prospecting and retargeting strategies
• Loss of demographic data such as age and gender

Perhaps one of the greatest impacts to disappearing IDFA data is personalization. With great success found for advertisers when delivering curated ad experiences, lack of insight into who the user is, and their behavior will take away from opportunity to continue customizing that experience.

As these impacts to reporting, targeting, and loss of visibility into user behavior compounds, advertisers will need to adapt quickly to changing benchmarks and be prepared to deploy new strategies to adapt to a new normal of media.

How Can Metric Theory Help Me?

First, it is important to remember that despite lack of visibility into conversions and user behavior on iOS devices, the way users interact and engage with your brand is likely to remain consistent. However, as we take steps away from personalization, your strategy may need to shift to fill gaps as we rely on contextualization and other known facts about our customer to continue to prove media value.

At Metric Theory, we can help you identify and uncover these learnings and behaviors to curate new strategies moving forward. Contact your Metric Theory team today for more insight on how you can start preparing for App Tracking Transparency.