Check out our five reasons to keep Meta in your media plan.
The digital marketing world is constantly evolving. It’s not enough to keep up with changes 一 your digital media agency needs to anticipate them. Staying ahead of the curve translates into valuable campaign recommendations, and record-breaking results.
Tracking Transparency
This year, a major change in user privacy policy impacted the advertising world. Apple released iOS 14.5, an update featuring the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) prompt. To increase user privacy, the ATT prompt allowed users to opt out of having their web activity tracked.
Among those that have already installed the iOS 14.5 update, the opt-in rate (how many people are choosing to allow app tracking) is around 21 percent, as of September 12, 2021, according to Statista.
Given the connection between tracking and measuring campaign performance, the update presented challenges, particularly for one major advertising platform: Meta.
Some first-party user information remains available for tracking (e.g. user-provided demographics, “liked” pages, etc.). Activity on other websites, however, is no longer trackable, which means less data to inform Meta ad targeting. Without data from broader web browsing, ads are less personalized than advertisers have been accustomed to over the years. It now requires significantly more fine-tuning and direct campaign optimization to align your campaigns with users’ true interests.
Don’t Abandon Ad Spend
As tempting as it may seem, Marketing Doctor does not recommend giving up on the platform just yet. Here’s why:
1. Meta isn’t alone. All social media platforms are facing similar challenges.
2. Meta owns Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and Whatsapp, giving them the most first-party data for ad targeting compared to other social networks. So, hope is not lost for personalized ads. Agencies can still create them based on platform-specific activity alone.
3. Similarly, Meta’s ads allows for easy advertising across all of their platforms that support advertising, including the Meta Audience Network. Meta’s Audience Network includes thousands of partnering websites and apps where your ads can also appear. Media buyers can easily place ads across Meta’s family of apps from one central dashboard.
4. Meta’s team is actively working on solutions to help combat data lost from opt-out users. They are developing statistical modeling to simulate missing off-platform conversions.
5. Meta offers a number of on-platform conversion actions, such as on-Meta shopping, that still permits tracking. Advertisers using on-Meta goals can still safely track user actions, as long as they don’t go to an external app or website.
Adapting to Change Together
Although Apple’s iOS 14.5 update narrowed Facebook’s tracking capabilities, there are still vast opportunities for strategic, personalized digital advertising on its platforms. As we adapt to these changes, we are adopting creative approaches for every digital plan.
How do we stay ahead of the curve? Few advertising agencies in the U.S. hold digital partnerships at our level. Elite status translates into campaign benefits, including: algorithm change insights and top tier support from dedicated platform representatives.
What about first-party data? Paired with robust third-party data, our clients’ first-party data informs targeting and retargeting strategies from launch to conversion.
We’ll continue to stay one step ahead of industry changes so you don’t have to.
