Digital Journal contacted Stephanie Gaston, Director of Performance at Healthline for an opinion. According to Gaston, Apple essentially ended the use of cookies for media approaches with Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP). “In its place,” she says, “marketers have been able to fall back on device IDs as their identity strategy…But Apple’s new iOS 14-related privacy changes will severely limit our ability to do device ID tracking, a blow that will transform the media landscape even more than killing the cookie.”
According to Gaston, advertisers can use an “identifier for advertisers,” or IDFA, like a cookie, to determine who is receiving and reacting to advertising in an app on a mobile device. Mobile apps, like Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram, are the biggest share of all digital usage, with Apple holding the biggest portion of that share.
As an example, data from October 2020 shows that 48 percent of all global Internet usage comes from a mobile device or tablet. With portable devices, 90 percent of mobile device usage comes from apps and only 10 percent from the mobile web. In other words, 90 percent of mobile digital reach is potentially at risk when IDFA goes away.
The data also indicates that 60 percent of mobile devices are Apple devices. Apple’s higher dominance in the mobile market harkens a steeper fall for advertisers when these changes take place.
In this context, Gaston recommends a few things media planners and buyers can start doing today. These are:
Limit Retargeting
According to Gaston: “Since you have to know what a user did in order to retarget them elsewhere, and this data is no longer being passed along, retargeting is not going to be a reliable strategy. Find other ways to drive impact and return on advertising spend.”
Embrace Contextual
By this, Gaston says, it “probably feels like we’re turning back the clock by 25 years. But contextual targeting has quietly gotten more sophisticated in the years it subsisted in the shadows of cookies and device IDs. Contextualization is now more refined and automated, and can be aggregated for scale. Beware though, contextual media is considered premium and comes at relatively higher CPMs than audience targeting, for relatively higher performance.
Rethink Measurement
Gaston notes that “without user tracking, we lose the ability to match ad exposure to user profile, future digital behavior, and offline actions. Instead, we’re left with clicks as a measure, but we all know that users rarely click on digital ads. Clearly, we need new ways to evaluate media. Thankfully, statistical models for measurement exist, where limited first-party data, panel data, and market research can be extrapolated to provide surrogates. Start interviewing some new partners.”
Hold Partners Accountable
With the final point, Gaston advises: “While we’re all aware of these issues, it’s easier to conduct business as usual in the hopes of squeezing as much revenue from cookies and device IDs before they hit the cliff. The problem with pushing off curative strategies is that we’ll end up with very little runway to learn from. So, challenge your advertising and measurement partners to acknowledge the issue, address a learning plan, pilot approaches and gather benchmarks, and create a post-privacy vision.”
