Apple’s App Tracking Transparency is forcing advertisers to Android
Apple's App Tracking Transparency feature stirred up quite a bit of dust around its April release as part of the iOS 14.5 update. By forcing advertisers to show a prompt asking for permission before collecting any data, Apple allowed iOS users to opt out of having their IDFA tracking number accessed for targeted advertising.
This was a huge blow in the face of companies like Facebook, who earn the vast majority of their revenue exactly through exploiting the tracking ID's of smartphones and delivering ads to highly specific categories of consumers.
Apple's privacy-conscious update has also significantly affected which platforms advertisers are now favoring, according to various reports. According to the Post-IDFA Alliance (a group of mobile marketing and adtech firms), a mere two weeks after ATT was introduced, advertisers had already made a visible shift towards the more lenient Android platforms, over iOS.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that the cost for ad placement on Android devices has shot up as advertisers made the shift. In fact, prices there have risen a mind-boggling 30% above ad placement fees for iOS, yet advertisers are still finding it to be the better deal as long as it comes with the ability to target particular groups of consumers.
To nobody's surprise, with their newfound ability to control this factor, iOS users are rejecting to be tracked by apps en masse—about 91% of Americans at the current moment. Many are rejecting all tracking prompts, with some accepting only those of apps they know they can trust not to exploit their data.
Tinuiti Inc., a digital advertising agency, has reported that Facebook in particular is experiencing a massive shift in its advertisers' platform preference in the month following ATT's introduction.
There has been an eighteen-percent increase in Facebook's clients advertising on Android, between the months of May and June this year. Its clients on iOS platforms, on the other hand, fell by seventeen percent during that same time frame.
Instagram and its namesake social network, which form the core of its business. Spending to reach iOS users on Instagram and Facebook also slid since Apple’s change, he said, but by less than on third-party apps. Since the switch, Facebook has significantly altered its Audience Network, which has relied heavily on device identifiers. The company told advertisers in an email last week that it was adding the capability to place contextual ads—which consider factors like time of day and the app’s content—as a way to continue providing relevant ads when certain identifiers aren’t available. —Andy Taylor, Tinuiti Research Director
While Apple has certainly lost some revenue due to advertisers moving away from iOS platforms, there is no denying the fact that its move in bringing App Tracking Transparency has firmly cemented its powerful reputation for privacy awareness—something no other mobile company has been able to top yet.
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