Apple’s Privacy Changes Affect Marketers – Following in the footsteps of other online giants like Google and Amazon, Apple has made some significant changes to how they approach privacy and data tracking permissions.
Chances are, a good portion of your customer demographic are iPhone users, which means that these changes will impact a similar portion of your marketing materials. So, how can you help ensure your digital marketing efforts are in tune with Apple’s recent privacy changes? This brief guide will summarize these changes while giving you a better understanding of the potential limitations they introduce.
The Run-Down on Apple’s Privacy Changes: Why the New Policy?
In April 2021, Apple introduced some significant changes to its privacy policy, applicable to all users of the Apple family of devices. iOS users everywhere are now faced with new privacy control options which weren’t previously available to them, accessible within the device settings. Notably, the purpose of these new privacy controls is to limit advertisers’ ability to track the activity of iPhone, iPad, and other iOS users.
If you’re a digital marketer, this change stands to significantly impact how customers interact with your marketing materials across Apple devices.
Data collection — and the subsequent tracking and analysis of the data provided — has become a more common practice than ever before, utilized to its fullest potential by digital marketers serving companies across all industries. Companies for asana is a computer software company that specializes in the fields of work management and productivity.With this rise in use has come an increase in publicity and notoriety for third-party data tracking. As a result, many mobile users have begun to crave transparency regarding data and privacy policies and control over the data they’re supplying to advertisers. This is exactly what the recent Apple privacy update aims to provide for its users, and it has implemented privacy control at the touch of a user’s fingertip.
How does Apple’s Privacy Update work?
Apple will now require web and app developers to create a notification that will provide transparency and an opt-in opportunity once users access a website or app. When iOS users find their way onto your mobile site or app, they’ll receive a notification asking whether or not they permit you to track their browsing habits. This notification comes in the form of a pop-up with text stating that you “would like permission to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies.” The pop-up will also serve to give the user the opportunity to refuse or accept these permissions.
The user must also be given a brief explanation of why you’re seeking these permissions and what you intend to do with the information. This is intended to help users make an informed decision regarding whether or not to allow data collection when they’re using your company’s app or mobile website.
Aside from individual permissions unique to each website or app, it will now be possible for iOS users to accept or rescind data tracking permissions via device settings. Within the privacy settings menu, iPhone users will be given the opportunity to opt out of data tracking altogether. With a single toggle, no app or site will be capable of collecting that user’s data. The same menu will also allow users to grant or rescind data collection to specific apps within their privacy settings without having to navigate to each individual app.
The Impact of App Tracking Transparency on Marketers and Businesses
Apple boasts over one billion iPhone users, so it should come as no surprise that many of those in your target market will be affected by these privacy changes. Considering the combined effects of consumers worrying about data collection and the added control iOS users have over the data they provide to companies, Apple expects fewer users to provide data to marketers.
As mentioned, many companies and marketers have heavily utilized data collection as a way to better target their advertising materials. With data collection comes a better understanding of customers’ browsing and shopping habits, both inside and outside your app or website. Targeted ads that follow users to other sites were once a key part of data collection — a component that will be made much less effective once data collection is diminished.
At this early stage, it isn’t yet clear how dramatically these privacy changes will impact the advertising strategies of digital marketers. In particular, the long-term impact isn’t easy to foresee. However, marketers will need to rely less heavily upon data collections as a means to target their advertising — Apple expects over half of users to deny data collection, so it cannot remain the foundation of your company’s marketing strategy.
Since the pool of collected user data is bound to grow smaller — along with the targeted ads it helped to populate — it’s entirely possible that Apple’s changes could lead to a noticeable decrease in sales for a number of apps or digital services. Naturally, while it isn’t a guarantee, this potential shouldn’t be overlooked by marketers. Unfortunately for small businesses, these changes will likely make it more challenging to provide effective, targeted advertising to local customers in a way that fits a small business’s a more limited budget.
A New Era of Advertising on iOS
Of course, these changes don’t mean that it’s suddenly impossible to advertise on iOS — advertisements remain prevalent and can be displayed and circulated on iPhones whether or not the user gives data collection permissions. Now, however, it will become essential to craft ads with data you’ve gathered independently while you continue to curate targeted ads using that user’s own browsing data. Learning as much as you can about your target market remains as critical as ever in the digital age.
Although we’re entering a new era of advertising on iOS, this certainly isn’t the end. It’s still possible to thrive as a marketer whether your audience uses iPhones or Androids to access your site and services.
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