This week we hosted a webinar on the changes that iOS 14 will bring, particularly as it relates to app monetization. Now that Apple has said that the privacy-related changes around IDFA won’t be rolled out until early 2021, app developers have extra (and can we say much-needed) time to prepare. As part of our commitment to helping our clients and partners get ready for iOS 14, we got the top minds at AdColony who have been working 24/7 on this to share their knowledge on a webinar.
Want to view the whole thing? You can view the webinar-on-demand for the first session (10am PDT September 9th) or the second session (9am ACT September 10th) on their respective video hosting services!
Now that you have more time to prepare – what should you do?
This is actually a huge opportunity not just to get all your ducks in a row and fully prepare for the switch, but also to test. Advertisers and networks can now run (side-by-side) campaigns with granular, IDFA-based measurement with the new, less granular campaign based SKAdNetwork measurement. You will be able to see the difference in accuracy and learn how to improve under the new system.
“Apple has given us a grace period where everything’s going to work in both worlds, which means you can test. That’s the best thing to do right now to be prepared for 2021.”
ALASDAIR PRESSNEY, SENIOR PRODUCT MANAGER
Don’t forget the basics…
Advertisers can refer to the guide we posted earlier this summer, and developers, see Getting Your App Ready for iOS 14. On the webinar, David Pokress, our EVP Global Publishing, reminded everyone to:
- Update your app to comply with Apple’s privacy requirements (the “nutritional label”) by clearly explaining in the description how your app uses data.
- Add support for Apple’s SKAdNetwork following their instructions.
- Update your SDKs to support iOS 14. *For us, that’s the AdColony iOS SDK 4.3
- Add your ad network partners’ network IDs to your .plist.
“They’re not asking for the new privacy modal yet, so wait on that – but take this time to figure out the best way to implement it in your app.”
David Pokress, EVP Global Publishing
And use this time to start conditioning your users to opt-in
App developers have always been creative in how they message their users, and this is now the time to figure out how to use creative and copy to get your users to opt-in to tracking once the privacy modal does arrive. This “soft option” communicates that the app is free thanks to advertising, and to keep it free, the user should say “yes” or click OK to being tracked. This way, once the modal does pop up, the user will be more likely to give permission.
There may be other reasons to give users, such as the promise of more relevant (and less repetitive) ads, but that will be apparent during testing. Developers should take this extra time to start sending out those types of messages, they said – especially because users are used to getting consent messages everywhere else they are online.
“Your revenue is at risk. This doesn’t mean it’s going to go away. But it does mean that if you don’t do certain things, it definitely will go away. And if you do certain things well, you’ll mitigate the potential damage.”
David Pokress, EVP Global Publishing
What will your inventory be worth?
As always, the value of publisher inventory is dependent upon how successful the advertisers are with it. And so now moving forward, inventory that’s valuable today is still going to be valuable under the new rules of engagement. If advertisers find success, then they will spend against that success. There’s a lot we still don’t know about how successful advertising will be, but if you look to past events that limited targeting, such as COPPA, we can see that initially there was significant revenue impact, but over the long term, the market adjusted.
How to position for growth in the iOS 14 era – when IDFA does disappear
Alasdair Pressney, our Senior Product Manager, emphasized that “long-term is the key word here.” Yes, the ecosystem around the IDFA is going to be severely diminished, but Apple has provided a toolset for doing attribution and campaign measurement without it, and it’s the SKAdNetwork. When Apple makes changes for privacy, we have to assume that Apple takes those changes very seriously. Because of that, it’s positioned for long-term success. The best thing to do now is to support the attribution and campaign measurement solution that Apple is proposing. Now that developers have an additional three months, they can test campaigns.
“This (delay) is a blessing. This is a time to test. Use this time to innovate, to stabilize.”
David Pokress, EVP Global Publishing
Join the Conversation
Now that you have some extra time, what are you doing to prepare for iOS14? Tweet your action plan to us @AdColony. For the latest AdColony mobile news and updates, follow @AdColony on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or connect on Linkedin.
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