Here’s how the iOS 14 changes will affect your Facebook ads

Recently, Apple announced that iOS 14 would be introducing stricter privacy measures regarding online tracking and requiring opt-In from users before they can be tracked.

Following this, ad platforms such as Facebook have been adapting to the changes which will affect how your ads are running.  You may have noticed your conversion figures starting to drop due to these changes, but Skiddle have got you and your conversions covered.

What is changing?

Apple has restricted tracking of certain ‘events’ such as pageviews and purchases to opt-in only for iOS 14 users. Recently it’s been announced that this will go live in iOS 14.5 which is currently rolling out. This change will significantly affect many promoters who are currently optimising their ad campaigns for ‘Conversions/Purchases’, as well as audience building and retargeting.

What are the specific changes to Facebook ad campaigns?

The main Facebook ad campaign changes are:

• You can only optimise your ad campaigns for events which occur on your own domain. 
• Previously actions taken within 28 days of a click, and 1 day of a view, would be counted as a conversion. This has been reduced to 7 days after a click and 1 day after a view.
• Conversion reporting may be delayed by 24-72 hours for iOS users.
  

What changes do I need to make?

• If you have ads pointing towards your Skiddle page and are set to optimise for ‘Purchase’ events, you must change your campaign to instead optimise for “Landing page views” or “Link clicks”.
• If you are pointing ads towards your own website, you must verify your domain name and set up your 8 conversion events in Event Manager in Facebook Business Manager.

Can I still place a tracking pixel on Skiddle?

Yes, you can still implement a tracking pixel on Skiddle. If you have an existing pixel setup, these will continue to function. You will still receive statistics such as event page views, ‘Add to Cart’ and ‘Purchase’ statistics, however your ads will not be optimised for this. You should be aware that these figures will be negatively affected by the iOS 14 changes, so will under-report the true figures. Although these figures will be less accurate, you can still use them to compare different ad campaigns to see which are most effective.

Can I still build custom audiences using a tracking pixel on Skiddle?

Yes, it’s still possible to build custom audiences. Please be aware the number of users in these audiences will be lower as iOS 14 users who have opted out of tracking cannot be added to your audiences.

This means you can still run retargeting campaigns for customers who added tickets to their basket but did not complete, using custom audiences, but again your advert will need to optimise for link clicks, not purchases.

Does this change just affect Skiddle?

No, this is a change by Apple and affects everyone who runs ads using tracking pixels.

Is Skiddle able to add a verification meta tag so the domain can be verified in Business Manager?

No, a domain can only be ‘owned’ by one business so this is not possible.

Can Skiddle give partner access to their domain in Business Manager so we can track events against it?

Unfortunately Facebook has introduced a limit of 8 trackable events per domain. Each pixel counts as an individual event, so there is no capacity to add individual promoter’s pixels to the Skiddle domain configuration.

Should I still run Facebook Ads in light of these changes?

Yes, ads can still run and still generate traffic and sales for your event. We believe the changes made will make online advertising more difficult and harder to optimise, and for this reason we recommend using a professional agency who can help you optimise your ads.

Despite the restrictions, there are still some very powerful tools available, such as custom audiences, which can provide very good results.

Can Skiddle run ‘Purchase’ optimised ads on my behalf?

Yes, as we own the domain, we are still able to do this using our own pixel. We realise this doesn’t give you the same flexibility as running your own ads, and the ads will show as ‘Skiddle’ rather than your brand, but this is a good option if you wish to have the ads setup and managed on your behalf.

What is Skiddle doing to minimise the effect of these changes?

Skiddle are currently implementing the new Facebook Conversions API and are one of the first ticket agents to implement this. This allows us to report purchases directly to Facebook via our servers, and therefore ensuring any sales which aren’t picked up by the Facebook Pixel due to iOS14 changes, ad blockers or network issues can still be recorded accurately. 

This means your reported ‘Purchase’ events should not suffer the same reduction as expected. Please note, this is still under development and we will be rolling out to promoters over the next few weeks.

We are also increasing the metadata we send to the Facebook Pixel in a privacy-first way, to ensure that conversions across devices or browsers can still be attributed to your ads.

Both of these changes should significantly increase the accuracy of your advert reporting.

More information on Apple iOs 14 changes

More information about Facebook’s changes

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About Skiddle

Skiddle is currently the UK’s biggest What’s On guide, providing a free facility for event promoters across the UK to list their events online and sell tickets through our independent ticketing service. We currently work with over 35,000 UK and European promoters, at over 30,000 venues. We specialise in helping events through that critical growing phase by providing the marketing and technology support that you need. Start listing your events today!