Apple sent shockwaves through the entire mobile ecosystem when it announced in 2020 a huge shift to the way the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) could be retrieved and used for advertising tracking and attribution in iOS 14. Advertisers now need to collect explicit user opt-in before accessing their IDFA. On previous iOS versions, tracking was enabled by default and could be disabled within the settings. It’s estimated that up to 80% of users may decide to opt-out.

This is in line with Google Chrome’s decision to phase out third-party cookies by 2022. Advertisers’ hopes took another hit recently when Google recently announced it would not support alternative user-level identifiers once third-party cookies are blocked from its Chrome browser.

The crumbling of the third-party cookie and lack of user-level identifier means brands will need to build relationships with customers in new and innovative ways.

Advertising Impact

Limited tracking of conversion data will result in broader, less accurate audiences for remarketing and prospecting. It will create a spike in unidentifiable users, disrupting attribution models and the possibility of one-to-one targeting via traditional retargeting methods.

In response to these changes, Facebook is making substantive changes to its ad platform including slashing its default attribution window from 28 days to 7 days. Higher-priced products that typically have customer journeys longer than 7 days will no longer be attributed to the corresponding Facebook ad impacting both reporting and optimisation.

In the official announcement from Facebook, it said that “Digital privacy initiatives affecting multiple browsers will soon limit the ability of businesses to measure people’s interactions across domains and devices. In support of these initiatives, Facebook is planning updates to attribution windows across our ads reporting surfaces. Among those limitations is the ability for businesses to attribute conversion events back to an ad over longer attribution windows.”

Overcoming These Challenges With Messenger

As privacy is taken more seriously, these types of restrictions will continue to grow, it’s becoming very clear that businesses must move from third-party to first-party data if they want to establish meaningful connections and drive growth.

With Messenger you can personalise customer experiences in real-time based on first party data across every stage of your customer lifecycle.

You can build direct relationships with each user in a persistent and private one-to-one conversation that is independent of the iOS 14 opt-in.

You can identify 100% of customers with their public FB profile or unique identifiers (e.g. email or phone) and map their actions in your CRM.

As part of an omnichannel marketing strategy, Messenger can play a critical role in helping to create a single unified customer view without the need for third-party cookies – the holy grail of marketing.

Book a discovery call to understand how we’ve helped other businesses create first-party data strategies