What is the iOS 15 Update and How to Prepare for It?

With the recent iOS 14, iOS 14.5 and the upcoming iOS 15 updates the digital marketing landscape is changing. We wanted to speak a little about what these updates may mean for you and what you can do to make sure your marketing efforts won’t be largely impacted by the new privacy focus that these updates are signaling.

To help eCommerce retailers understand the update as it relates to the transparency of the Apple app tracking feature and its impact, today we will take a deep look at what all this means for eCommerce and how advertisers can deal with the potential impact. We’ll start by examining how the transparency of app tracking is changing the paradigm of data collection for Apple users and the advertising world as a whole.

It remains to be seen what percentage of Apple users opt out of app tracking, but plan for a significant percentage to take it seriously given the privacy landscape as a whole and the immediate appeal of Apple's requests. Data released by App Flyer earlier this year showed that 39% of people who are exposed to Apple's request opt-out of tracking in 550 apps. The percentage of users who allow social apps to track them is even lower, with an average opt-in rate of 25%.

iOS 15, which will be released later this year, will have another impact. The three things to know as it relates to marketing and advertising are:

1. Preventing senders from knowing when an email is opened.

2. Masking visitor IP addresses, so online activity and location cannot be tracked.

3. Allowing users to keep their email address private with the Hide My Email feature, by creating randomized, unique email addresses that forward to their email inbox.

What you can do right now:

1. Ad targeting has already gotten harder for iOS users, and Google will be sure to follow. This means it will be impossible to create lookalike audiences in ad campaigns. Ensure your campaign copy is on par with the messaging that resonates with your customers to continue to see ads perform well.

2. Email open rates are going to look higher than the actual number of email opens. You will want to start creating benchmarks focusing on click rates and conversion rates in emails and compare those with the total number of emails delivered instead of email opens.

It’s no doubt going to continue to get harder to track individuals in everyday marketing activities and online advertising as companies like Apple and Google focus on user privacy. However, all is not lost. The best thing a small business can do in their marketing activity is to create value with their customers and to continue collecting your own data. Be sure to get contact information from leads so that you can continue to have conversations with them and provide regular and valuable touch points.

Utilizing tools like POWR’s Popup to collect email addresses and subscriptions will help you build your audience. Use Live Messenger Chat to speak with visitors in real-time on your site, or add a survey to your site using Form Builder to engage your audience. All of these are ways to begin to get contact information from leads that you can later use for nurture campaigns.

The key is to ensure whatever communication you have, whether that be on your website or in an email, is relevant and valuable to your target market. By incorporating this in all of your activities you will continue to build a strong marketing program even more valuable to your business. Now more than ever there is a need to focus on collecting contact information and establishing meaningful relationships with those customers.