How Apple's iOS 14 update will affect your Facebook ads

Update May 2023: Meta, formerly Facebook, announced changes to Aggregated Event Measurement introduced in 2021 to measure web and app events from iOS devices after Apple's iOS 14 update. As of May 2023, you are no longer required to verify your domain or configure and prioritise eight events.

What is the Apple iOS 14.5 update?
The iOS 14.5 update has been released as of 27th April 2021. It covers everything from messages to maps, but what's had the most attention is the privacy updates impact on Facebook advertising (and App Store advertising) for advertisers.

Why is Apple doing it?
Apple are giving iPhone users more control over the data they share and more transparency into how it’s used. Pop-up messages will be shown to users when an app wants to track them across apps or websites owned by other companies for advertising purposes or to share information with data brokers.

A user will opt in or out of giving permission - and it’s anticipated that a lot will opt out. Whilst it may be in the interest of user privacy, it is also in the interest of Apple, as Facebook pointed out in their critical full-page US newspaper ads.

How does Apple's update affect my Facebook advertising?
In response to the iOS 14.5 announcement, Facebook introduced Aggregated Event Measurement to allow for adapted measurement of web events from iOS 14 users.

You can track up to eight conversion events (user actions) with Aggregated Event Measurement. You can verify your domain with your Facebook Ads Manager at business admin level, to view and choose which 8 conversion events you want to track. If you don't choose, Facebook will choose for you. You cannot verify a third party domain like fixr.co with your Facebook Ads Manager, only the third party can verify their domain with their own Facebook Ads Manager.

Does the Facebook pixel x FIXR integration still work?
Yes. You can still add your Facebook pixel to your FIXR Organiser account. If you have a website and Ticket Shop, you just need to upgrade your Ticket Shop to be able to track all conversion events including ticket purchase.

If you don't have your own website and use your FIXR event pages instead, you can continue to direct Facebook and Instagram ad traffic to your FIXR event pages. You can optimise your campaigns for top of funnel metrics like landing page views and link clicks, but not lower funnel metrics like purchase.

What will be the impact of these changes on my Facebook campaigns?
Whilst the full impact is still being realised, as the update has just been released, there are three expected implications for Facebook advertising:

• Reduced ability to track web conversion events (user actions) for targeting and retargeting campaigns
• Changes to attribution and campaign measurement and reduced data reporting
• Less effective Audience Network campaigns because of reduced in-app tracking

What do I need to do about it?
If you're an event organiser with your own website, you need to:

• Verify your domain in Facebook Business Manager.
• Choose your eight web conversion events in Facebook Events Manager.
• Review your campaigns that are live in Facebook Ads Manager.
• Log in to your FIXR Organiser. If you already have a website Ticket Shop set up, you just need to upgrade it, but selecting "track events on my own domain". If you don't yet have a website Ticket Shop, you can set one up easily by following the in-platform instructions. Then, you can upgrade to the latest version for the best possible ad campaign performance, tracking and reporting.

If you're an event organiser without your own website, you need to:

• Edit any live Facebook ad campaigns that are optimised for purchase or create new campaigns and optimise them for landing page views or link clicks, when driving traffic to your FIXR event pages.

Get in touch to find out more about what this means and get support with your event marketing.