Very recently, Apple announced an operating system update to address privacy concerns – iOS 14. Mari Smith, “Queen of Facebook”, said Apple has made a bold move, giving users more choice when it comes to being tracked on iOS devices. Users can proactively opt out.
And in January 2020, Google announced it would stop tracking cookies in its Chrome browser by 2022.
Mari identified this as a movement, a sea change impacting how marketers use 3rd party data to reach their audiences.
Two valuable tactics have been impacted:
- Retargeting – no longer possible;
- Conversion ads – possible but much trickier.
George Snell, head of content innovation + integration at 360PR+, mentioned in a recent PR Club event that 70% of users were allowing tracking before the announcement. Experts predict that figure will drop to 10%.
But Mari emphasized this is not “doom and gloom” for marketers.
What’s the solution? Brands and marketers can still retarget using video views. When there is a video view on Facebook or Instagram, marketers can use Facebook Live Producer to build custom audiences and “look alike” audiences to retarget.
This blog post was written by Sarah Leaf-Herrmann, PR Club board member and president of The Idea Co.
