How does iOS 14 affect my business on Facebook

The rapid evolution and growth of digital ad ecosystems have led platforms to make changes to both consumer and business needs.

What does the new iOS 14 policy imply?

To understand how Facebook advertising will be affected, you need to understand exactly what will change with the iOS 14 update. Nutrition Label The data nutrition label will require all apps to submit how their app collects and uses their users’ data. App owners and developers will need to upload this disclosure clause to Apple’s App Store Connect. Tracking transparency notices All applications using the Apple App Store are required by the new policy to ask users for permission to track their data on third-party applications and websites. The tracking transparency notice will appear to the user and will give them the ability to accept or decline the tracking of their data, as shown below. Tracking via App / Browser APIs Facebook and other platforms will now have to use a new framework that imposes restrictions and could delay the notification of events. Previously instant reporting for app conversion campaigns could now be delayed up to three days with the newly adopted SKAdNetwork API (SKAN API).  

What is Facebook doing to mitigate these changes?

Adherence to the new ad guidelines Previously, the Facebook platform used transparency features for ads, such as a “Why am I seeing this?” Button, an option to hide the ad, and a switch to disable Facebook activity. Users will now be asked to decide whether they agree to their data being collected or not. Continued collection of device identifiers For those users who opt for Apple’s transparency notice, the device identifiers will be collected. Before the upgrade, device IDs were collected from all users. Application-based trading tools Facebook will continue to support app-based business tools for Apple’s limited metering solution, the SKAN API, for mobile apps. Aggregate Event Management (AEM) For advertisers using web-based business tools, Facebook will limit the measurement of some events for iOS 14 users through the new data sharing protocol. This new AEM system will change the way advertisers track conversions.  

Limitations on the platform

Ad creation For starters, the auction bid is now the only purchase option available when creating device ads on iOS14. Therefore, the scope and frequency bids are no longer available. Reports

• The new iOS 14 update will limit advertisers’ ability to measure campaign performance on Facebook. Previous real-time reports will no longer be supported, and businesses could see a data lag of up to three days. Statistical models can be used to track conversions for iOS 14 users.
• Delivery and stock breakdowns, including age, gender, region, and location, will not be supported.
• Attribution windows will be set at the ad set level, rather than the account level, and will be limited to a seven-day click and one-day view window.

Targeting The size of audiences on the app and on the web will decrease as more people choose not to track on iOS 14 devices. This means that audiences may need to be expanded to capture the attention of potential customers.  

Changes and next steps for web advertisers

Facebook Aggregate Event Management (AEM) Facebook will implement Aggregate Event Management (AEM) to meet Apple’s requirement. This will not resolve all the impacts of Apple’s protocol and advertisers will continue to lose functionality with these changes, but it is your best option under the circumstances. AEM limits the transmission of user data while still supporting critical use cases for advertisers. Facebook hasn’t provided many details about AEM yet, but we’ll keep you posted as the information continues to emerge. Limitation of 8 events Your pixel can only track and optimize a maximum of eight conversion events for each domain. Facebook will initially configure the conversion events that it deems most relevant to your business. The rest of the events will be inactive for the optimization of the campaign and the elaboration of reports. You will be able to manage your event priority preferences in the Event Manager. To accommodate this new system, Facebook recommends setting up your eight conversion events to track the prospect at key points on their buying journey. For example, if a customer visits your website, adds items to their cart, but does not make the purchase, you will want a conversion event for both the “Add to cart” and the “Buy” events. Without the “Add to Cart” event, that customer’s data will not be tracked unless they complete a purchase on the first click of the ad. You may need to consider changes to your campaign measurement strategy. It may be necessary to optimize the events in the top funnel (visits to the landing page, clicks on links, etc.). Attribution and conversion windows Due to the limitations of the view-through signal, the default attribution setting for new campaigns after the ad application will be set to seven days of clicks and one day of views. Facebook will no longer be able to support 28-day click conversion windows, 28-day views, and seven-day views. In situations where limited data is available from iOS 14 users, statistical modeling will be used for certain attribution windows. There will be an annotation on the product to communicate when a metric is modeled. Conversion event breakdown Advertisers have already been able to break down conversion actions to better understand consumer behavior. By accepting Apple’s request, Facebook will no longer be able to display breakdowns of reported conversions. This includes breakdowns of deliveries and stocks, such as age, gender, religion, and location. Dynamic Ads For dynamic ads, it’s important to ensure that your catalog only uses one tracking pixel. The pixel will also only be able to report and optimize a maximum of eight conversions. All other conversions will be inactive for optimization and reporting. Changes and next steps for app advertisers Lastly, let’s review the changes and next steps regarding app advertisers. Limited attribution Conversion data shared through app business tools can be restricted, aggregated, and delayed by SKAN’s API. As for attribution windows for app install campaigns, Apple’s SKAN API will determine those windows. This change is expected to occur in mid-to-late January 2021. Initially, Facebook will default to a seven-day click attribution and one-day views setting. The new default attribution settings may lead to a decrease in the number of reported conversions. Limitations in campaign management If you plan to run app install campaigns, you will need to ensure that your app is associated with a single ad account. However, an ad account can host multiple applications. With the new iOS 14 update, you will only be able to run a maximum of nine campaigns at a time. Each of these campaigns must contain no more than five ad sets per campaign and the auction will be the only purchase type available. Once your campaign is published, you will not be able to toggle the iOS 14 campaign switch on or off. You will need to disable or delete your campaign. Demographic reports Demographic breakdowns for conversion events will no longer be available. Reports Real-time reporting will not be supported and data can be delayed for up to three days. For iOS 14 app install campaigns, conversion events will be reported based on when the SKAN API communicates them to Facebook. The results will be aggregated at the campaign level and statistical models can be used to account for the results at the ad set level.  

Recommendations from Making Science

• Prepare for post-press attribution data to disappear. Download your historical data for both windows (28 and 7 days) and also for 28-day clicks. Compare 28-day click conversions to 7-day click conversions to understand how your reported conversions will be affected if you currently use that 28-day window.
• If you use automatic rules with a custom attribution, remember to review them just in case and adapt them to the new attribution. Remember that it disappears: 28 days post click, 20 days post view and 7 days post view.
• Review the campaign structure and current audiences.
• The events chosen for the measurement can be modified later, but then it is necessary to wait three days to see the data again, so it is better to make sure to choose the ones we really want from the beginning, whenever this is possible.

If you want to be up to date with the news about iOS 14 in relation to Facebook, don’t miss our articles on the Making Science blog. And if you have questions about how this change will affect your campaigns, write to us at info@makingscience.com

How to boost your campaigns in a world without cookies

2020 has been the year in which there has been an acceleration in the digitization of all sectors and the population. The confinement experienced in the first part of last year has led to an increase in the traffic of all companies with a presence on the internet and, in addition, audiences have come into play that until now were not so protagonists of the online strategies of our campaigns. A clear example of the latter are people aged 45 to 65 years, since since March 2020 there has been a growth in traffic in this segment: The hyperdigitalization of the population comes at a time of changes in the digital sector. Surely you have heard of a world without cookies. Well, it’s not exactly how you imagined them. Of course, any company that intends to continue growing digitally needs to prepare today if it wants to continue working as they have done so far with their campaigns, getting this type of insights to develop strategies seeking the highest profitability thanks to personalization. Within a year Google will disable third-party cookies in your Chrome browser. In this way, it will join what Apple is already doing today with Safari, Mozilla with Firefox and Microsoft with Internet Explorer, or Facebook. The final countdown begins. Blocking these cookies alters the landscape of digital advertising, which currently relies on third-party cookie data for personalization. But do not spread panic. There are other solutions prepared to avoid these ‘problems’. One of Google’s answers is Ads Data Hub. This product, which respects the GDPR guidelines, is a data lake/warehouse where all third-party data that Google owns is stored at the user level, anonymized and consolidated. This technology enables advertisers to merge data from various Google platforms, such as Campaign Manager (DV360), Google Ads, and YouTube. As the data does not provide any identification at the user level, Google can legally store it and agencies can use it to impact on it. This solution not only allows you to bypass a world without cookies, it also adds very powerful extra solutions thanks to the cloud and BigQuery: · Attribution models with data on + off and more advanced (Markov or Shapley). · Real Time activation of audiences with data on + off in Search Ads 360 and DV360. · Much more advanced analysis by having the raw data of the users. · Matching of users between different media (on campaigns, Google Analytics 4 (app + web), clients, etc.). At Making Science we have a team specialized in this kind of technology. If you want to know more about the different solutions do not hesitate in contact us at info@makingscience.com

GMP in cookieless 2.0

Earlier this year, Google announced that it will remove Third Party Cookies from its Chrome browser. From Making Science, just a few months ago, we clarified in our blog “The future of cookies” that what Google really wants to carry out is the limitation of these cookies and not their elimination. After a year of technological and regulatory advances in this area, it is important to give a pill on the updates that have been developed in this context. Apple communicates to its community that, with the IOS 14 update, it will be mandatory to indicate to users what type of data they are collecting and in turn request permission to be able to track them. In September, however, he sent a communication delaying the implementation of these new privacy measures. This announcement has caused a stir among companies such as Facebook, which are already starting up to be prepared when this functionality is activated. On the other hand, very much in line with Apple, Google Chrome announced that the implementation deadline could be extended in time, despite setting 2022 as the deadline. Likewise, it highlights a very important point for them, Google will not limit third-party cookies until they ensure that the market can continue to work their ads, targeting, frequency and brand safety in a qualified way. In general, all the solutions proposed in the previous blog have evolved along with the digital environment. Of the solutions that we already knew related to media and campaign activations, Google has included two very significant improvements:

• As for Google Audiences, Google has incorporated a new functionality that consists of automatically expanding the targeting incorporated in our campaigns, a functionality called Auto Targeting Expansion.
• Google has enabled the ability to trigger HTML5 creatives with customer match audiences.

Regarding new solutions related to the collection of audiences and measurement:

• Google has included Campaign Manager within the 360 and with this update they incorporated a functionality called Conversion Modeling into the platform .This new functionality has the ability to analyze attributed and unattributed conversions, taking into account impressions and clicks not measured by different browser restrictions. In summary, based on this analysis, it is able to attribute conversions based on the history of the campaigns.
• Consent Mode is the most relevant solution regarding the issue we are addressing. The main problem with asking for express consent is that it can lead to the loss of measurement of conversions and paths of those users who reject it. That is why Google has implemented two variables in the configuration that are analytics and personalized advertising. By entering these (ad_storage and analytics_storage) it will be possible to inform our GMP tags, analytics and Google ads about the status of the user’s consent. It is because of that:

1. If the user has accepted the Consent then the tag will be executed as normal.
2. If the user rejects it, the tag will be executed collecting basic and aggregated information but eliminating the collection of cookie information to respect the user’s privacy. We do not lose the measurement of conversions but it does not allow us to rework those cookies.

The rest of the solutions that we already have available and that we can implement are the following:

• Ads Data Hub
• Server 2 Server
• Offline conversions
• Data managers: CDPs, 1st party data prevails
• Programmatic Deals
• Non-cookies devices: Smart TV & Mobile

Thanks to the GMP environment and the integration that exists between all its platforms, we are able to implement solutions safeguarding the user’s privacy and without losing the user’s qualification. Among the benefits that the GMP environment offers us in relation to this matter, the following stand out:

• Constant technological advance: Ads Data Hub, Tag Manager Server 2 Server, Campaign Manager 360
• Audience Volume and Qualified Segmentations – DV360 Audience module
• The native integration that exists between platforms makes it easier for us to measure and attribution of conversions: CM 360, SA360, GA360, DV360, ADH, GTMS2S

How to boost your campaigns thanks to programmatic advertising this Black Friday

With the arrival of November, the final stretch begins for many companies. One of the most important dates for consumption is Christmas, and it is time to give that last push to close the year. The Christmas feeling floods us and we want to buy gifts for our loved ones and why not, also for ourselves. The Christmas shopping season begins long before the arrival of Santa Claus and a date has been imposed on our calendars for a few years now: Black Friday. But, what will Black Friday bring us this year? In principle, everything seems to indicate that purchases will be increasingly online to the detriment of the physical store. Throughout this year we have been able to see how online commerce increased, mainly motivated by restrictions on mobility and fear due to the pandemic. Everything seems to indicate that this trend will continue during the Christmas season. If we focus on the imminent Black Friday, Google has made an X-ray of the current consumer and defines it as a connected, far-sighted and prudent user. Not only are users going to prioritize digital channels when making their purchases this Black Friday, but the search for gifts will also do so in the digital medium. In addition, if we take into account that only 7% of consumers have already decided what they are going to spend their money on during Black Friday, we can conclude that brands must reinforce their digital media strategies, they still have time to convince that indecisive user and the competition this year will be more brutal than ever. Faced with this situation, programmatic advertising is presented as a perfect tool to reach the right audience and stand out from the competition during these dates. Thanks to automation and the purchase of spaces in real time, programmatic purchase allows you to define messages based on the user and the moment they are within the conversion funnel. In order to properly plan our programmatic campaigns in the weeks leading up to Black Friday, it is important to take into account certain aspects in order to successfully achieve our goals.

• Accurate and relevant segmentations The audience must be the central point of all our strategy. Defining our audiences correctly will allow us to reach a user interested in our offer. Audiences should be large enough to have great impact and reach, but they should be relevant. Thanks to the study and analysis of our users, it will allow us to identify affinities that we can later activate. This will optimize the resources of the campaign and impact the user with content related to their interests, which will make our advertising campaigns more user-friendly and the user will feel more receptive to them.

 

• Personalize the message by taking advantage of First Party Data Users will show a more favorable response to personalized messages than to more generic messages. We must take advantage of the potential of all 1st party data and launch specific campaigns for users based on their status and how close they are to converting. For this we can create differentiated messages depending on whether they have only visited the product page of our website, abandoned the shopping cart or stayed in the last step before confirming the sale. In addition, we can activate dynamic creatives that are built from the data collected by the variables of the Floodlights in order to impact the user with personalized creatives about the specific product or service in which they have been interested.

 

• Optimize the purchase The Christmas shopping season is one of the times in which brands invest more budget and demand a greater volume of inventory from media, so CPMs tend to be higher than the rest of the year. Adjust your CPM enough to maintain a valuable inventory and a good user experience, but bid more aggressively on those strategies that give you the best results. In addition, it may be interesting to close some PMP with premium supports for those most important campaigns, you can ensure that you have sufficient inventory available to bid on.

 

• Don’t forget about creativity Considering the high level of competition during these dates, creativity is more important than ever. The idea is to stand out and differentiate ourselves from the competition. It is essential to design creatives that are eye-catching, with a message focused on our audience and a clear and direct call to action (CTA). We must have different versions depending on where the user is in the conversion funnel. In addition, incorporating notorious formats such as video, audio or skins will allow us to generate storytelling and reinforce our branding campaigns, making a difference compared to the competition.

 

• Plan your campaign in advance and anticipate yourself Users begin to investigate their purchases in the previous weeks and many of them already close their purchases a few days before, so it is essential to have our campaign planned well in advance to be able to activate a few weeks before Black Friday , the competition will not wait.

  The entire programmatic strategy during the Black Friday campaign, in addition to helping us increase and achieve our sales goals, will bring us other benefits such as the generation of new traffic to the web, which will allow the user to know our products and services and it will end up being translated into the generation of new leads, subscribers and potential new clients. Last but not least, all of our actions will allow us to feed our audiences with new users to increase and refresh their volume for our retargeting strategies and future campaigns. We cannot forget that after the Christmas campaign, the sales season begins and taking advantage of these audiences will be essential in order to achieve all our objectives.

Goodbye, Average Position, Goodbye

Nineteen years have passed until Google has decided to eliminate one of the metrics that has generated more discussions: the Average Position. A decision that has given to speak, both for good and for evil equally. From August of this year, the Average Position disappeared from the tool, a metric that had made no sense for several years. Since Google decided to eliminate the lateral positions and keep only four positions above and another 3 below, the average position lacked credibility. Especially since it is a metric that often generated more confusion than solution. In addition, the change in navigation from desktop to mobile users has not helped to maintain the average position.  

What was the problem? 

For the agencies, it was usual to hear their customers complain, when they saw that their most important keywords (that 20% of the keywords that bring 80% of the conversions) had a lower position than expected, thus creating an advantage for their competitors. This criticism in most cases was only based on the Average Position, while the share of impressions, conversions, profitability, etc. was not taken into account.  The impression share (IS) is one of the most important metrics that exist in Google Ads and that in many occasions is not taken into account. A simple explanation of this metric is how much of the impressions we get for each search a user launches.  

What solution has Google launched so that we are all happy? 

Google decided to launch two new metrics: Absolute Top and Top, and eliminate the Average Position that so many headaches have given customers and consultants. In addition, the impression share metrics have been taken depending on whether it is Absolute Top or Top, so that we are all happy. I explain a little more carefully: the metric called Top includes Absolute Top Position. Top would be what we used to consider as the top 4 positions. Absolute Top (which is not for nothing, but it sounds like cocktail) would be the 1.0 position. And you will surely ask yourself, what about the rest of the positions? Google decided that the rest of the positions are counted as Anywhere on page. So everything would be summarized in this table.

And what about position based bid strategies?

For a long time there is the possibility of adding a bid strategy to campaigns and keywords to achieve a specific Average Position. Well, this strategy will be automatically changed to the bid strategy based on the impression share . It seems that Google decided to simplify this metric to make it easier for managers, customers and agencies to explain where we appear on the search engine page.  For more information, you can visit Google support .

How UNICEF is improving its donation results through a User Experience strategy

As a starting point for this process, UNICEF’s Spanish Committee decided to hire the services of an agency specialised in data measurement and user experience (in this case, Making Science): This agency remains involved in the ongoing, continuous optimisation on the website in question.

 

Mobile First Index: What is it and how does it affect your website?

More than 50% of searches on Google come from mobile devices, so Google has decided to adapt its strategy to this trend, because if the search engine focuses on mobile websites Google Search can offer its users the best answer for your questions . This raises some questions for SEO and keyword positioning, which always had reference to desktop positioning. Now they begin to change the rules of the game and mobile positioning begins to be a priority. For this reason, Google announced the publication of its new method of indexing and classifying its organic results: Mobile First Index. This is the last step of many others that the search engine has given to adapt to the importance of the mobile device on the Internet. Although its rollout will be progressive, this change puts the focus 100% on mobile strategies, so your website will have to be 100% adapted for mobile devices.

1. 1. What is Mobile First Index? As we said, basically Google will index and classify the mobile content version first instead of prioritizing the desktop version, as it did up to the present time.Even so, a single index will be maintained, only by focusing on mobile.
   2. How to know if Google is classifying me with Mobile First Index? Although Google has announced that the owners of the sites will receive a message through Search Console, we can verify this point by analyzing the server logs from the Googlebot crawler.
   3. What factors are important in a Mobile First Index? Google has always put a lot of emphasis on the usability of the sites for the desktop and mobile versions. In addition, Google has confirmed through it’s Twitter account that both hamburger menus and accordion style menus are not harmful for positioning.Another important point will be the loading speed, which since July will become an official factor of positioning in the organic results independently of the Mobile First Index.
   4. What happens if I have a specific version for mobile devices?In principle, it will not at all affect your positioning, but the version that will index will be your mobile version, so you will have to evaluate if that version is well optimized at the content level.

And now … What do I have to do to avoid being negatively affected by Mobile First Index? Once you have resolved some of the most common doubts regarding Mobile First Index, will have to evaluate, depending on each case, different actions:

• If your website is responsive: confirm if the content that you show on mobile devices is the content you want Google to evaluate for the the mobile domain.
• If you have a website with independent URLs: verify that the indexing settings are correct as indicated by Google in its recommendations.
• If your website is dynamic serving or an independent mobile site: verify that the content, micro-formats and metadata that you show on desktop and mobile are correct.
• Verify that your robots.txt file is well configured in both versions to avoid indexing problems.