The Challenge
We’re in the business of setting our clients up for continued success, so when something throws a wrench in their data measurement and reporting processes, we’re the first ones to notice. The wrench in this scenario: iOS14.5.
Apple’s latest update brings with it a host of data collection restrictions that promise to throw digital marketers for a loop, impacting their ability to collect third-party user information. We knew the first step to helping our clients overcome this hurdle would be to assess the update’s potential impact on their marketing efforts so they could make educated strategy decisions moving forward.
That’s exactly what we did for Koch Comm, a digital, public relations and creative agency located in Oklahoma City.
The Process
To assess how iOS14 could impact the 24 Koch Comm clients we provide reporting for, we started by reviewing their Facebook and Instagram advertising data. By identifying the campaigns whose objectives were reliant on third-party user information, we isolated the ad sets that could potentially be affected by iOS14’s data collection restrictions.
Next, we analyzed their Facebook and Instagram audiences by device and operating system. This revealed the proportion of users within clients’ engaged audiences that were using iOS devices according to Facebook Business Manager.
Our final step was to use Google Analytics to conduct a robust assessment of the client’s website users’ activity. Using the Browser & OS report combined with source and medium as secondary dimensions, we generated a full breakdown of the operating systems being used by each client’s Facebook and Instagram audiences.
With that filter in place, we could then see how iOS users were interacting with the clients’ websites, providing essential insights into how strategies may need to be adjusted. For example, if a client’s Facebook iOS audience engagement metrics (such as time on site and pages per session) were high, that would indicate that the paid media team would need to strategize an effective way to reach them that wouldn’t rely on pixels.
The Results
Analyzing Koch Comm’s digital advertising through the lenses above laid the foundation for us to create comprehensive dashboards that unified their iOS-affected data, both past and present, enabling them to clearly see how their marketing efforts are presently being impacted by iOS14.
With individualized visualizations for each client, we created an analytics infrastructure that will enable Koch Comm’s digital marketers to derive key insights and adjust their strategies as necessary moving forward.
Once those dashboards were built, we consulted with Koch Comm’s paid media department to determine which ads would need to change based on the data currently available. Knowing that iOS14’s impact is a moving target and that we’d need more data before advising longer term adjustments, we created unique plans for each client to refer to once they start to see its effects.
The Takeaways
At the outset of a potential crisis, it’s tempting to give in to a knee jerk reaction, pointing the firehose before seeing the flames. Don’t do it. Yes, iOS14 is going to impact your digital advertising, but the extent of that impact should drive your strategies, not the other way around. If you adjust your advertising tactics before seeing the way iOS14 is affecting your results, you risk muddying your data and harming your marketing efforts more than helping them.
The moral of the story? Sometimes the best thing to do is to gather all your data and analyze it before moving forward. With the active visualizations we created, the Koch Comm team has everything they need to do just that.
