Are You Protected?
Do you know how protected the information on your iPhone REALLY is? Thanks to the new iOS 15 updates that Apple recently announced, users will gain a little more insight into when, where, and how their digital data is used. While this is certainly a win for iOS users and consumers, how will these new settings around digital privacy impact marketers and shift their brand strategy?
Introducing More Digital Privacy for You
While the iOS 15 update will include a slew of new privacy features, there are three that the tech community postulates as particularly impactful.
- Privacy Dashboard: The new dashboard will enable users to see which apps collect what data and how often they are accessing it.
- Limited Email Tracking: Email tracking via pixels will be completely removed from Apple’s Mail app, and advertisers will lose the ability to track email opens against their campaigns.
- Siri Speech Processing: Siri will be able to function offline, and data will no longer need to leave the device to be processed. This will help eliminate any nonconsensual audio recordings.
A New Stream of Opportunity
While these new regulations will force marketers to think outside the box to reach their target demographic, it does not mean that hyper-targeting will be eliminated. Apple’s digital privacy updates will require brands to pursue new avenues and venture into new realms of marketing strategy. Marketers will need to continue to focus on targeting consumers using first-party cookies as a central tool if they are not already. Behavior must be analyzed in aggregate, and your UTM game must be strong to continue to understand engagement through click activity. Unique landing pages should become central to your measurement strategy. Utilizing unique landing pages for email will be mission critical to understand true engagement with email and ultimately all other digital channels.
As brands search for new ways to target consumers, they must respect the digital privacy boundaries Apple has established, and where other platforms like Google and Facebook will continue to evolve. As consumers become more aware of the ins and outs of data collection, brands need to demonstrate that they are mindful of users’ privacy and focus on building trusting relationships with their target audience to best market themselves.
What’s in It for Apple?
As Apple strengthens privacy features for users, it allows them to capitalize and grow their own ad business. While brands will no longer be able to obtain ad performance insights using third-party platforms in iOS 15, Apple will still be able to collect data on consumer behavior via its own ad platforms. This means that if marketers want insights into ad performance, it may be more enticing than before to purchase advertising within the Apple platform, as opposed to the existing third-party solutions.
Apple prides itself on being the industry standard, and while its in-house ad platform has struggled in the past, the new iOS 15 updates create a huge window of opportunity.
