How IOS14 Is Changing The Future Of Mobile Advertising

The mobile advertising industry is always evolving as new events and trends contribute to shaping it year after year. One of the biggest changes in 2020 is Apple’s slew of privacy announcements, pitting the company against other players in the entire industry including Facebook, Google and others. While these changes offer more privacy to users, they also hold disruptive consequences for publishers.

What is changing?

In a nutshell, here are the two critical features that Apple is introducing:

• Opt-in notifications
  One of the first things users will experience when they upgrade to iOS 14 is a new pop-up when they open an app for the first time rather than the typical system where one option applies to all applications.
  The Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) opt-in for all apps means that Apple users can decide the apps that they want to track them and those denied permission will be unable to track them. It is different from the Limit Ad Tracking (LAT) in previous versions in that users don’t have to search the setting in the iOS settings menu anymore. You can refer to it as an app-specific version of (LAT).

• Use of approximate locations
  The second notable change is that apps will have to seek the consent of users to track their location In other words, users can choose to allow applications to see their approximate locations or no location at all, ruling out the possibility of identifying their exact location.
  Just like the opt-in notifications feature, this setting isn’t buried deep within the setting menu as users can choose whether or not to let apps identify their location right from inside the apps.

What does it mean for the future of mobile advertising?

The changes by Apple have shaken the foundation of the industry again, affecting the main players in the advertising market in different ways. One thing is certain across the board and that is the massive reduction in income for all stakeholders since ads is a source of income.

Generally, ad blockers translate to financial losses for publishers and advertisers, and the new features on Apple means publishers and advertisers are likely to lose more money. Other consequences of these changes include:

• Consumer behavior data
  With these features putting a limit to data on consumer behavior across different platforms, the industry is about to experience less visibility into users’ actions, which will in turn result in a significant fall in insights necessary for targeting.

• Less free content
  The era of free content on blogs and websites is likely coming to an end as publishers may have to monetize their content. Alternatively, publishers may switch from the web into their own mobile apps so they can display their ads freely.

• Growth of native ads
  Native ads have always been around but they are expected to enjoy more popularity as the tide may change from script-based ads to native ads that will avoid the blocking system.

Conclusion
While it is clear that mobile advertising is undergoing a transformation process, players in the industry will do well to switch their marketing budgets, strategies and ad networks with a view towards adapting to the new changes.