Apple has recently launched its new iOS 14 update which aims to protect Apple users in terms of how their data may be processed on websites and in apps. This of course might cause difficulties for companies that want to reach out with relevant messages and track specific events on the website or app.

As Apple users will install iOS 14 more and more on their devices, there will be a reduction in the number of traceable events on the website or app that the user visits. This can result that Facebook and Instagram algorithms will find it difficult to get the data back from these users, which can lead to under delivery or even inactive campaigns if the campaign target group has too many users with the latest iOS 14 installed on their devices.

When more devices are updated to iOS 14, the size of your target groups may decrease. The less data to work with - the worse the delivery will be. Below we have listed some of the limitations that will occur in ad manager, ad reporting, and ad statistics APIs, specifically on large platforms such as Facebook.

Delayed reporting: Real-time reporting is not supported, so data may be delayed up to three days

No breakdown support: For neither app nor web conversions, delivery and action breakdowns are not supported, such as age, gender, region, and location.

Changes to the account attribution framework settings: 7-day clicks and 1-day impressions will by default apply. In the future the 28-day click attribution framework, 28-day views, and 7-day views will not be supported for any active campaigns.

App installation campaigns for iOS 14 will report based on the attribution framework provided by Apple's SKAdNetwork API. SKAdNetwork API is an alternative method used for attribution without access to user-level data. For access to the SKAdNetwork, ad networks must first be registered with Apple. Next, developers must ensure that their apps are compatible with Apple-registered networks and the new framework.

Fortunately, there will be solutions to get data from users with the iOS 14, something Facebook calls aggregated event measurement. It should enable measurements of website events from iOS 14 devices. Through different types of actions, you as a company can verify your domain, app and plan to work with less conversion events. Here's how to prepare and to stay ahead with the latest Facebook system updates:

You may need to verify your website domain, however, it is important to prioritize the verification of your domains if your domains have multiple companies or personal ad accounts that own pixels. Note that domain verification is not a new process, and that companies can complete it directly from Business Manager. If you have an app, you should update your SDK for iOS version 8.1 or later. If you use the Facebook SDK for iOS but do not update to version 8.1 or later, you will not be able to create iOS 14 app installation campaigns.

Plan to use only 8 conversion events per domain / app. Facebook will initially configure the conversion events that they consider most relevant for your business, based on your activity.

Changes to Facebook's platform will occur in line with the updates to iOS 14, so we can expect that the data from websites and apps can fluctuate and be unstable over big part of 2021, so this will be a topic that we will be returning to during the year.

You can read more about Facebook new rules in regards to the latest iOS 14 updates here: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/126789292407737?id=1205376682832142