iOS 14.5 tracking changes
Also known as: App Tracking Transparency, ATT, iOS 14 tracking
In April 2021, iOS 14.5 introduced App Tracking Transparency, which forced apps to ask permission before tracking a user across other companies' apps and sites. Most people declined. For Meta advertisers the effect was not fewer sales but fewer sales Meta could see, which distorted every report built on them.
How many people actually opted in?
Very few. Flurry Analytics, measuring more than two billion devices, put US opt-in at 4 to 6 per cent in the weeks after launch, with the worldwide rate settling near 15 per cent. That is the size of the population Meta kept being able to follow across apps.
Did iOS 14.5 stop ads from working?
No. The ads kept producing sales; Meta stopped hearing about many of them. The damage is to measurement and therefore to optimisation, because Meta allocates budget using the conversions it can attribute. A campaign whose sales go unreported looks unprofitable and gets cut.
What do shops do about iOS 14.5 now?
They report conversions from their own server instead of relying on the browser, which is what the Conversions API is for. That restores reporting for sales the shop legitimately knows about. It does not, and should not, restore tracking for a shopper who declined.
Sources
- App Tracking Transparency shipped with iOS 14.5 in April 2021.Apple
- US opt-in measured 4 to 6 per cent at launch across more than two billion devices and one million apps.Flurry Analytics
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