After the release of iOS 14.5, advertising costs on Android increased significantly. The situation was reflected, among other things, on the Facebook Audience Network advertising network, whose customers in June began spending most of their budgets on Android traffic.
The Wall Street Journal reported on the latest changes in the field of mobile advertising. Market representatives informed the publication about a strong shift in sales towards Android traffic after the release of iOS 14.5.
According to Branch Metrics, by June 22, over 70% of users had upgraded their devices to iOS 14.5. Since IDFA is turned off on most devices, this led to advertisers refusing to purchase ads on iOS, redistributing budgets towards Android and, as a result, increasing the cost of advertising on Android.
Previously, the Tenjin data attribution service had already reported that in May, iOS accounted for only 48% of all advertising spending in mobile. According to the company's latest data, in the period from June 1 to July 1, advertising expenses on the Apple platform fell by a third. During the same time, Android spending increased by 10%.
The influence of Apple's new policy was also noticed by the Tinuiti advertising agency. His clients can no longer get an audience that has banned apps from tracking their data. As a result, the growth in Android advertising spending increased from 46% in May to 64% in June. On iOS, growth slowed from 42% to 25%. Tinuiti also notes that now the cost of advertising on the Apple platform is 30% lower.
The changes also affected advertising on Facebook. If in early April, Tinuiti customers spent about half of their Audience Network budgets on iOS traffic, by the end of June this figure had dropped to 20%. It is important to note that this advertising network allows you to buy ads, including in third-party applications, using the data of users of the social network.
Facebook has repeatedly criticized Apple's new policy. The company argued that the changes could lead to the closure of the Audience Network, which is an important part of its business. According to the consulting firm Jounce Media, in 2021 this advertising network could bring Facebook $3.4 billion.
"Although we expect iOS 14.5 to continue to cause problems for businesses until the end of the year, we will be able to control this. Most of all, we are worried about the impact of these changes on small developers and companies that rely on personalized advertising," a Facebook representative said in a comment to The Wall Street Journal.
However, Facebook may ultimately benefit from Apple's new policy, analysts say. Currently, most users of the social network outside the United States use Android devices, so an increase in the price of advertising can have a positive impact on the revenue of the company's advertising network.
Facebook also plans to introduce a number of changes to the Audience Network to adapt to new realities. Last week, the company sent a letter to the advertisers of its site about the appearance of contextual advertising on it. It will take into account various factors (time, application content, etc.) in order to still show relevant ads even if important identifiers are disabled.