How Apple’s new IDFA policy will affect the market: opinions of gaming companies

Background — very short

After the release of iOS 14 this fall, each application will have to ask the user whether he is ready to share information about himself with advertising companies (i.e. give access to his unique identifier — IDFA).

Advertising companies use this information to find users who are suitable for displaying ads, track the effectiveness of advertising spending and contact previously acquired users in order to return them to the product.

Some of the IDFA functions will replace the SKAdNetwork framework. But the question with retargeting remains open: will it be possible at all if the majority of users refuse to give access to their data.

We decided to find out what the leading mobile gaming companies think about the situation.

Remark: Some of the teams we contacted for an answer declined to comment.

1. How important is retargeting on iOS for your company?

Roman Plotnik, Head of Analytics at NX Studio

In a potentially new situation (when there is no IDFA), retargeting will be extremely problematic. It is clear that there will be those users who will give us the opportunity to track their IDFA, but we cannot predict this value. Probably, the more loyal the user is, the more chances we have to get his IDFA (the longer he plays, the more chances we have to re-request the IDFA and the more likely it is that the user will allow us to use it). And in this case, we are talking about retargeting the payers, which cannot give a significant amount of marketing spending to the advertising budget.

Andrey Kulakov, CMO at Kefir

We consider retargeting as a good support for updates to our games, especially now that updates are often tied to the release of new seasons with even more interesting challenges for our players and a huge amount of content. In addition, retargeting increases the effectiveness of our usual UA activity. In neither case do we single out any of the platforms (Android or iOS) in importance. Yes, in the case of Android, these are large volumes, but in the case of iOS, this is a different solvency. Everything plus or minus is leveled.

Elena Grigoryan, CMO at MY.GAMES

We are working with retargeting on iOS, but today it does not account for a very large share of our revenue.

Alexander Bezobrazov, Vice President of Marketing at G5 Entertainment

Naturally, we work with retargeting, but I wouldn’t single out retargeting on iOS in any way separately – it is as important as on other platforms.

2. Do you expect a drop in revenue from iOS?

Roman Plotnik, Head of Analytics at NX Studio

If there is no clear solution on the market, how the advertiser will optimize their advertising campaigns, then…

Let’s just say that in the event of an unfavorable scenario, we will have serious concerns about the effectiveness of procurement operations. This can be a significant blow to data-oriented advertising platforms and companies.

Andrey Kulakov, CMO at Kefir

Whether revenue will change is a difficult question. If the game is actively supported, the revenue will remain.

We definitely expect some difficulties with attribution of iOS users “on board”, volumes may change.

Who will be easier / more difficult — retargeting companies or UA companies – I can’t say. Large advertising platforms have their own targeting capabilities that are not related to IDFA, which accurately allow targeting within their own ecosystem. In the end, quite a serious player Apple Search Ads will not leave the market anywhere.

Elena Grigoryan, CMO at MY.GAMES

Reducing retargeting will not lead to a serious drop in revenue, which we will not be able to compensate with the help of other sources. However, the lack of the possibility of using the IDFA identifier will affect not only retargeting campaigns, but also advertising attribution in general, and here the consequences are much more noticeable.

Alexander Bezobrazov, Vice President of Marketing at G5 Entertainment

At the moment, it is obvious that retargeting will become technically more difficult, however, I believe that the industry will find a solution that will satisfy the interests of all stakeholders.

Ivan Ruppo, CMO at Gismart

We cannot say that we expect significant revenue losses within our mobile games and entertainment applications. Users have previously had the opportunity to disable IDFA tracking on their own. If earlier it was a conditional 20% of users, now they will be, let’s say, 60%.

3. What will you do to smooth out the situation for yourself?

Roman Plotnik, Head of Analytics at NX Studio

So far, we are in constant communication with our MMP — Adjust. However, we plan to replace this reactive approach with a proactive one in the near future and begin discussing the situation within the company, in the future we will move on to communication with our advertising partners, as well as with Apple and Google.

Andrey Kulakov, CMO at Kefir

Our main retargeting partners are Facebook, Google and Twitter. It seems to us that they have more opportunities to respond to this situation. Therefore, our strategy for today is to wait for how these guys will act. We can always adjust.

The market now has no clear answer as to how critical these changes will be, you need to wait for the release of iOS 14 (at least beta) and start tracking changes in the market, and then live with the new realities. Advertisers on TV somehow manage without IDFA.

Elena Grigoryan, CMO at MY.GAMES

The changes that Apple has introduced to the market risk radically changing the advertising market on mobile devices. IDFA was the only device identifier available to all applications and did not change from application to application. Due to these qualities, IDFA was widely used for attribution of the traffic source to the application, as well as for targeting and retargeting users.

We believe that advertising networks will develop and standardize one or more ways to identify a device by other parameters — this is how it worked before the advent of IDFA. However, there is also a negative scenario — we all have to get used to living and working in new conditions, without reliable information about the user engagement channel. And this will significantly slow down the development of the industry.

Alexander Bezobrazov, Vice President of Marketing at G5 Entertainment

There are a number of technical solutions that we will have to implement at home, regardless of what the partners will do. Direct actions with retargeting on iOS largely depend on what technical solution MMP and advertising networks will find. We will definitely be able to support him on our side.

Ivan Ruppo, CMO at Gismart

Due to the upcoming changes, we are already in the process of adapting our marketing strategy. We are confident that the industry and tracking services will also adapt over time and rebuild the mechanisms of work. Ultimately, no one canceled “fingerprinting”, IDFV, SKAdNetwork and the availability of their own user accounting databases.

Also on the topic:

• The advertising market on iOS is waiting for shocks. Apple’s “blow” on IDFA is to blame for everything
• How will Apple’s new IDFA policy affect the advertising market: the opinions of Adjust, AdQuantum and Digital Turbine

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