Most Effective Way to Target Custom Audience After iOS 14.5 Update

Media buying is the best way of reaching out to more people in the era of digital marketing. Since organic reach is extremely limited, all the brands want the best exposure and Facebook media buying seems the best way for it. But, getting the best result from media buying has never been so hard as it is these days, and the reason is iOS 14.5 updated privacy issue.

What Happens With Custom Audiences after iOS 14.5?

What is the issue then? Well, more than 90% of Apple users are using OS version 14 and above (on the eligible devices). Since an apple device can’t track any data (if no permission is allowed), Facebook is struggling a lot to track the results properly. CAPI (Conversion API) may help a bit, but still not the best result to achieve when it comes to Custom Audiences.

There are a few reasons behind that, but the main reason is Facebook can not track all the data for Custom Audiences, and so the lookalike audience is performing terribly. And most importantly, Facebook can not track the apple users properly. So, if we are doing any kind of retargeting, the apple users are getting out of league from that list. Practically it is considered that Apple users have a higher purchasing power than others. Since retargeting isn’t performing effectively, it creates a negative impact on the overall campaign performance. So, how can we make it effective?

Selecting Devices in Facebook Business Manager

Figure: Alert for Custom Audience for iOS 14.5 or later devices.

Here we can see a major alert that this audience may not include the people who are using iOS 14.5 or later devices. So what to do then? Well, a new strategy can be helpful to provide the maximum priority to target the Apple devices. This may not be the best solution, but it’s a lot more effective than usual.

So what to do now? We have to select the Custom Audience first in the adset. Then instead of doing the Automatic Placement, we have to choose the Manual Placement.

Figure: Ad Placement in Facebook Business Manager.

After choosing the Manual Placement, we have to choose the Show Options.

Figure: Specific Mobile Devices & Operating Systems in Facebook Business Manager.

We have to choose iOS Devices Only. Then we have to choose the devices, then select the iOS Version from Min to 14.5 and Max to None.

Figure: Selecting Devices in Facebook Business Manager.

How Would It Be This Helpful?

Well, Facebook can not track all the data for OS version 14.5 and later devices, but it can track all other devices. So, we can target all the devices in another adset, and specifically target iOS 14.5 and later device users in another adset. So, how can Facebook track the data, you may think that.

Facebook doesn’t track the data that happens after clicking the ads, but Facebook knows which user has which version of OS. So what happens here is Facebook can track all the users who have interacted with the specific ads, and whether the user clicks on the ads or not. Since Facebook has that data, it can target the users properly. And since the ad is specifically targeted to the iOS users, Facebook will push to the users who are using that OS version and above. This may target those people who have already purchased or submitted the lead generation form, or even interact with the ad, but still, it still can target the iOS users who were getting cut before while doing the retargeting.

Process In A Nutshell:

Create Custom Audiences first, then create a Campaign and go to Adset.
Select Manual Placement instead of Automatic Placement.
Click “Show Options”. Choose iOS Devices Only from Specific Mobile Devices & Operating Systems
Include all the devices. Select OS Version from Min to 14.5 and Max to None.
Done