Apple’s iOS 14 and Facebook: What Every Dealer Needs to Know

Industry News

There’s a lot of chatter around the impact that Apple’s iOS 14 update will have on digital marketing, especially on advertising platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

Here are the key points that your dealership needs to know:

What Is The Apple iOS 14 Update?

iOS 14.4 is Apple’s newest update that will ask all Apple users if they want to turn the ability to track movement between apps On or Off. It’s assumed that some people will opt out of tracking. 

This update by Apple is one of many recent changes to the digital marketing environment regarding protecting users’ data.

Facebook has been launching updates in preparation for Apple to begin the enforcement of their tracking prompt, which they anticipate will begin rolling out sometime in early spring.

How Could iOS 14 Impact Facebook Ads For Dealerships?

If someone opts out of tracking from Facebook, as a dealership, you could:

  • Begin to see limited attribution in Facebook metrics Off-Facebook, such as Landing Page Views and Website Leads. 
  • See a change in audience sizes.

Although we do not expect a significant change in campaign performance, there will be some limitations with our ability to report on longer attribution windows. See more about this below.

How To Ensure Your Dealership Is Set Up For Success With iOS 14 Changes

  1. Make sure you have verified your domain. Facebook is requiring verified domains to optimize and report on critical website events, like VDP Views and Website Leads. If you are a current customer, you can reach out to your Performance Manager to see if your domain is verified! If you are not a customer, click this link to learn more about how to verify your domain.
  2. PRO TIP: If you use a Facebook ad agency, your domains need to be verified under your own business manager, not your agency’s. Otherwise, you could be locking up your business assets to your ad agency.

  3. Ensure your account is bolstered with offline data (like CRM leads, sales, and service audiences) so you aren’t solely dependent on pixel data.
  4. Take advantage of On-Facebook strategies, like On-Facebook AIAs, that drive shoppers to a VDP within Facebook’s platform (not your dealership’s website) and which will NOT see a loss in audience sizes or attribution.
  5. In initial tests with On-Facebook Destination for Automotive Inventory Ads, dealers were seeing 17% reduction in Cost Per VDP View and an 82% reduction in Cost Per Lead!

  6. Implement Oracle Data (POLK/IHS Markit, Visa/Mastercard, comScore, and TransUnion) which will continue to give you powerful targeting opportunities outside of Facebook’s capabilities.

IMPORTANT: For Dealers United customers, in addition to the above recommendations to set your account up for success, note that we are also following all of Facebook’s best practices and closely monitoring the effects of this update with our Facebook Partner Manager and Facebook’s Development team. If any action items are required on your part, we will notify you ASAP and assist wherever we can to ensure you are set up for success.

More About Attribution Changes

  • Facebook changed their default attribution window from 28-day click/1-day view to 7-day click/1-day view in Ads Manager for both Website and Offline Events.
  • To continue helping you paint the full picture of attribution, we will be leaning heavily into Offline events, like sales and lead data from your DMS and CRM.
  • Dealers United’s Dashboard (built alongside Facebook’s API) will continue to have the ability to report up to 28 days on views and clicks for offline conversions.

What is an attribution window? Click here to get a recording of our live Digital Dealer session, “How Top Auto Marketers Are Measuring Digital ROI (Without Google Analytics),” to learn more about attribution.

What’s Next?

Although there’s still many unknown impacts of the new Apple iOS changes, Dealers United is fully committed to helping automotive advertisers maximize their digital marketing efforts. We continue to notice over 86% of dealerships customers match to a Facebook user making it one of the most powerful mediums to reach a dealers local market.

Stay tuned for invites to webinars and other guidance from us on more education, best practices, and any immediate action items as we continue to learn more about this update.

Let’s stay prepared and proactive together!

Blog Author - Drew Detweiler

Written By Drew Detweiler
Drew manages inbound and outbound marketing for Dealers United. When he’s not at work, he’s probably enjoying the outdoors, fishing, or eating.

Register for the webinar, “The 3 Biggest Facebook Mistakes Even Advanced Dealer Marketers Are Making”!

×