When the iOS changes kicked in there was a serious ads shakeup and even now, I still see people struggling with them. So, let’s break down what those changes *actually* mean and how you can deal with them> Strap in, this one is going to be a two part-er.
PART 1 – CHANGES
To put it simply, access to user data became much more limited, which changed two major aspects of running social media ad campaigns: how you targeted them and your results.
Previously you could track all customer movements on your site – what they looked at, clicked on, added to cart, purchased or abandoned. You could track their entire journey from social media through to checkout, which helped advertisers decide how they would target their ad campaigns. A big, foolproof roadmap to ad success – yay! For example, you might target everyone who visited your site but didn’t make a purchase with ads that prompted them to ‘not miss out’ on what they were browsing, or you could target everyone who purchased an item with a campaign that recommended similar products.
The reduction of this data also meant we could no longer directly attribute sales to ads, so it looked as though social media campaigns were no longer effective – which isn’t exactly true. A huge misconception was that running Facebook & Instagram ads would no longer garner the same results, when really it just meant you could only see you were making sales, not where they came from. It’s widely reported that there is roughly a 55% gap between sales seen on Shopify and what Facebook is reporting.
PART 2 – HOW TO DEAL
Adapting to these changes is an ongoing process (as usual) and has meant there are things that I’m doing now in 2022 that I wasn’t in 2020 or 2021, such as:
🪴 Alternative Niche-Down Tactics
Get a little looser with your messaging. Hear me out: even if you can’t specifically target everyone who added to cart through your pixel data, you can still *speak* to them through your creative copy. You won’t resonate with everyone but for those it does, your specific language and pointed imagery will make the difference!
🪴 Expanding Lookalike Audiences
Pre-update my benchmark for lookalike audiences was 1% & based on purchases. Now, I look at alternatives like mid/large sized email lists with accurate customer data and widen the scope up to 5% to expand our audience reach.
🪴 Two-For Campaigns For Increased Data Capture
Building alternative data sources, like a high quality mailing list, is 100% vital now. The why is easy: email lists can track who has actually purchased and who has added to cart, to build social media audiences. Wherever I can, I aim to incorporate a mailing list sign up in our strategies to make sure plan b is always in the works!
🪴 Retargeting First-Party Data
We lost the ability to track customer movements, so we’ve shifted our focusing to on-platform behaviours like video views and engagement to build alternative warm audiences. They might be less detailed, but still give enough info for us to create personalised campaigns.
🪴 Utilising Meta Updates and Features
No brainer – make sure your website is verified, set up for the events you can track and that you’re ready to jump on every new feature and update Meta releases to stay in front of the pack!
So yeah, things have changed and that’s pretty clear. But, there are ways to get around the changes and craft out an ads plan that still works effectively and awesomely. Get in touch if you need a hand creating something in this new Meta world – we’d be happy to set you on the right track!
