The Cure for Facebook Marketers’ iOS 14.5 Headaches? Revenue-Focused Customer Service
If you’re involved in the world of Facebook advertising, chances are you’ve been scrambling to adjust to the unprecedented changes associated with Apple’s iOS 14.5 release.
The release is causing major headaches and uncertainty for advertisers and marketers who are used to reliably using Facebook ads to drive sales and deepen audience insights. Why? Part of the 14.5 release includes a feature that prompts users to choose whether or not they consent to third-party apps and sites like Facebook to track their user data. Apple says the big change is an effort to protect privacy, but Facebook and marketers who leverage the platform see it as a crushing blow to ad effectiveness and customer targeting.
As Apple and Facebook continue fighting over this new opt-in tracking, it seems that advertisers and merchants are caught in the middle. Advertisers and small-to-medium businesses who have heavily relied on Facebook ads in the past have been left to fend for themselves and learn how to navigate this harsh new reality of advertising that’s making it harder than ever to connect with the customers that will convert.
How will iOS 14.5 affect Facebook ads?
In the olden days of social advertising, businesses could toss their ring into the Facebook and Instagram advertising arena with a budget as modest as $100. The barrier to entry was relatively low, and best of all, businesses received immediate and detailed feedback regarding their ad performance.
In addition to receiving helpful customer insight data points like the age, gender, and region of those interacting with their ads, businesses could directly attribute social ad campaigns to a key KPI: revenue. Marketers spent their advertising dollars on Facebook with confidence, as they could easily point to the ROI metrics. In fact, a 2019 Sprout Social survey found that 90% of social marketers said investing in social media has a direct effect on revenue.
Fast forward to today’s Facebook advertising, and you’ll see an incredibly different scene that involves a lot less confidence from marketers in social media’s ability to drive measurable ROI.
Why is iOS 14.5 a problem for digital marketers?
Feeling stressed yet? Welcome to the drama of Big Tech in 2021. Read on for four reasons why the iOS 14.5 update is proving to be a pain for Facebook marketers.
Increased Ad Spend
Businesses will need to spend substantially more than $100 (think a minimum of $1,000) to show their ads to a larger audience, because the targeting will be much less precise.
Less User Data
What used to be a flood of user data will slowly become a mere trickle as more people opt out of tracking. No one knows for sure how small this trickle will become, but most estimates put the opt-in rate between 1-20%. Experts assume that when presented with the choice, the majority of users – at least 80% – will not share data with third-party apps like Facebook. That leaves brands and advertisers using Facebook ads with far fewer insights into their target customers.
Difficult ROI Calculations
Advertisers can still track purchases, and they still have a limited view of what happened before that purchase, because they will have statistical inferences from Facebook about which ads users interacted with. But long gone are the days of easy ROI calculations.
Less Precise Audiences and Reporting
As the pool of iOS 14.5 users who opt out of tracking snowballs to an estimated 80%, the size of app connections, app activity Custom Audiences, and website Custom Audiences will most likely decrease.
Retargeting campaigns and “lookalike” campaign audiences will be disproportionately affected as the data dwindles. Facebook’s sophisticated AI-driven algorithms will have less user data to crunch, causing ads to be served to a much less precise audience. Detailed ad reporting that included customer age, gender, region, etc. will no longer be available.
The bottom line is that businesses will be forced to pay more money for less effective advertising that offers fewer customer insights.
With the advent of less effective Facebook advertising that offers less hyper-targeting, conversions on your website are going to inevitably drop. Facebook won’t be the treasure trove of customer data it once was that enabled marketers to conveniently serve ads to those who are most likely to convert.
The new state of Facebook advertising might feel painful today, but that doesn’t mean all is lost. In fact, a remedy might be simpler to implement than you think.
It’s more important than ever that your business is prepared to convert customers once they hit your website or digital storefront. And if Facebook can no longer reliably provide advertising ROI and audience insights, CX and customer service may be the creative solution to fill the gap.
Data-deprived Facebook marketers can turn to their customer service colleagues and take a shared approach to engaging customers and driving revenue with a CX model designed for the NOW Customer era.
How Simplr’s NOW CX solution can ease marketers’ headaches
If you’ve got an iOS 14.5-induced migraine, Simplr can help.
With our unique NOW CX model, we offer brands and retailers a proven way to engage customers 24/7, increase on-site conversions, and make the buying process easier for customers as the battle between Apple and Facebook wages on.
Think of Simplr as your secret weapon to use alongside Facebook ads and other marketing campaigns to take a coordinated approach to driving ROI with an exceptional customer experience across every touch point.
Simplr combines people, technology and data to deliver 24/7 NOW CX, and we offer a Conversational Commerce Suite that provides always-on, outstanding customer service, turning customers into loyal fans.
If marketers have to work harder than ever to get the right people to your website, your CX approach should ensure that you make the most of every opportunity to convert all your potential customers. And that’s exactly what Simplr enables you to do.
Here are three ways that Simplr can help stressed marketers use customer service and CX to fill the Facebook ad gap:
- Convert more hard-earned browsers into revenue-boosting buyers. Simplr’s distributed always-on network of specialists, powered by our AI platform, is available at all hours, across all digital channels to deliver lightning fast responses and make sure you’re capturing every opportunity to convert new customers.
- Maximize revenue with personal, in-the-moment upsell recommendations that increase average order value. Through our Conversational Commerce approach, Simplr specialists act as personal shopping assistants on your site. Specialists provide intelligent product recommendations and can make proactive upsell recommendations, provide alternative product options, and turn returns into exchanges.
- Supplement customer insights that marketers rely on. In a natural and organic way, Simplr specialists can learn the following information about customers: their gender, why they’re making a purchase (e.g. they’re getting married or have a 3-year-old son), and their stylistic preferences (e.g., a favorite color or type of clothing). These insights are incredibly valuable to CX and marketing alike.
The time is NOW…
If you’re looking for a partner to help you navigate the changing world of Facebook ads, Simplr is here to support you and shoulder the conversion load for visitors that make it to your website. Let us help you make the most of every possible purchase opportunity by engaging customers in a human-to-human way, no matter the time of day (or night).
If you’re ready to make the most of your ad spend, get in touch with Simplr today to learn how we’re helping brands like yours to drive revenue with CX.