Apple’s new app privacy notifications and user tracking changes introduced with iOS 14 have seen mixed reception from companies that rely heavily on ad revenue. Facebook, for instance, said that the changes will affect its business adversely since the challenges with collecting identifier for advertisers (IDFA) data affects the ability to serve personalized ads for users.
Today, Google has shared its view of what the impact of the changes will be not only on its own services but also on its partners. The company says in its blog post that Apple’s upcoming App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy will reduce the ability to gauge ad conversions, resulting in an impact on the bidding process for ad impressions. Additionally, it states that “app publishers may see a significant impact to their Google ad revenue on iOS after Apple’s ATT policies take effect”.
While the firm urges developers to upgrade to Google Mobile Ads SDK version 7.64 to leverage Apple’s SKAdNetwork to better monetize their apps on iOS, it says that it is “working with the industry to give Apple feedback on how to further improve SKAdNetwork so advertisers can measure their campaign results accurately on iOS 14”. For now, the company has also laid out a few recommendations for advertisers and developers on how they can “prepare” for the changes. These include tying in with Apple"s SKAdNetwork for measuring performance and “deciding” whether the ATT prompts are right for their apps.
As for Google’s own apps, the company says that it will no longer use data such as IDFA from its iOS app, which means that it will not display any privacy prompts on its apps. It adds that it is “working hard to understand and comply with Apple’s guidelines” for its apps and that it will include App Privacy details to its offerings as and when they are updated on the App Store.