Facebook is Setting up Webinars to Explain the Potential Impacts of Apple’s Coming IDFA Changes

As Facebook continues to publicly criticize Apple’s coming changes to app data tracking, in the hopes of forcing the company to re-think the update, it’s also looking to educate advertisers and developers on the potential impacts of the coming IDFA changes, which are expected to have a significant impact on ad effectiveness.

To reiterate the current situation – back in June Apple announced coming changes to its IDFA tracking system which would make all app data tracking opt-in, via explicit prompts that explain to users what data each app is recording.

Here’s an example of what the IDFA prompts will look like:

The expected impact is that many more people will opt-out of data tracking entirely and that Facebook, in particular, will lose out because of the sheer amount of data points its apps track.

That’s prompted Facebook to launch a major campaign against the IDFA update, which has included full-page newspaper ads that point to the potential impacts of the update on SMBs in particular.

And next week, in order to provide more context around the coming change, Facebook is hosting a series of webinars to explain the potential impacts of the update.

As explained by Facebook:

“In 2020, Apple announced policy changes with iOS 14. Apple’s updates will impact businesses that advertise mobile apps, as well as those that optimize, target, and report on web events. In addition to the upcoming overview webinar we announced in late December, we are hosting two further webinars to deep dive into changes for app and web advertisers, respectively.” 

The three webinars, which anybody can sign up to attend, as are follows:

Monday January 11th – “Our Stance on Apple’s iOS 14 Policy Requirements and Guidance to Help You”

“In our recent Facebook for Business post published on 12/16, we outlined why we disagree with Apple’s approach to their iOS 14 policy changes under the banner of increased privacy for people. Apple’s updates will impact businesses that advertise mobile apps, as well as those that optimize, target, and report on web events. We understand that Apple’s policy may be disruptive to your business and impact your ability to effectively advertise on our platform, and are committed to helping guide you through these changes. Join us for a webinar with our product experts where we’ll discuss this.”

Tuesday January 12th – “Web Advertising Guidance for Apple’s Mobile Operating System Changes”

“Apple’s updates will impact businesses that advertise mobile apps, as well as those that optimize, target, and report on web events. We understand that Apple’s policy may be disruptive to your business and impact your ability to effectively advertise on our platform, and are committed to helping guide you through these changes. In this webinar, we will deep dive into the impact these changes have on advertisers running web conversion campaigns and key actions they will need to take now.”

Thursday January 14th – “App Advertising Guidance for Apple’s Mobile Operating System Changes”

“Apple’s updates will impact businesses that advertise mobile apps, as well as those that optimize, target, and report on web events. We understand that Apple’s policy may be disruptive to your business and impact your ability to effectively advertise on our platform, and are committed to helping guide you through these changes. In this webinar, we will deep dive into the impact these changes have on advertisers running app conversion campaigns and key actions they will need to take now.”

As you can see, each webinar covers a different aspect of the change. Each will also be held at varying local times – if you click through on the links above, you’ll be able to see when each is being run in your time zone.

It could be worth attending if you’re concerned about the IDFA update and its impacts on your marketing efforts.

Of course, no one knows for sure what exactly will happen when the change comes into effect, as it depends on how many users choose to opt-out of data tracking. But with Apple planning to launch the update soon, analysts are anticipating that its impacts will be felt, with both Facebook and Snap set to see “3%-5% revenue headwinds” as a result of the change.

But the change does make sense. Apple wants to ensure that users maintain control over their personal data, which is in line with the broader industry shift towards increased data usage transparency.

We’re set to find out the full extent of the update soon – if you want to know more, you can tune into Facebook’s webinars above.