How iOS17 will mess with your attribution
Hi,
It's been a bit slower than usual with all the emails while I'm working out how to make this the most valuable newsletter I can.
Sorry and thanks for hanging in there with me.
(if you have any ideas or things you want me to research, discuss, or just rant on let me know by replying to this email)
Apple announced iOS17 and all the fun that comes a long with it. The one feature that I want to discuss today is LTP.
What is LTP?
Link Tracking Protection will remove all parameters from the URL that identify a user.
So if you have a URL with campaignID you're ok.
A URL that also adds a clickID is not.
The link will still work but it will have the clickID stripped.
This is for all user specific tracking parameters, not only clickID.
Before:
https://mytestsite.com/ad_engage?click_id=YG586KGE9kh35&campaign_id=26After:
https://mytestsite.com/ad_engage?campaign_id=26LTP will be automatically enabled from Mail, Messenger, and Safari.
Why do we care?
Because Apple Mail is about 58% of the market share.
Not only that in the USA messenger has a significant market share (16% as of 2020) that is going up every year. And we all know Safari has around 20% worldwide across all platforms (27% Mobile only).
But forget all the data for now.
Remember what happened with iOS14?
Your open rates went to shit.
That's about to happen with attribution too - unless you work on a more privacy focused attribution model.
Ok great, now what?
Here are some of of the steps that I would take to start preparing for the change (Appel usually releases their new iOS in September or October and you'll have a few months before adoption becomes significant):
Understand what share of your users will be affected.
Research Private Click Measurement (Apples tracking solution) and other solutions.
Reconsider your attribution model.
Adopt more privacy focused attribution methods.
Reads:
The MarkUP does a report on how advertisers label you.
Simo's (must read) rant on GA4.
Other privacy forward changes Apple is planning for iOS17.
Closing thoughts:
You hear me say this over and over again - there is no need to get that specific to gain insights. This change, and all the upcoming changes, will force this on you. It's better to get ahead of the game and start now. Analyse and optimise on segments that you will actually be able to action on AND that move the needle. Getting as granular as user specific IDs is not necessary when you are not even optimising fully on the campaign level.
Until next time,
Siobhan