Are you doing paid advertising on the internet? If so you need to know this…
Apple’s recent update is going to threaten how personalised ads are delivered. Millions of businesses around the world rely on these to reach customers and make sales, which is being impacted right now.
The timing of this update and the potential threat it poses couldn’t have come at a worse time, however, there is a silver lining. I cover this near the bottom of the post.
Let’s quickly take a look at the situation:
What are personalised ads? – If you are running any sort of ads on Facebook or other social media platforms you are already using them. They allow you to connect with people who are most likely interested in what you have to offer. By being more targeted you spend less and your ROI is higher as you create better experiences for the customer.
Why has Apple made the change? – Apple believes that this latest update increases privacy which at first glance would be correct. We believe you can have high privacy and access to the free internet, this update could see a major change in how the internet functions and move to a paid solution with no ads. This then becomes the person with the biggest budget gets the attention.
How is this affecting your small business? – With the latest changes to IOS 14, it’s going to make it much harder for you to reach your target customers. An example of this would be to look at the breakdown of your analytics and review the Mobile users from Apple vs Android, this will provide you with an idea of how you will be impacted and what percentage you will no longer be able to reach.
Do you have an example? – Yes, let’s say you run a coffee shop and you have 5 orders that come in from spending $50 on using personalised ads as you have targeted the perfect customer. Now let’s say you run the same advertisement with the same $50 budget without the targeting you may only get 2 sales.
My Thoughts – Over the last 20+ years I have been running lead generation campaigns for my own products and clients, so we fully comprehend the short and long term impact of these changes to business growth, which is going to be great.
Privacy is and should always be put first. However, we need to find a balance so that ALL businesses have an equal opportunity to grow and not just the ones with big marketing budgets.
If we move to a paid version of the internet you will still be shown advertisements, they will just be done in a different way. Kind of like if you purchase a ticket to go to the movies you get all the ads at the front. This will then be restricted to businesses with the deepest pockets who will own the screen time.
The Silver Lining – I will be covering in detail this situation as it develops and unfolds, and right now you have time to act. But you must act quickly.
One of the core strategies I always promote and implement is that you own the data. Do not 100% rely on different social platforms to communicate with your customers, make sure you build an email and SMS list into your CRM.
This allows you to communicate directly to your lead and customer base without being affected by what’s happening to the ad platforms, it ALWAYS yields higher profits.
With this latest change I have personally seen a massive increase in reach and conversions from our own ads we are running, this is due to 10,000’s of business owners have started to turn their ads off and/or reduce budgets. Combined with this we are seeing many FB Marketing Agencies close their doors as they can no longer hit the targets once set.
If you are a small business and need your advertising to go further, the time to ACT is right now, create a lead magnet (something useful and interesting to give away) in exchange for someone’s email address.
I have training around how to do this which I have now made available for free, just pop the word training on the comment section and I will send you the details.