Apple iOS 14.5’s App Tracking Transparency, which is abbreviated to ATT, looks to be benefitting Android. It’s been around a month since the release of the new update and the Post-IDFA Alliance has been tracking a range of metrics to determine the initial impact of the new changes.
ATT is a privacy feature that requires any third-party app that wants to track user activity and share it with other other platforms to ask for permission. App developers and advertisers rely on this sort of tracking to serve personalized ads. More specifically, they use something called Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), a random identifier Apple assigns to devices, for tracking and identifying user activity in and across apps.
Developers fear that if users don’t opt-in to tracking, they might lose revenue. Their concerns are not unfounded as early data compiled by Flurry Analytics show that in the US, only four percent of users are fine with being tracked. Globally, the number is 12 percent.
Two-week data suggest things are not that bad for marketers
Per the report, 12.9 percent of users have adopted iOS 14.5 within two weeks of the launch. Based on Singular’s and AdColony’s data provided in the report, around 25 percent of these users have opted-in to sharing their IDFA.
AdColony and Singular have witnessed ad spending go down by up to 3.59 percent. Vungle, on the other hand, has seen ad spend on iOS go up by 3.32 percent.
Is ad spending being diverted from iOS to Android in the wake of iOS 14.5
If iOS and Android figures are combined, it looks like marketers are spending more on user acquisition overall.
CPM (Cost per thousand impressions) appears to have decreased by up to 8.73 percent after iOS 14.5. Although CPMs are expected to decline in the short term, Post-IDFA alliance partners think prices will increase as more users download iOS 14.5 and marketers warm up to the idea of spending against IDFA-less traffic.
