• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, January 27, 2022

The mere mention of Apple’s iOS 15 was enough to make online marketers sweat just a few months ago.

But it hasn’t yet destroyed the business, judging by iOS Marketing Pivots, a study from Best SEO Companies, conducted by Prolific. 

On the contrary, 62% of firms have found a way to work around the new iOS restrictions. Another 20.5% have not, and 17.6% are unsure. 

Moreover, 68.7% say the updates have had a positive effect on their business outlook. In contrast, 19.2% point to a negative effect, and 12.1% feel there has been no impact. 

And the changes have affected their return on marketing investment in these ways: 

• Positive — 59.1% 
• Negative — 11.8%
• No impact —29.3%

Cost-per-action marketing has seen similar results:

• Positive — 55.7% 
• Negative — 14.3% 
• No impact — 30.2%

To backtrack: “While iOS 14 enabled users to opt-out of sharing their data with specific apps, iOS 15 took things a step further by enabling users to hide their IP address from all trackers,” the study notes. 

Marketers have felt an impact on their strategies in these areas: 

• Facebook advertising — 53.8%
• Instagram advertising — 50.4%
• Facebook conversions — 42.6% 
• Ad personalization — 40.4%
• Web traffic — 35.3%
• Email marketing — 34.4%
• App’s third-party data-sharing abilities — 31.9% 
• Instagram conversions — 23%
• None of the above — 8.3%

What are they doing? They have increased their: 

• Instagram advertising—47.3% 
• Facebook advertising—47.1% 
• Influencer marketing—35.5% 
• Email marketing—34.8% 

In addition, brands have:

• Tested new audiences — 33% 
• Searched engine optimization (SEO) — 32.1% 
• Personalized messaging — 30.4% 
• SMS marketing — 29.2%
• Optimized Facebook ad strategy to counter iOS restrictions — 26.3%
• Changed marketing channels — 25.9%
• Verified company domain — 24.6%
• Boosted first-party data efforts (e.g., customer feedback surveys, CRM data) — 23.2% 
• Implemented broad targeting — 21.9%
• Updated/changed target audience — 21.6% 
• Purchased second-party data — 19.7%

How have Facebook and Instagram advertising strategies changed? The study explains that the level of effort required for both has increased. 

“One major way this plays out is in organic versus paid content,” it says. “Decreased targeting capabilities mean that marketers will ultimately benefit from putting more effort into their page’s organic and branded content, drawing people in naturally rather than as a result of automated, paid adverts.“ 

How much do people even know about the impact of the iOS updates? They rate themselves as:  

• Knowledgeable — 54.9% 
• Moderately knowledgeable — 29.5%
• Not at all knowledgeable — 15.6%

Not that most of the respondents have upgraded to iOS 15 themselves.  

Of those polled, 38% of marketers are now using iOS 14 and 40.6% use iOS 15. Another 10.7% are stuck in iOS 13 or an earlier version. 

Business owners are even more behind -- 29.5% use 29.5%, 17.1% iOS 15 and 18.6% use iOS 13 or a prior model. 

But both groups approve of iOS 15: those who have used it give it an average rating of 4.4 out of a possible 5, versus 4.1 for iOS 14 and 3.7 for iOS or earlier.  

Prolific surveyed “554 business owners and employees involved in company marketing strategy who use Facebook and Instagram ads in the U.S."