Firms see ad spending drop with new iOS privacy features


The impact of a new feature that limits an app's abilities to track activity across apps is still coming into focus. Adoption continues to roll out as weeks pass since the iOS release. The results are not surprising. Users appear to be declining to be tracked and the change is affecting ad spending.

The Wall Street Journal:

The effects of Apple’s change were slow to appear in marketers’ data after the company mandated compliance with its new tracking rules in April. The delay was in part because users wouldn’t see the prompts until they upgraded their devices to a recent version of Apple’s operating system. As of June 22, more than 70% of iOS devices had been upgraded to a version that requires the tracking prompt, according to Branch Metrics, allowing advertisers to begin assessing the impact.

As more of that information has emerged, advertisers have adjusted their buying strategies. Spending on iOS mobile advertising has fallen by about one-third between June 1 and July 1, according to ad-measurement firm Tenjin Inc. Android spending rose 10% over the same period, Tenjin said.

It may take time until we see the effect of the shift in ad spending on apps and developers. I think developers can make a reasonable case for tracking activity within apps as it can improve services, but it seems a harder case to make as to why people should allow their activity to be tracked across apps. Better ad experience doesn't seem to really resonate when people generally prefer to see no ads.