Apple’s new privacy update threatens Facebook’s $86B in annual revenue from targeted ad sales and has many advertisers asking how they’ll target consumers in the future.
For years now, companies like Facebook have been monetizing all of the very specific user data they collect by selling it to brands for targeted advertising purposes.
Hey, cool, thanks Facebook!
People have been (obviously) worried about how this stalking threatens their privacy, so Apple is giving users the option to request a restraining order. And by that I mean it is explicitly asking people for permission to track their activity from one app to another before they pull out the pepper spray.
As always, there are pros and cons to this decision…
- Pro: Consumers feel protected, maintaining some level of trust with technology among users.
- Con: Businesses – especially those without their own engineering department – will have to start from scratch in terms of how to reach their specific consumer out in the world wide web.
At first glance this is terrible news. I mean you are an FBA seller, not a digital cookie chef. How are you supposed to find shoppers if you have no data to work with, plus your social media advertising is rendered useless? It’s not like you can go door to door to show them your mobile site on your phone. Trust me, it’s widely ineffective and disliked by everyone in my neighborhood.
It won’t be easy. However, it will be doable, thanks to Amazon’s tracking abilities. Many brands view Amazon as a means to get access to reliable data that they previously sourced from companies like Facebook. They’ll be able to measure performance and understand some level of consumer behavior, enough to make a game plan, making Amazon ads more valuable than ever. Cold hard data = Cold hard cash.
There will still be challenges. Third party sites and consumer behavior will continue to be difficult to access unless consumers decide to “bare it all.” But tech companies have been in this position before, and they innovated and adapted to find solutions.
Bottom line: don’t let all the gloom and doom headlines get to you. Stay on top of tracking news and in the meantime keep at Amazon’s advertising and your business won’t see any major impacts. Your bank account might, however, but in a good way!
