IDFA Changes: LTV & Monetization

David Simon replaced Offer for Fyber. He also published a great recap about this discussion.

Kevin released Elixir, for a method of changing the conversion values without requiring an app update.

The 1 thing every app publisher should be doing

Casie

Do a ton of due diligence and thinking around how to deploy the consent prompt. How to design the experience to get users' consent?

[💎 @01:57:26] You're in control of where in the user journey you display the permission alert (ATT pop-up). You should be doing experiments ASAP to figure out what works better.

1 option: prompt before a rewarded video ad exposure (user already in mental mode of "value exchange")

Make it crystal clear that an app is ad-supported and consent is needed.

David

Get your strategy around the pop-up. Test it tonight.

Live the fact that this is coming and there is no silver bullet to save your IDFA world. So you're better off embracing it.

[💎 @02:00:48] You have to understand precisely where the demand for your inventory comes from. As an app developer you have access to a lot of information besides IDFA that matters to buyers and that you can make available. Take your app-ads.txt stuff seriously. Pay attention to the data that gets passed from your app to a programmatic auction.

Precision from David post-panel: the point here is that programmatic bidders use more than just IDFA to value an impression. They use app name, time of day, frequency etc. Pubs need to be sure they are providing that data. app-ads.txt is a file that publishers use to list what buyers are authorized to buy their inventory and what sellers are authorized to sell it. For example, PeopleFun has authorized Fyber to sell their supply. So when Liftoff looks up to see if we are an authorized seller, they can refer to the file.

[💎 @02:01:34] If you're not thinking about the LAT traffic as a testing ground today, you're missing out on an opportunity.

Mirela

Background in retention/engagement.

At Zinio they focus mostly on partnerships so advice to other brands is to start thinking about how they approach their relationships with customers and existing partners.

Up to now performance marketers can optimize towards the first transaction to make sure you're getting the right ROI but this won't be possible anymore.

[💎 @02:03:23] Bigger focus on user engagement is already happening in some companies. It's important to create relationships and have authentic communications with consumers. Invest in keeping your users.

It costs 5x more to acquire a user than to keep one.

IDFA users will still be extremely valuable?

David

There's precedent. Nothing is brand new but in-app marketing has been easy for a very long time but no other channel works that way (example: TV). You shouldn't try and cling to the (same) technology that is only true for 10% of users (or 30%!).

There is a big opportunity for app developers to create a true value exchange with the consumer, and things might actually not change that much.

[💎 @02:06:34] If you're not able to go 1:1 marketing for the majority of your ad dollars, then you should abandon the strategies that put you in play for 1:1 marketing. Get ready for the future.

A better direction?

Kevin

Even 10-20% is a signal, but is it accurate when it comes to other users (that don't accept)?

[💎 @02:08:20] Engaging with users is not only about advertising. You can also leverage CRM: email, push, SMS, etc. iOS 14 is not a setback in terms of communications with users, but users' experience with ads is going to be much less relevant/tailored than currently.

Ads will be more annoying than before.

Casie

We should not give up. A lot of GDPR users are opting in. Many consumers understand the value exchange and the importance of advertising.

You can sequence your prompts, educate a user over time until you get the consent.

Casie recommends a hybrid approach of collecting the IDFA if you can and leveraging SKAdNetwork if you can't.

Apple's attribution API is only a solution for a portion of the ecosystem that uses app install campaigns. For brands, collecting the IDFA is going to be as important as it has ever been:

[💎 @02:10:46] IDFA traffic might see more competition and therefore better performance for publishers. It might also bring more differentiated demand.

How does this affect UA?

Mirela

Doesn't share Casie's optimism: opt-in rates will go down. Even brands with strong value propositions will not be able to incentivize users to opt-in. Estimates 0-20% opt-in rates. Safe to assume should adapt to a no-IDFA world and put a bigger emphasis on privacy.

Kevin

IDFA is similar to the opt-in rate to push notifications and there are several tactics to increase that.

[💎 @02:13:58] Asking for the IDFA permission has similarities to asking push permission but there will be more pushback. However:

1. You do not have to ask for IDFA in the initial session, you can prove the value of the app first

2. You can leverage several custom "pre-prompts" to better assess willingness to opt-in before asking for permission.

David

You have to broaden the definition, it can not be all based on the user.

[💎 @02:16:40] The fact that the UA manager is now also a monetization manager is a big opportunity to better understand what is happening because you can get data from both sides. Think about other signals that matter (example: niche/type of apps and games).

Example: once ran a test on cookie-list inventory. Some bid prices for specific websites' traffic with cookies enabled were 94% higher. The sites with higher pricing when the user was known  were the ones with no contextual element like News. More contextual sites like Cafemom did much better because it's niche, and that will be the case of Puzzle games as well.

Should we buy LAT?

If you're ad supported, would you recommend the same strategy of buying LAT?

David

[💎 @02:21:00] LAT performance change in last 30 days:

• Fill rate up 2x-3x times
• CPMs up 50%-60%
• LAT CPM is 66% of IDFA traffic (used to be 44%)
• Conclusion: DSPs are bidding more on LAT traffic to train their MLs and check ROAS

Mobilitiware has had DSPs asking the same price for LAT users.

Casie

No shame in buying LAT traffic as long as it's contextual and learn from it.

Cross-installs has always been buying LAT traffic and have been able to make it work: some inventory works better just based on the nature of the app.

Facebook, Amazon only buy LAT off traffic and trying to figure it out.

Rumors to put to rest

Kevin

[💎 @02:25:40] You can figure out if a SDK can ask for permission on your behalf (and in general do anything with SKAdNetwork) because Apple has only one method to ask for this. Most SDKs are open source so you can check what they're doing!

1. Understand how to keep control of the framework and how you're going to ask for permission
2. [💎 @02:26:50] Understand how you can iterate quickly to find the right moment to request permission and build up the experience for asking consent. You shouldn't have to rely on an app release to do that and can leverage tools (like CRM tools) with a deep link to trigger the permission instead.

You should make sure you own the communication.

Predictions

First 3 months? When do we emerge better/stronger and "back to normal"?

Mirela

• It depends on how fast companies are moving in building authentic communications with their customers. The ones that don't will experience higher churn.
• Acquisition budget will increase over the next few months because brands will spend more money to bring new users in faster to compensate.

Casie

• There is an opportunity to innovate in terms of having a better balance of privacy and monetization.
• Android might get more advertising dollars.
• It's a resilient industry so we'll get through it.

Kevin

A lot of publishers are not really paying attention to this and it's going to take a few months before they start working with this well.

David

• It's going to be bumpy.
  - Some will immediately realize their ad spend is not ROI positive but won't have the cash to figure out what can be ROI positive.
  - Some will have the capacity to learn and make mistakes, are cautious but consistent during the first couple of months.
• [💎 @02:34:35] Investing in the consumer relationship is super important. There will be odd winners in the opt-in game over the course of Q4like IP-based game that have a strong brand connection (SpongeBob, Scrabble Go, etc.).
• A bunch of toolsets will emerge out of this. The level of analytical capacity in our industry is significantly better and with some more advanced tools, customers will figure it out.

Q&A

As a publisher, will you register your traffic via your own SKAd id or will you bundle DSPs' SKAd ids?

• Chandra - still working through this and discussing with partners. Have already received a bunch of SKAd ids but will probably support DSP partners in adding them to their info.plist.
  Mirela - they are building branded apps for publisher clients. They are looking at the IDFV (same identifier of each user across all apps of a vendor) and it might lead to consolidation within vendors.

If a user users FB or Google to sign on and that user doesn't allow tracking, can they still sign in.

• Kevin: there is a line in the Apple documentation that says you need to ask permission for 3rd-party SSO but it's unclear what kind of tracking limitations there will be and if you have to ask for consent before or no.
• Casie: if the user doesn't consent to IDFA tracking it's up to the rules of SSO and what information can be collected through these channels for downstream events.

How do you plan to enable the SKAdNetwork postback to DSPs when you will not be able to connect impressions/clicks to an install on an event level?

• David: focus on everything that happens pre-click and contextual signals instead of the data post-click (that you use to care about). This is where we should focus most of the innovations.
• Casie: buyers and DSPs will be registering for these postback and receiving directly from Apple. Several platforms have proposals for how this could work.