Hi everybody this is Rahul Chakrapani
in December 2020 apple made a critical announcement that is going to change the landscape of digital media Forever
this announcement is so powerful that it shook the very foundations of a trillion
dollar company like Facebook
as a result facebook even came out of the special marketing campaign to openly oppose apple
and this move is not just going to affect facebook but every single business every single brand and
every single creator who’s dependent on a digital advertisement
this policy
ladies and gentlemen what Apple calls the app tracking transparency framework
which rolled out on the 26th of April 2021 and just like any other critical change
if you understand this critical situation properly you can use this as
an amazing opportunity to beat your competition
so the question is what exactly is this ATT framework?
how is this a direct attack on Facebook?
and most importantly as entrepreneurs in the digital world
how can you use this to beat your competition?
How do Facebook ads work
user advertiser profiling
the first thing that you need to understand is how do Facebook ads work
in the first place so here’s an oversimplified explanation of the same
the first phase of this process could be called user and advertiser profiling
so every time you use Facebook or Instagram
based on the content you engage with the Facebook algorithm determines your areas of interest for example
if you’re a boy who is 21 who is about to graduate and is applying for jobs
naturally, you will engage with job-related content like resume building, interview hacks etc
so based on this interaction of yours facebook will maintain a user profile
wherein facebook will note that your interest lies in job-related contents
similarly, Facebook will also track other activities of yours and keep a note of the
things that you love
for example, it will note that similar likes jeans snickers and organic food products at the same time
Advertisers
on the other side the
second stakeholders of facebook come in who are advertisers
so every time someone wants to post a Facebook ad
the digital marketer of that company has to tell Facebook as to
who could be their potential customer and this data includes the interest age location and other demographic factors
this is how a cluster of advertisers come to Facebook to advertise their product
let’s say one of them is Medicity
Medicity has a course called the OET Crash course which teaches
you a step-by-step procedure to pass the OET exam that helps you to stand out from the rest of the crowd
Medicity groups marketer will tell Facebook that they are ideal customers living between the age group of 20 to 25
apart from that, they must have graduated from a nursing or medical college or a medical degree
the location of these students would be given as Kochi- Mumbai Bangalore and other major cities
Targeting
this is when the second phase starts which is targeting
in this phase, Facebook will start showing you multiple ads according to your interest
so, in this case, will show you Denin jeans ad a big basket ad showing and a video ad of Medicity groups
which gives you a free ebook and explains the latest OET course that we have
now after showing you all these ads Facebook will start monitoring your engagement
with these ads to try and understand which one of these products are you more likely to buy
so if you end up watching a three minutes Medicity institutions ad and you also end up downloading the free ebook
Facebook will understand that at this given point in time
you are more likely to become a Medicity institutions student as compared to becoming a big basket customer
therefore using engagement parameters like
likes comments shares and watch time Facebook determines the interest of the audience
Retargeting and conversion
then comes the third phase that is retargeting and conversion
this is where OET COURSE and intervented ads are shown to you
such that you can choose which company to engage with for
For example,
you will get the ad for the same course from a company that sells the course at a higher price or
some company that gives you interview advice specifically for technical interviews this way
based on multiple permutations and combinations
Facebook will try to judge your interest and show you relevant ads
this is how users get various options to choose from such that
you can engage with the company that suits your requirements
this is the basics of Facebook advertising
so to put that straight the entire process could be summarized in three discrete steps
the first step is user and advertiser profiling
the second step is targeting
the third step is retargeting and conversion
this is how until now facebook’s extraordinary algorithm has used user data
because of which it has brought a revolution in digital marketing
and the insane precision of facebook’s algorithm is a reason why
in 2020 alone facebook made 29 billion dollars merely through digital ads
Apple’s privacy policy
but this is where apple’s privacy policy comes in which is a direct attack on Facebook
so the question is how is apple’s privacy policy going to disturb the system?
well as it turns out apple’s attack comes over here in user profiling
which forms the very basis of Facebook advertising
here’s where Apple will no longer allow Facebook to track the activities of its users
and instead, it will ask the users for permission whether or not to allow activity tracking now
because Facebook has such a terrible the reputation
it is expected that very few people will allow tracking of their activity
therefore user profiling is going to become extremely difficult
as a result,
targeting will become extremely difficult
eventually, the conversion rates for apple users are going to drop down
this applies to almost 1 billion iPhone users all across the world
so as an advertiser if you can convert one customer for 500 rupees
the same cost to convert an iPhone user might even shoot up to 1000 rupees
and as facebook stated this insane rise in customer acquisition costs might make
it very difficult for small businesses to grow and not just that
even brands that have built a solid foundation with a digital
the only approach is also going to face a very tough time
and this is not just restricted to Facebook but even other platforms like Google and LinkedIn
this is the implication of apple’s app tracking framework and this massive change
ladies and gentlemen are going to bring in the second wave in the digital media revolution
so the question is how is this going to change the paradigms of digital media
most importantly if you’re a businessman or an entrepreneur what exactly are you supposed to do To turn this crisis into an opportunity
Oppertunities
number one
in this second wave of digital media, every other brand has to
become a media company that creates content for itself
and this applies to all brands whether they sell build or t-shirts
why because when brands start creating content they will gather an audience
that will automatically become their Customers
therefore dependency on ads will decrease by a large extent
number two
the content that you create as a brand doesn’t necessarily have to sell your product but has to cater to the interest of your potential custom
a class example of the same is Bawakoof.com Instagram handle
Bawakoof.com is a t-shirt company that by default wants to cater to the audience
that loves clever humour so they have used means to gather 1.6 billion followers on Instagram and
eventually, they use this massive reach to present their latest
t-shirt designs eventually driving organic sales
so right now there are two types of t-shirt companies
the ones that are heavily dependent on ads and the
other is a creator like Bawakoof.com that has two pipelines
one is the organic pipeline and the second is the ads pipeline
similarly, even Finn shorts has gathered a wonderful audience through their podcast with
the ultimate goal of selling insurance
number three
creator economy is going to get another push due to this policy why because by
creating content and catering to an audience the creators by default become
direct links to huge clusters of Audience
lastly,
digital marketers who excel in apple ads are going to get another extra edge with high ticket clients now
an important point to be noted over here is
that this is neither the first nor the last policy that is focusing on privacy and as we keep going ahead
we could expect another policy from google or amazon that is going to roll out similar
features that could change the landscape of digital marketing
this brings me to the most important part
the ever-changing digital landscape is one of the most important and timeless marketing principles that
Lessons
we need to abide by to excel in the market and these lessons by the way also form the very foundations of the Medcity group
very important pointers that you need to keep in mind if you
want to excel in this ever-changing digital landscape
number one
please read this book called hooked
the book talks about the timeless lessons on customer retention and always
remember regardless of what type of brand you are regardless of which platform you use
only when you have a solid foundation for customer retention and engagement
should you overspend on inorganic digital ads and if you’re doing it
Right now would be the best time to start acting on content creation before google brings out another policy
number two : Content
Internet penetration in India is accelerating at a pace that has never been seen before
which means what brands don’t just need to create content but also need to build multiple audiences with regional content
if you don’t want to cater to a regional audience you need to build a digital omnichannel approach to reach your audience
and this means providing high-quality value in multiple platforms and not just one
a classic example of the same is Nikon which has a magazine and Instagram handle 3055 influencers and
even a wonderful youtube channel that caters to the interest of their audience
this is also one of the reasons why you will see brands like economic times and
even money control pro starting a podcast to build an audience
eventually to turn them into customers
last one : marketing that will never change
most importantly please read this book called contagious
to understand the fundamentals of marketing that will never change regardless of these policies
regardless of the medium of propagation because always remember digital media might change and
formats might change but the one thing that will never change is consumer psychology
Why because human behaviour will always remain the same
so never lose sight of human-centred design and be 100 sure that you will be able to succeed
regardless of the changing landscapes of digital media
