Apple ATT measures will create a massive dent in Facebook’s advertising revenue and other brands. Lotame estimates the ATT measures will end up creating a $16 billion decline in total advertising revenue. Facebook will endure the biggest hit of almost $13 billion due to the Anti-Tracking measures.
Lotame’s Report on the impact of Apple ATT
Lotame revealed projections on how much Apple ATT features will impact the advertising revenues of the tech giants. The report sheds light on the drastic decline in advertising revenues for Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, and Twitter. It estimates that the combined loss in ad revenue will be $16 billion due to the anti-tracking measures. Comparing it to last year’s projections, it is up by almost a 61 percent increase in revenue loss.
Facebook will bear the maximum loss in 2022 because of its widespread dependence on mobile devices for tracking and ad placement. While Snapchat, Twitter, and YouTube will share the remaining $3 billion in losses among themselves, these tech giants are already developing new tracking methods to reduce dependency on mobile devices. Apple ATT is a wake-up call for companies that may now resort to other methods to track user behavior.
Why are anti-tracking measures making companies’ lives difficult?
All the social apps rely on user data to map preferences and use it to create targeted advertisements. You may have noticed this behavior when you search for something on Google, it begins appearing on Facebook. Almost all big apps use tracking mechanisms to study your preferences. Such a deep level of tracking makes them billions in ad revenue.
Apple introduced ATT last year to put a stop to this menace on iPhone. The ATT feature rolled out with iOS 14.5, after which problems began for Facebook and other apps. Earlier users weren’t aware of such deep tracking implemented by many apps on their devices. Now, each app has to request permission to track your activity across apps.
As per Lotame, this simple opt-in message request caused a 65% decline in tracking on iPhones. Only 35% or lesser users gave the green light to these apps to track them. Facebook and YouTube witnessed a small percentage of retention in-app tracking after Apple ATT rolled out. Moreover, users can turn off all app tracking with a simple toggle available in settings. This is how Apple hurt the ad revenue of four major tech companies with a simple toggle.
