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iOS 14 Changes – Information & Recommended Actions for AdLibertas Customers

iOS 14 Changes – Information & Recommended Actions for AdLibertas Customers

Aug 31, 2020 | Best Practices, News

 

 

Background:

 

Update 10/1/20: MoPub has finally released their SDK supporting iOS 14. We highly recommend all AdLibertas customers to update to avoid revenue-impact from the MoPub Marketplace.

 

Update 9/15/20:

9A PT: MoPub is releasing an SDK 5.14.0 the week of 9/28/20 that will support the IDFA. We expect MoPub revenue to be impacted until this SDK is released and adopted by our customers. 

 12 PT: Apple is releasing iOS 14 tomorrow (9/16), this seems to indicate networks that rely on the advertisingTrackingEnabled API (still deprecated) will be unable to utilize the IDFA in iOS 14 until (a) they release a new SDK and (b) developers update their apps. We are keeping the list below updated on what we know to be the case with each ad network.

The reliance on the deprecated API isn’t always clear — some networks (e.g. Admob) encrypt outgoing traffic so we haven’t been able to ascertain which networks are going to be impacted.

 

Update 9/14/20:  As of today’s iOS14 Beta the advertisingTrackingEnabled API is deprecated and always returning “No”.  This is important because many current SDKs are hard-coded to not collect the IDFA if this API returns no.  While this isn’t yet totally clear it seems Apple is instead forcing adoption of the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) via the trackingAuthorizationStatus property in the initial launch of iOS14, which will require a lot of scrambling to update SDKs prior to supporting iOS14. Most providers (e.g. MoPub) will not be able to support IDFA collection without an SDK update.

 We expect further clarification after tomorrow’s event. 

 

Update: 9/3/20 – Apple has announced the delay in the privacy opt-in. This changes our recommendation to avoid the opt-in framework until mandated. More information here.

 

 

Read our comments in MarketWatch:

 

 

 

 

As many of you know, the coming iOS14 changes are ever-changing with many players continuing to adjust strategies daily. What is clear is the SKAdnetwork framework will be widely adopted and will require updates to all of your iOS Ad Network SDKs.

 

Both iOS14 and (and relatedly GDPR and CCPA) significantly change how privacy and user data can be shared for advertising purposes, specifically for iOS 14 older versions of SDKs will not be compliant with new requirements. These changes impact both MoPub mediation, as well as your individual ad networks, while all of these SDKs are not yet available, we are strongly recommending you earmark the development time to update these SDKs before iOS14 goes live as failing to do so will likely negatively impact your iOS ad earnings.

 

Necessary Actions:

  1. Update all ad network SDKs:
    1. For each of your networks you will need to update to the iOS14-supported SDK
    2. Not all networks have released supported versions yet.
    3. See list of the current status of the largest networks and resources is below.
  1. Update info.plist in your ap
    1. Add the unique ID for each ad network you run to your app’s info.pls
    2. Apple documentation
    1. Update: I’ve heard from enough credible sources the opt-in will be delayed. As is such, we recommend holding off on implementing user opt-in at this time.
    2. You are now in charge of where and when the user can opt-in to ad-tracking.
    3. This should not be taken lightly, achieving customer opt-ins can be very instrumental in achieving high demand
    4. Apple documentation
    5. .A popular toolset for managing communication & consent to end-users is Google’s Funding Choices (aka UMP). (install & usage documentation)

Potential Impact:

Please let us know if you have questions specific to your apps or account. While the future of impact on iOS14 advertising remains uncertain we are cautioning our customers plan for a 30-50% decrease in iOS revenue while the industry works out the best methods for tracking long-term. While we hope the impact is much less, we caution the business planning for a severe impact — and hope we don’t see one.

that Partner Summary:

 

MoPub:

Admob (A4G):

Facebook

  • Does not yet have an iOS14 SDK
  • News
  • They have embraced the SDAdnetwork framework and will release one soon.
  • Update: 9/21/20 – Rumor has it Facebook is making a server-side fix that will allow them to access the IDFA from the latest version of their SDK.
  • Documentation

Unity

Vungle

  • Does have an SDK 6.8.0 (available for GA 9/15+)
  • Download: Select Publishers only
  • Documentation

ironSource

AppLovin