Two years ago, Apple released a smart tracking prevention feature that protects users' privacy on Safari. This has limited the tracking capabilities of the websites for advertising purposes. With this feature, Apple has been able to remove almost all the possibilities for advertisers to exploit specific demographic data.
A new report from The Information explored how Apple's offensive against advertising has made it harder for advertisers to keep users safe.
Online publishing industry leaders who told The Information say Apple has been "extraordinarily effective" in achieving its goal of intelligent surveillance prevention, effectively preventing websites from knowing what is being done. users on the Web. One of the results obtained during these two years is that the costs incurred by advertisers have decreased considerably for Safari users while they have increased for Chrome users:
The cost to reach Safari users has fallen by 60% over the last two years, according to data from the Rubicon Project advertising company. Meanwhile, advertising prices on the Google Chrome browser have increased slightly.
Although a lower cost may seem like a good thing for advertisers, the reason the price of Safari ads has decreased is that they are less clique. Because of Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP), advertisers can not focus on specific demographic data, for example by sending more targeted ads: The value of a Safari user has dropped said Michael Barrett, CEO of Rubicon Project. It is not easy to identify a user .
This aspect has had a greater impact in the United States than in other countries, since more than 50% of mobile navigation is done on Safari. In addition, while users may choose to disable Intelligent Tracking Prevention, the data shows that most do not:
According to Nativo, a company that creates software to sell online advertising, only 9% of Safari users on an iPhone allow external companies to track web browsing. The story is similar on the desktop, although Safari only has about 13% of the browser market. As a comparison, 79% of people using the Google Chrome browser allow advertisers to track their browsing habits on mobile devices via cookies.
This means that Chrome users see more personalized advertising, while Safari users are more casual and non-targeted. Among other things, all this is good news for other platforms such as Facebook, Google and Amazon, who can continue to offer targeted advertising according to the data of their site. Facebook, for example, sells target ads that use profile data and people's activity on the app. Amazon sells target ads based on the items people are watching on the retail site. As for the advertising agencies, there are those who claim to have lost up to 25 million dollars because of ITP.
However, Jason Kint, an industry leader, believes marketing experts should evolve to get the desired demographic data: Apple users are more valuable to advertisers based on demographic data, having a higher income and a greater propensity to buy. I think Safari users have been unfairly short-term and I think marketing experts have to find better ways to reach them online.