The trend: Apple’s launch of AppTrackingTransparency (ATT) in iOS 14.5 has started to reshape digital advertising and is affecting mobile app publishers’ and advertisers’ monetization models, budget allocations, and measurement strategies. Our recently published report had the following findings:

First and foremost: As first-party data becomes more important than ever in wake of the privacy changes, mobile app publishers with the largest caches of user data will suffer the least deprecation of their ad targeting abilities.

• The number of US users that have seen the ATT prompt and opted into tracking is relatively low, per December 2021 information from AppsFlyer.

Alternative solutions: Big Tech platforms and small game developers alike are looking to online sales, subscriptions, and in-app purchases to bolster revenues in the face of deteriorating ad effectiveness.

• Meta is aggressively pursuing ecommerce. The parent of Facebook and Instagram has said Apple’s data protection moves could cost it $10 billion in 2022 as it loses the chance to sell pricier ads. Ecommerce could help the company make up some lost revenue.
• Twitter has debuted several subscription options including Twitter Blue, which gives users access to features like an undo button and an ad-free reader mode for partnering news publications.

At the same time, marketers are employing different strategies to compile their own first-party data.

Ad budgets shift: Instead of trying to work around or with ATT, some marketers are switching gears. Android’s piece of the mobile ad pie has grown significantly, and publishers have seen an uptick in interest in contextual advertising.

Go further: You can read the full report on Apple’s privacy update here.