Influencing users who no longer wish to share
How can brands mitigate the challenges brought about by Apple’s ATT feature? Mary Keane-Dawson, group CEO of influencer marketing agency TAKUMI, offers two alternative work-arounds to advertising that relies on user data
It’s not uncommon for those products you’ve been discussing online to magically appear as an ad on your social media feed. You could be WhatsApping about how you think yellow cushions would look great on your new armchair, only for a branded ad featuring yellow cushions to appear on your Instagram feed a few days later.
This is just one example of how brands can use personal data to create highly targeted advertising strategies.
Ever since the Cambridge Analytica scandal however, data privacy has been a top talking point for business leaders, policy makers and consumers.
Recently, the debate has once again resurfaced after Apple unveiled its new data privacy feature. The update allows users to stop apps collecting their data.
This would seem fair to most, but Facebook’s not happy. The social media platform has made fortunes from collecting user data and selling it to advertisers for re-targeting.
So, as data becomes more private and access to it more restricted, what does this mean for brands who engage in social media advertising?
What alternative advertising channels can a brand use to ensure its online advertising remains highly targeted, even with limited user data?
Data privacy – there’s a generational divide
Apple wants its users to have the right to decide how their data is used as “no piece of information is too private or personal to be surveilled, monetised, and aggregated into a 360-degree view of your life” by some businesses.
Surveys suggest, and Facebook acknowledges, that up to 80% of its users will say no to having their data shared when prompted by Apple’s new updated software.
But it’s not all doom and gloom for brands who rely on user data for online advertising.
If a brand’s target consumer is happy to share their data with apps, such as Facebook, then the brand will hardly be affected.
This is particularly true of younger generations who have grown up using social media platforms and are more accustomed to ad targeting.
Around 25% of young adults feel comfortable sharing personal data with social media companies compared with only eight percent of adults aged 45-54.
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This could be because it enhances their user experience, making their content feeds more relevant and personalised. Plus, younger generations have increasingly used social media platforms as an online shopping tool, thanks to improved in-platform e-commerce capabilities.
They also rely on discovery pages – which are powered by data sharing – to help them find new, lesser-known brands to shop from.
Apple’s new privacy setting becomes more problematic for brands that target consumers who are more skeptical of data sharing.
Brands need to think of new ways to reach these consumers online effectively, with limited user data.
Contextual advertising: use content not data
One way brands can swerve around Apple’s privacy update would be to explore contextual advertising.
Contextual advertising involves brand’s placing ads on particular web-pages that align with the content of the web-page or the audience demographic.
For example, a user may be reading an article on Elle Décor and ads could be placed on it from home furnishings or interior design brands.
By engaging in contextual advertising, brands are able to build a targeted advertising strategy that’s based on relevance rather than data.
Influencer marketing is highly targeted alternative
Engaging in influencer marketing is another targeted advertising channel that doesn’t involve user data.
It has grown in popularity during recent years.
Our whitepaper, Into the mainstream: Influencer marketing in society, which surveyed 3,500 consumers, marketers, and influencers across the UK, US and Germany, found that almost three-quarters of marketers (73%) have allocated more resources to influencers in the past 12-months.
Influencer marketing is an effective way for brands to communicate directly to consumers at various points along the purchasing funnel – from building brand awareness and loyalty by informing consumers of core values and ethos, to driving sales.
Micro influencers can be particularly effective for brands as they tend to have stronger affiliations and a more responsive audience than influencers with a larger following.
They often represent a more specialist niche, for example skateboarding enthusiasts or fans of home cleaning hacks. As a result, they offer brands very targeted and direct interaction with consumers, without the need for data sharing.
Influencer marketing also allows brands to receive real-time feedback from consumers.
Brands who partner with influencers will have access to the influencer’s followers and their opinions. These opinions provide brands with consumer insight and feedback, which can be used to inform future brand strategies.
People are more conscious of how apps, in particular social media platforms, use their data.
Although revolutionary for the advertising industry, Apple’s new update is based on a fundamental principle that people should have the simple choice over whether they are happy for their online behaviour to be shared with advertisers?
Some people will not care about sharing their data, but other’s will.
As a result, brands must ensure they adapt by investigating alternative advertising channels, such as contextual advertising and influencer marketing, to ensure their ads are highly targeted and they maintain ROI.