Here Comes iOS 14: What App Publishers and Suppliers Need to Do to Prepare

Several weeks ago, Apple announced the release of iOS 14, in which users will need to explicitly consent to sharing their device ID when installing apps. While not entirely unexpected, the news has sent shockwaves across the mobile ad tech industry, raising questions about how this will impact advertising revenue and the industry as a whole. The industry has relied upon access to the IDFA on iOS devices for many years to advertise effectively and contribute significantly to publisher monetization revenue.

At Liftoff, we plan to implement a few significant changes on the demand side in light of Apple’s announcement. These changes will make it imperative for our supply partners to make important adjustments that will help them comply with the changing needs of their demand partners. The supply partners who are quick to mobilize and adapt these changes will be in the best position to maintain consistent monetization revenue as we move closer to a post-IDFA world.

Impact on Publisher Ad Monetization

With limited access to IDFA on iOS devices, mobile in-app supply and demand will be impacted in important ways:

Targeting for demand will become probabilistic, impacting publisher ad monetization

• With most users expected to opt out of IDFA, user profiles must now be assembled probabilistically rather than deterministically, using non-IDFA identifiers, like IP address and publisher-centric user IDs.
• This will affect publisher CPMs and yields as the industry shifts to more probabilistic targeting for advertisers

Demand will shift to using SKAdNetwork for attribution

• To directly comply with Apple’s privacy-first tracking guidelines, some of our advertisers  are adopting Apple’s SKAdNetwork to attribute ads on iOS on programmatic channels. SKAdNetwork also has a benefit of having built-in fraud-prevention mechanisms.
• This means that for some customers, Liftoff and other DSPs may elect to bid only on SKAdNetwork-compatible inventory.
• Publishers and supply partners will need to support SKAdNetwork to comply with advertiser demand and make their inventory eligible for DSPs like Liftoff to bid on.

How SKAdNetwork Works

How Supply Partners and Publishers must prepare for SKAdNetwork

To mitigate the risk of missing out on demand dollars that plan to shift to SKAdNetwork, publishers and exchanges must add support for SKAdNetwork as we approach the iOS 14 update in September. Here are the steps that supply partners will need to take:

Publisher

• Include Liftoff’s SKAdNetwork’s key in each of your apps’ info.plist file.
• Liftoff’s SKAdNetwork key is 7ug5zh24hu.skadnetwork

Exchange

Include the following fields are in the bid request:

• Flag for supporting SKAdNetwork = imp.ext.skan
  • Value: either 0 or 1
• SKAN’s version number:
  • Value: string

Ensure that you can receive and process the following fields in the bid response:

• Flag if Liftoff is using SKAdNetwork = bidresponse.ext.skan
  • Value: either 0 or 1
• Unique signature = bidresponse.ext.skansig
  • Value: string
• Ad network ID: bidresponse.ext.skanaid
  • Value: string
• Campaign ID: bidresponse.ext.skancid
  • Value: integer

While Apple’s announcement will impact the mobile ad tech industry in a significant way, at the same time it puts the mobile marketing ecosystem on better privacy footing. By working closely with our customers and ecosystem partners, including our exchange and publisher partners, come September, we will be prepared for a post-IDFA world.

If you are a publisher or supply-side partner who is currently monetizing with Liftoff, or would like to, please contact Betty Wan at [email protected] with any questions or feedback.