What does iOS 11 mean for mobile marketers?

iOS 11 was released to all last week, which will accelerate Apple’s ‘long-held policy of elbowing the cookie into obsolescence.’

For marketers and agencies who are currently using cookies for tracking and optimising, this update puts them in a troubling position. The update restricts cookie application to 24 hours, and after 30 days (without a subsequent interaction) the cookies will be purged from the device.

This new development has not been without criticism, with the likes of the ANA, the 4A’s and the IAB have penned an open letter and called it ‘heavy-handed’. It’s worth noting that while adoption has been fast (currently sitting at around 20%), it wasn’t as fast as when iOS 10 was released and only time will tell the long-term impact.

For the moment though, there are two main steps that concerned mobile marketers can take to circumvent this issue.

Align yourself with app solutions

In the US, app time accounts for 86% of smartphone time (eMarketer, 2016) while in the UK it accounts for 82% (comScore, 2017).

With this the predominant way of accessing the internet, marketers should look to find mobile solution providers who can leverage the app time. Using apps also allows for further data collection via SDKs, allowing marketers a work around the new iOS developments.

Rely on other data sources

Cookies are now defunct for mobile marketing. Choose an attribution and delivery partner who don’t rely on cookies for optimising.

Our own robust device-ID heavy DMP has registered over 2 billion devices – no cookies required. In addition, our Artificial Intelligence, which takes into account hundreds of different data points which includes first-party data via surveying consumers allows us to optimize to metrics which really matter.

To find out more about our data-driven solutions, contact your local sales rep or email marketing@loopme.com