3 Ways Your Small Business Ad Strategy is Impacted by Apple’s Privacy Update

By James Munnerlyn, President and Co-Founder of Blip Billboards.

Apple is going full throttle with its privacy measures for users with its recent release of iOS 15. But what does this mean for SMBs? What does this mean for your business? Digital ads (particularly on social media platforms owned by Facebook) are now more expensive and less effective. Because of this, many small businesses are needing to overhaul their marketing and advertising strategy.

Small Business Ad Strategy After Apple’s Big Privacy Changes

How can small businesses adjust their marketing and ad strategy in light of Apple’s big privacy changes? Here are 3 takeaways:

1. Reduce Your Reliance on One-to-one Transactional Digital Advertising

This is one of the most important impacts of Apple’s privacy update on small business ad strategy.

One-to-one transactional advertising on platforms like Facebook is many small businesses’ go-to choice.

What does one-to-one transactional advertising even mean? It means the marketing head of the SMB (which may very well be the owner, the accountant, etc. – we all know entrepreneurs wear many hats) pays for a specific number of eyeballs on their online ad, tracks those users, and voila! “It’s advertising made easy!” It means your ad is being displayed to one person at a time. Also, that ad is likely aimed at getting them to make an immediate transaction. This is a bottom-of-the-funnel marketing activity.

By contrast, broadcast and other top-of-the-funnel advertising strategies often reach many people at once (think billboards, radio, TV, etc.).

Problem Small Businesses Face

Facebook and other digital online ad platforms are incredibly effective for bottom-of-funnel advertising. However, there is a problem with most small businesses. They don’t know how to diversify their marketing across various brand-building and transactional advertising methods. It is probably due to a lack of experience and/or knowledge.

This problem is exacerbated by another fact. The transactional ad platforms have the last digital touchpoint with your customers. These platforms can claim all the credit for them. These platforms ignore the rest of your top-of-funnel marketing efforts. Facebook and others rely heavily on gathering and using an enormous amount of personal data about each of us. By doing this, those platforms make that one-to-one advertising effective. But those tracking and targeting capabilities are losing their edge now. Do you know why?

Apple’s privacy updates make advertising less specific and more expensive to target your customer demographic. But why? Because Apple has made Facebook’s algorithm not work as well. Small businesses will need to start targeting cohorts rather than individuals. It is evident that digital advertising loses its (somewhat creepy and intrusive) edge. Therefore, now is the time for small businesses to step up and execute a well-balanced marketing strategy.

2. Embrace the One-to-many Approach of Broadcast

This is another impact of Apple’s privacy update on small business ad strategy.

We thought that TV ads, stadium sponsorships, billboards, and big digital signage posts have reserved spots for top brands like Nike. But with modern marketplaces and digital options, small businesses can take advantage of these opportunities.

With Apple’s new updates I believe more marketers will take their dollars to broadcast. In turn, they will realize that it’s more attainable and attractive than ever before. This is feasible especially among SMBs who’ve been priced out of broadcast opportunities in the past. SMBs will have more options to embrace the one-to-many advertising that broadcast provides. Such advertising means one ad is seen by hundreds if not thousands or millions of eyeballs all at the same time.

3. Make an Oversized Impact with Smaller Spend

The pandemic quarantine is (hopefully) behind us. Now the market is particularly hot for out-of-home (OOH) and digital-out-of-home (DOOH) advertising. In other words, the market is hot for outdoor advertising. Such advertising can be like billboards along the highway, signs on top of a taxi, flashy banner ads in Times Square, etc. These forms of broadcast advertising are having their moment.

In fact, out-of-home advertising is now projected to finish 2021 with double-digit ad revenue increases. A late 2020 study found that Americans are noticing OOH advertising more as they engage with their surroundings outside again.

Small businesses can take advantage of this surge. There is also an additional advantage of the killer discounts (as much as 40% off) on digital out-of-home advertising media rates. Big-budget companies, one-to-one ad platforms like Google dominate broadcast advertising with their enormous budgets.

However, technology is making it available to the masses. Small businesses can leverage OOH now. With OOH, they can diversify and increase ad spend away from digital ads. This is just like the ones found on your phone through OOH platforms bent on democratizing the system.

Look at the Future

The Apple privacy update has irrevocably shaken up the marketing world. The impact of Apple’s privacy update on small business ad strategy is noteworthy. It has driven SMBs to rethink their strategy. They’re realizing that good marketing requires the long-term angle of broadcast. With just the instantaneous “swipe up” of digital advertising, good marketing is not possible.

In all, broadcast drives awareness and revenue down the line which leads to true brand conversion. It’s time for SMBs to stop overvaluing the ROI of the purely one-to-one marketing approach. They should start up-leveling their brand with advertising measures that embrace a more future-focused strategy.

Contributor

James Munnerlyn honed in on the convergence of technology and advertising as an entrepreneurial focal point early in his college career. He did post-graduation from BYU’s Marriott School of Business. Then James spent a few years on Utah’s digital marketing scene. After that, he set out on his own to make his mark in the world of digital marketing and advertising.

James, a dynamic leader, and self-taught technologist, founded Infuseo, a tech-enabled digital marketing agency in 2011. As fate would have it, YESCO, a pioneer in digital billboard advertising was among Infuseo’s closest clients. With the perfect launch partner in mind, James and Brent approached YESCO with their vision for Blip in 2015. The two founders began coding right away and launched Blip to the public in the summer of 2016.

Smart Hustle Resources:

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Small Business Advertising Post iOS 14’s App Tracking Transparency

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