The right thing for the wrong reasons: the TikTok and WeChat ban

On Friday, September 18th, the US Commerce Department announced what amounts to a ban of TikTok and WeChat in the United States. The scope of the ban is explained fully in the below set of tweets: View Post As of September 20, 2020, for WeChat and as of November 12, 2020, for TikTok, the following transactions are prohibited:Any provision...

2h

What will Google’s deprecation of GAID look like?

Consensus opinion within the mobile advertising ecosystem suggests that Google will follow Apple’s lead with IDFA deprecation and deprecate its own proprietary, device-level advertising identifier, the GAID. Google has mostly stayed in lockstep with Apple regarding privacy: Google added its “Ads Personalization” setting to Android approximately...

4d

Apple is winning the war for control over iOS

Two recent developments within the mobile ecosystem seemed independent of each other at first but now appear to be correspondent consequences of a new world order having taken root on mobile: Apple announced the deprecation of its device identifier, the IDFA, at WWDC. The IDFA is fundamental to mobile advertising technology: advertisers, publishers,...

2w

Apocalypse Later: IDFA deprecation is delayed. Now what?

In a developer update last week, Apple disclosed that the new privacy changes announced for iOS14 at this year’s WWDC would be postponed until “early next year.” The disclosure, which confirmed a rumor that began circulating two weeks ago, was welcomed by app developers: while many see the IDFA as something of an anachronism in the modern marketing...

2w

Announcing the MDM Investment Syndicate

To apply to join the MDM Investment Syndicate, fill out this form; To pitch your company to the MDM Investment Syndicate for investment, email Eric Seufert. A little more than two years ago, in The mobile app economy’s second act, I analyzed how a confluence of currents was creating a dynamic of renewal on mobile: emerging business models, ascendant...

2w

Why Apple should delay its iOS14 privacy features

EDIT: On September 3rd, 2020, Apple confirmed that the new privacy guidelines coming to iOS14 would be delayed into 2021. More information here. Last week, after hearing nearly identical accounts from multiple people whose connections and judgment I trust, I posted to Twitter about the rumored possibility that Apple might delay the rollout of...

3w

Analyzing Facebook’s iOS14 advertising changes

After announcing last week that the company would completely abandon the IDFA for iOS14 advertising campaigns, Facebook released a FAQ document to advertisers that provides guidance around how they should prepare for updates to the platform. The FAQ is rife with insight — and it reveals just how dramatically different the iOS14 marketing environment...

3w

Facebook has abandoned the IDFA and may kill FAN for iOS. What’s next for mobile measurement?

Facebook announced via its blog this morning that it is abandoning the IDFA, Apple’s proprietary, device-level advertising identifier, in its owned and operated apps. Apple revealed at this year’s WWDC event that it is effectively deprecating the IDFA in iOS14 via an opt-in prompt. With the IDFA withheld from advertising, the entire mobile marketing...

4w

How does IDFA deprecation impact ad prices?

One point that has been lost in the discussion surrounding Apple’s decision to effectively deprecate the IDFA amidst the hectic scramble by developers and advertisers to engineer compliance is that ad personalization drives much of the revenue generated by mobile apps. There will be a real revenue impact felt by many advertisers when iOS 14 reaches...

4w

How to scale and optimize marketing spend with SKAdNetwork

This article is partially adapted from my workshop, How to Build and Scale successful apps without the IDFA. The workshop is being presented through the end of August 2020. Apple de-stabilized the mobile ecosystem in June, when it announced the effective deprecation of the IDFA — the advertising identifier on iOS, and the keystone of all mobile...

Aug 2020