Audiences in a Post-IDFA World

What will they look like?

Mapendo Tech Team
3 min readDec 2, 2020

We have discussed at length the upcoming change to the IDFA in iOS14 (now coming out in early 2021). But what’s gonna happen to audiences in a post-IDFA World? When Apple releases the iOS update that essentially removes IDFA the way the world of mobile knows it, advertisers (as well as Mapendo) won’t be able to optimize traffic buying using audiences. Is this true in all cases? Are there some exceptions to this harsh rule? If it ends up being the case across the board, how are future campaigns going to be optimized?

To get a head start and try to grab the bull by the horns, what we are doing here at Mapendo is strategizing by experimenting with LAT campaigns (Limited Ad Tracking) and we have some numbers and ideas to share.

The Plan

  1. We will buy more and more traffic from Mobile Web (and less from in-app exchanges). As long as cookies are available, this is going to help target the campaigns. It is a simple workaround to overcome the lack of IDFA (thus targeting capabilities). One important thing to note is that the average CPM of mobile web traffic will probably be higher because of this.
  2. Advertisers will push for more app installs. The app install on its own is a very generic lead per se, and doesn’t necessarily automatically translate to valuable action from the users’ end such as placing an order or creating a profile on an app. Therefore, advertisers won’t care a lot about the lack of proliferation. The equation is quite simple: more installs = more post-install conversions.
  3. Source-based audiences. We will retain information about the click source that drove the install and brought the user in. This “low-tech” audience will be more prominent in the future. Some companies, such as Persona.ly are doing semantic analysis to categorize sources. They use the app store description, for example, to get some information about the source and the user. So, for example, if an impression (or a click) comes from an app that is about cooking, we are able to guess an audience interested in cooking (or food delivery).
  4. More money will be needed to optimize user acquisition campaigns. Less targeting will mean more money is spent before we optimize UA campaigns.
  5. No more retargeting. This is obvious, but also has some implications. Some advertisers will switch to mobile websites instead of native apps (because web traffic will be open to more sophisticated advertising techniques).
  6. IDFA has already gone forward. The switch has already happened per se. A vast portion of available in-app traffic is not providing IDFA any longer and this must be accepted with hope for opportunity to change up some strategies and work within this new mobile environment. If you want to know more read our article about traffic without IDFA we are currently buying.

As soon as we gather more info we will continue to publish new articles. Stay tuned for more!

Mapendo is a tech platform for app user acquisition. We deliver huge volumes of CPA & CPI conversions to the best mobile apps available with A.I.

If you are looking to facilitate and automate your user acquisition process, all while getting trusted fraud protection, visit our site or get in touchwith us!

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Mapendo Tech Team

We are Mapendo. Curious and innovative. Mobile App Marketing is what we do and w. Artificial Intelligence is how we do it. || Bologna, IT || https://mapendo.co/