Facebook Financial Services Advertising and AI
By: Trapica Content Team
Tags: Financial Services, Finance, Social Media, Marketing, iOS

As a member of the financial services industry, you’ll understand the importance of competitiveness. If you aren’t competitive, consumers will simply choose another service from the niche.

With social media advertising, financial services would place their brand in the news feeds of consumers. While some consumers clicked, others would keep the name in mind should they need help in the future. Either way, it allowed the brand a chance to compete against the many other financial services.

Of course, the beauty of Facebook advertising in particular was the amount of data informing campaigns. With so much data available to businesses, financial services could target specific niches and the customers most likely to convert. However, you may have noticed that we have been speaking in the past tense, and this is because we’re now in a very different environment.

The Post-iOS 14 Environment

It’s no exaggeration to label the world right now as the ‘post-iOS 14 environment’ because everything has changed. How can an iOS update change everything we know about Facebook advertising? Well, you’d be surprised.

If you’ve managed to avoid the news, congratulations because that is quite an achievement. If you’ve seen headlines around the internet but haven’t taken the time to learn why Apple is at war with Facebook, we’ll explain the whole situation in this guide.

Towards the beginning of 2020, when the pandemic was out-of-view, Apple revealed that iOS 14 would contain a feature called App Tracking Transparency. Soon after, app developers and others revolted, and Apple agreed to a delay. Amidst all the energy it took to just survive through the pandemic, many forgot about ATT (except Apple!).

Although it only seems a month since the first announcement, iOS 14.5 is now live, and this update contains ATT.

What’s App Tracking Transparency?

In truth, the name is self-explanatory because ATT promises more transparency when it comes to app tracking. How does it provide it? By forcing all apps in the App Store to request permission from users to track activity and behavior across other apps and websites. Apple users may have noticed requests to track activity and behavior after opening apps for the first time since updating the device.

Long story short, those who don’t allow tracking…well, cannot be tracked. Immediately, you see the potential impact on Facebook advertising. Customers reject tracking and their activity and behavior are unobtainable from an advertising perspective. As a financial service, this means a loss of access to the data on which we’ve come to rely for effective advertising campaigns.

Conversion data isn’t tracked, the pixel isn’t updated as frequently, and advertisers are left with inaccurate advertising campaigns. Even when advertising campaigns happen to perform, it’s difficult to get valuable insights for optimization. Suddenly, we’re in a world where advertisers don’t have the information they need to launch and maintain accurate campaigns. Jump back a few months and this scenario was the furthest from the mind; advertisers have always had too much data if anything.

Without help from an external source, all financial services are in the same position. They don’t have enough data to keep campaigns on the right path, and this means ineffective campaigns, ads reaching the wrong people, higher CPAs, and lower ROAS and ROI.

Why the Change?

For most people, the next question is why Apple released such an update, but the motivations of the company are unclear. If you don’t want a skeptical attitude, you’ll say that Apple wants to protect the privacy of its users, and this is certainly the line it’s taking with a recent TV commercial campaign. Consumers have more control, and they can stop tracking for all and any apps.

On the other hand, those who are skeptical and looking for the truth may say that Apple dislikes the current Facebook advertising model. Apps with advertising space sell this space to advertisers on Facebook, and all this income bypasses Apple completely. With all social media advertising platforms, Apple doesn’t see a cent of the income even though it’s the infrastructure for the apps.

Therefore, some say that Apple wants to make Facebook advertising less attractive for advertisers. By doing so, apps with advertising space aren’t generating income to quite the same extent as before. Consequently, these apps are forced to make their income through subscriptions or in-app purchases instead. Guess what? Apple receives a percentage of this income, something that it didn’t achieve with advertising revenue.

Using AI to Get Valuable Insights

Although we went off on a tangent, this tangent is important to understanding the motivations of different parties in the industry. Consumers appreciate this new feature so much that Android users are now rallying for something similar. With this seemingly the new normal, you must learn to overcome the new challenges rather than waiting for a reversal (you’ll have to wait some time!).

Consumers want as much control over their data as possible, so you need to find other ways to generate valuable insights as a financial service. One of the best ways to achieve this is through AI, and Trapica is a leader in this market.

After this Apple update, you have two options:

Start scrambling around trying to manually gather as much data as possible. You’ll put more and more professionals on this task just to emulate the amount of data you had previously. While some will hire more marketing professionals, others will outsource or put their existing team under too much pressure. Either way, you’ll have an inefficient system whereby you’re barely scraping enough data together to formulate a half-strong campaign.

Leverage artificial intelligence and generate insights automatically. You don’t need to hire new marketing professionals and your team has more time to deal with the bigger picture. AI generates the insights, and your professionals focus on implementing these insights and strengthening campaigns hit by Apple iOS 14.

Trapica FB Ad Insights Tool

Why choose Trapica? One of the biggest reasons is that it launched an ad insights tool within a few days of the iOS 14 update shaking the marketing world to its core. While most of the industry was reeling, the incredible team at Trapica was already developing a tool to overcome the problem.

Using artificial intelligence, the insights tool ensures that you don’t lose access to gender, location, age, and other conversion data. You’ll gather geographic, demographic, device, and placement data to inform campaigns and keep them performing. Even after this mammoth change in the industry, you’ll have all data you’ll need.

Automatic Optimization

Not only does Trapica use artificial intelligence, but it also has advanced machine learning algorithms to automatically apply insights and optimize ad campaigns. Don’t adjust your screens — this means no more manual campaign adjustments. Instead, the technology generates insights and then applies the learnings to better your campaigns.

As an example, it can spot a better targeting opportunity. If you allow the tool control of your campaigns, it will continually shift and learn. As well as targeting, Trapica also automatically optimizes bidding, budgeting, and A/B testing. As a financial service, we probably don’t need to tell you how this boosts efficiency.

With optimized bidding, for example, you’re always spending the right amount on placements. You aren’t overspending, but you also aren’t struggling to compete with other financial services — unfortunately, this is a by-product of manual campaign adjustments. Using machine learning and AI, you remove the inefficiencies and constantly boost performance.

On the other hand, optimized budgeting is all about moving money around and ensuring that it’s always in the right place. After setting aside funds for advertising, one of the worst things you can do is distribute this money equally. While this is a good idea at first, it soon generates wasted opportunities as certain campaigns perform better than others. Trapica is designed to automatically adjust budgets based on performance. If one campaign is performing strongly, it will receive more of the budget (and vice versa!).

Finally, Trapica also optimizes the A/B testing process between different creatives. If you have two creatives and don’t know which to choose, Trapica pits them against one another, measures performance, and then generates insights from here.

Financial Services and Advertising AI

As a financial service in 2021, you cannot afford to waste money. Sadly, many businesses now accept wastage when it comes to online advertising. We’re here to tell you that you don’t need to accept it, it doesn’t have to be a part of Facebook advertising. Instead, work with Trapica as an AI solution and get the most from every single dollar in your budget.

Especially after iOS 14, you need a proactive approach and there’s no better way than with an AI tool like Trapica!