Today's messaging from Facebook was shared with high level details, but if you dig deeper, there's a lot to be concerned about. There's also some potential reasons to NOT be concerned.

The biggest impacts for most DR advertisers are:

- Delayed reporting (up to 3 days) & based on time conversion occurs (vs when impression occurs)
- No support for age/gender/platform breakdowns
- Attribution is 7-day click vs 28-day click, 1-day view
- Smaller retargeting pools

You can read the full details here.
https://www.facebook.com/business/help/331612538028890?id=428636648170202

This lack of data isn't just scary from a reporting perspective though. If there's less data to optimize against, it might impact overall optimization on the platform.

Even if you prepare with additional steps like the Conversions API, if most other advertisers aren't pulling in this data, signals might be hindered across the board.

This is why Facebook is making such a play into commerce with Shops and IG Checkout. If they own the transaction and keep it in app, they can retain enough data to power ads moving forward. (Amazon's ads ecosystem isn't impacted by iOS 14 because everything happens in app)

The big question comes down to how much of a revenue impact this will have for Facebook. Tail and Torso direct response advertisers are the lifeblood of their ecosystem. If they can't advertise as effectively, the dollars will dry up.

But if those dollars can be replaced with other advertisers' money, this isn't a Facebook issue. It's an SMB issue.

My guess is yes, this is a Facebook issue.

While DR $$$ could theoretically be replaced with brand dollars, advertisers who are investing in brand usually have larger dedicated marketing budgets. Based on what we saw with StopHateForProfit, bigger advertisers leaving Facebook had little impact on Facebook's earnings.

Instead DR advertisers spent MORE on ads during this time, replacing the brand dollars. This is because FB is integral to their growth.

Will Coca-Cola spend more now on Facebook because prices may be cheaper? Is the PR ramifications worth it? Probably not.

The other consideration here is the macro-impact this has on other platforms like Snap, TikTok, Pinterest and even publishers like Buzzfeed. If this is hurting Facebook, how much will it hurt these others who don't have the same footprint Facebook does?

While we might look at this and say this will have a big impact on my small business, the ramifications for Facebook and the other publishers is far larger.

Like with CCPA and GDPR, it's in their best interests to figure out a solution and use all their resources to come up with a fix.

If they don't, their business's might be in more jeopardy than ours are.