What eCommerce Brands Need to Know About iOS 17

Apple is no stranger to rolling out changes that disrupt the marketing world. We saw how iOS 14.5 rolled out significant changes to data tracking, which made it harder to understand the results of ad campaigns.

Now, iOS 17 will include another new feature called Link Tracking Protection that strips most UTMs from links on most major platforms. This new feature will impact how marketers track and analyze iOS 17 traffic, but it’s not the end of the world. Keep reading to learn more about iOS 17 and how you can adjust.

What is Link Tracking Protection in iOS 17?

In early June 2023, Apple announced some of the upcoming privacy and security features in the upcoming iOS 17. Not all of these features are relevant to eCommerce brands and digital marketers, but one specific feature has caused a stir in the marketing world: Link Tracking Protection.

Apple’s announcement spells out how the new feature will work:

“Link Tracking Protection in Messages, Mail, and Safari Private Browsing:

Some websites add extra information to their URLs in order to track users across other websites. Now this information will be removed from the links users share in Messages and Mail, and the links will still work as expected. This information will also be removed from links in Safari Private Browsing.”

You can see why advertisers are worried about still handling iOS tracking to calculate return on ad spend and other paid ad metrics. But don’t worry, and there are still ways you’ll be able to track and understand which users are reaching your campaigns.

iOS 17 is expected to be deployed around mid-September 2023. Advertisers and eCommerce brands have some time to adjust their data tracking methods and prepare for this change. The announcement also details other changes that may be relevant to some companies, but stripping the UTM parameters is the main change that has marketers and advertisers concerned.

Ultimately, even though this change isn’t related to cookies directly, it’s another step towards a more private and cookie-less Internet. Advertisers in all industries will benefit from exploring new tracking apps and approaches — similar privacy features from other platforms are undoubtedly on the horizon.

How Does iOS 17 Affect eCommerce Brands?

Tracking links are extremely common for paid ads to help better understand users who visit your site from specific campaigns.  The new iOS 17 update strips UTM parameters from links, and that can have a significant impact on eCommerce brands and nearly every other industry.

Let’s drill down into what this update actually means for your marketing efforts before diving into what you can do to accommodate this update.

Wait, What Are UTMs?

Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) parameters are a unique way to track any users that clicks on a specific link. UTMs were created by Google and have since become a core aspect of user tracking and attribution. 

A UTM is a specific parameter added to any URL that passes data to your analytics program, like Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Within GA4, you can then see how many visitors reached your site with a specific UTM in the parameter.

For example, you might have a UTM called tiktok_campaign_3. Every user that clicks on your TikTok Ad then passes that variable to GA4, indicating where the user came from when reviewing overall traffic within GA4.

So, the new Apple tracking protection update means if an iOS user clicks on your TikTok Ad, your UTM will be stripped from the link, and the visitor won’t be attributed to the campaign.

This means that eCommerce brands won’t be able to properly evaluate the results of a specific campaign with UTMs. Building a scalable eCommerce site depends on optimizing paid ad budgets and maximizing return on ad spend, but if conversions aren’t being attributed to campaigns, your data will be skewed.

It’s crucial for brands to start changing how they track users and evaluate campaigns to adjust to this update. Making these adjustments now will also prepare you for other similar changes that are certainly on the horizon from other apps and platforms, too.

Is Everything Affecting?

Be aware that not every app and browser on iOS 17 will have Link Tracking Protection. To reiterate the announcement we shared above, only links on the following apps will have the UTMs stripped:

• Messages
• Mail
• Safari Private Browsing

So that means Google Search campaigns on standard Safari sessions and other browsers won’t be affected, on top of traffic from native mobile apps.

Additionally, not every type of UTM is impacted by this change. Typical UTMs, such as source and medium, are unaffected and will be appropriately passed to GA4. However, this change affects Google Analytics' ability to track UTM traffic from the following sources:

• Google Ads
• Facebook Ads
• Facebook’s Conversion API

Why are these platforms affected? They depend on passing custom UTMs (not typical UTMS) to Analytics: fbclid and gclid. These UTMs tell GA4 precisely which campaign a user came from, and from there, you can better understand how any new customers found your site.

Most eCommerce stores probably don’t have much traffic from private browsing or messages, but mail might be an issue. Whatever your situation, let's dive into how you can modify your marketing efforts to ensure you’re able to accurately analyze traffic in a post-iOS 17 world.

How to Adjust to iOS 17 Tracking

Now that you have a better idea of how iOS 17 app tracking protection will affect your campaigns, what can you do about it? Let’s go over how you can implement specific changes to still properly track campaigns and resulting traffic.

Create Segmented Campaigns

Most paid ad platforms provide tools for precise audience segmentation. So an easy way to adjust to the link tracking change is to run campaigns for iOS 17 devices and non-iOS 17 devices. 

You’ll then know that the results from your iOS 17 campaigns are exclusively from those devices, even if it isn’t displayed within GA4. You can implement precise segmentation on the below platforms: 

• Facebook Ads: You can target specific devices and even operating systems within the Facebook Ads Manager. After iOS 17 is live, you’ll be able to create campaigns that exclude iOS 17 and segment those users for other campaigns.
• Google Video and Display Ads: Google doesn’t get as granular as operating systems, but you can still target Apple devices with these campaign types.
• SMS campaigns: Your SMS campaigns can be affected by this update, but as long as your provider allows you to segment by device, you can also run separate campaigns for iOS 17 users.
• Other social platforms: Any other social network that allows you to segment by device will also enable you to run specific campaigns for iOS 17 users.

Unfortunately, Google Search campaigns cannot target specific users. You’ll need to use other methods to properly track users from private Safari sessions who find you through Search campaigns.

Redirect Links or Dedicated URLs

Instead of relying on links with UTMs, you can replace them by creating your own links and redirecting them to the correct landing page. Similarly, you can create entirely new landing pages and URLs for iOS 17 users, which may or may not be necessary depending on your business.

Whichever option you choose, you can send only segmented iOS 17 traffic to these specific links. Redirects or dedicated URLs should be created specifically for your segmented campaigns and nowhere else. 

This method isn’t perfect, but it can closely replicate the same functionality as UTM parameters added onto links. You can use subdomains to implement this, which can be created easily within your domain name registrar or hosting provider’s control panel.

Modify Segments for Email Marketing Campaigns

Your email campaigns might be the most affected by iOS 17 since all links within the Mail app will be stripped of UTM parameters. How does this affect your email campaigns? iOS users who visitor your 

You’ll need to modify customer segments within your subscriber list based on historical data. Then, you can duplicate the same campaigns you send to non-iOS users and send them to your new segment. The above methods can then be used for links within the campaign (redirects or dedicated URLs) to attribute iOS 17 users who click on links within your email campaign.

What about new subscribers? You can direct iOS to a separate opt-in form if you’re running a lead generation campaign on a platform that lets you segment by device. This might not be perfect, but it’s still a way to manage iOS users.

Focus on the Big Picture

Attributing traffic is absolutely important, and you need to be able to understand which campaigns are performing well and which need refinement. Misattribution reflects in how you analyze the results of campaigns, and the above methods can help account for iOS 17.

However, it’s also crucial to highlight that the ultimate focus is to convert visitors into customers. Focusing on your ROAS at a higher level, striving to improve conversion rates, and pushing to increase average order value is more impactful than spending too much effort on iOS 17 users.

Remember, iOS 17’s new link tracking feature only applies to messages, mail, and private sessions for Safari. Any traffic from native apps and typical Safari sessions won’t be impacted at all. As such, you may miss out on attributing some users, but it likely won’t be as many as you might expect.

So, focus on the big picture of attracting new visitors, providing a great customer experience, selling quality products, and increasing overall revenue. Attributing conversions properly to understand your campaigns is essential, but the ultimate goal is attracting and retaining customers.

Leverage Varos for Real-Time Peer Benchmarking

It’s understandable that marketers and eCommerce brands are concerned about iOS 17. However, now you can see that the update won’t affect most of your marketing efforts, and you can make strategic changes to accommodate Link Tracking Protection.

Varos is a unique platform designed to help marketers maximize their ad spend by providing real-time competitor benchmarks. Even though iOS 17 may affect your tracking, you can still compare results to your peers to maximize the results of every campaign.

Below, you can see how Varos shows your results right next to your competitors — who will also be affected by iOS 17. You can stay on top of their results to make sure you’re always maximizing every dollar spent on a paid ad campaign.

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Are you ready to unlock real-time benchmarking to stay ahead of the competition? Sign up today or schedule a demo to get started.

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About the Author

Sarah Clowes-Walker 

Head of Marketing at Varos

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