The Shift Toward Privacy Is Disrupting Traditional Ad Measurement

Apple’s privacy updates (like ITP and ATT), along with regulations like GDPR and CCPA, have significantly reduced the effectiveness of ad targeting and measurement. Combined with Google's upcoming cookie deprecation, these changes are increasing CPAs (cost per acquisition) and limiting advertisers’ ability to track consumer behavior using attribution models.

Experimentation and Modeling Are the Future of Measurement

In response to the loss of deterministic tracking, marketers are advised to shift toward incrementality testing, media mix modeling (MMM), and creative/landing page experimentation. These methods help measure campaign performance without relying on user-level attribution, enabling more privacy-resilient strategies.

Platform Shops Are Key to Maintaining Signal Acquisition

While tools like Meta’s Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns (ASC) may not enhance the user experience directly, they are effective for ensuring signal capture at the point of transaction. This helps platforms optimize ad delivery by identifying high-performing consumer profiles, making them essential components of a privacy-conscious media mix.

iOS 17 Introduces Additional Tracking Constraints

New features like Privacy Manifests and Link Tracking Protection in iOS 17 further restrict marketers. Privacy manifests will enforce transparency about fingerprinting, and link tracking protection may strip tracking parameters (like UTM codes), particularly in Safari’s private mode. These changes may affect email and SMS campaign measurement, prompting a move toward campaign-specific checkout links and other privacy-compliant tracking alternatives.