BlueSky Thinking Summary

Apple's 2021 data privacy update allowed users to opt out of data sharing, but it had far-reaching ramifications on digital advertising—especially the little guy.

Kellogg professor Anna Tuchman and her team of researchers from Meta and the University of Chicago got to investigate how this change hit advertisers.

To put something concrete into the equation, according to a large study involving over 70,000 advertisers on Facebook and Instagram, customer acquisition cost rose up to 35% when offsite data was not available.

It ended up that the ones who really got pains were small businesses using precise targeting.

The research underlines the tightrope walk between consumer privacy and the economic dynamics of digital marketing.

These findings call for businesses and policymakers to be very careful while designing solutions as privacy regulations unfold, so that these are both fair and effective.

Will your business be prepared for the coming waves of data privacy disruption?