The iOS 14 ATT prompt was the initial disruption. iOS 18 and the evolving privacy landscape have continued to erode signal. Meta’s advertising platform is measurably different than it was in 2021 — but it’s also adapted, and for advertisers who’ve updated their approach, performance has largely recovered. Here’s what the current state actually looks like.
What Changed in Targeting
Detailed interest targeting has become less precise. Custom audiences based on website pixel data are smaller and less accurate (typically 40–60% match rates where 80%+ was previously achievable). Lookalike audiences built on pixel data are similarly degraded.
What’s less affected: Custom audiences built on CRM data (email and phone-based matching against logged-in Meta users), engagement audiences (people who’ve interacted with your content on-platform), and broad targeting where the algorithm does the work of finding buyers based on conversion signals.
The Shift to Broad Targeting
The counterintuitive finding from the post-iOS era is that broad targeting — targeting only by age, gender, and location, with no interest or behavioural layers — often performs as well or better than highly-specific targeting for many advertisers. This is because Meta’s algorithm, trained on billions of conversion signals, is often better at identifying your buyers than a human-defined interest stack. The catch: it requires high creative diversity and sufficient conversion volume for the algorithm to learn.
Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns
For e-commerce, Meta’s Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns (ASC) have become one of the most effective campaign types available. They combine broad targeting with algorithm-driven optimisation across your entire catalogue. Many advertisers have found ASC consistently outperforms manually structured shopping campaigns. Worth testing if you’re not already running it.
Creative Is Now the Primary Lever
With less targeting differentiation available, creative quality and diversity are the primary performance differentiators. What’s working: user-generated content and lo-fi video that blends with organic feed content, direct response copy that leads with a specific outcome or problem, and fast creative iteration (testing 8–12 variations rather than 2–3).
Measurement in the Post-ATT World
Meta’s Conversions API (CAPI) is now essential infrastructure, not optional. CAPI sends conversion data server-side, bypassing browser-level privacy restrictions and improving the match between your actual conversions and what Meta can attribute. If you’re not running CAPI, you’re likely underreporting conversions and underfeeding the algorithm.
Expect Meta’s reported conversions to be lower than reality for iOS users. Use 7-day click, 1-day view attribution as your primary window and triangulate with GA4 or your CRM. The discrepancy is normal — it doesn’t mean the platform isn’t working.
