Facebook Advertisers Unexpectedly See Recovery After Apple Mess

Beginning last May, Samuel Gherman, creator of a drawing app called Da Vinci Eye, cut his spending on Facebook ads targeting iPhone users by about 90% to less than $100 per day. The move cratered his revenue, but he had no choice: Apple implemented privacy changes that made it harder for Facebook advertisers to target ads to certain iPhone users and measure the outcome of ad campaigns. The cost of attracting a single new Da Vinci Eye customer using Facebook ads shot up beyond what Gherman was willing to pay, he said.

But in recent weeks, the cost of acquiring a new customer unexpectedly began to fall and the performance of his ads got better, he said. He has since ramped up spending on Facebook ads back to about $1,000 per day for the drawing app and another app he started last year to help artists create murals on buildings.

Ad costs are still “extremely volatile but it’s definitely better,” he said. He doesn’t know why things improved, but his goal now is to “spend as much money as possible as long as it’s profitable.”