Apple’s iOS 14.5 update and its introduction of the app tracking Transparency Framework have swept the digital marketing space. Through an opt-in system for various digital advertising capabilities ranging from tracking, personalization and targeting, the change reduced customer data collection capabilities from 70 percent to only 10 to 15 percent.
As expected, such drastic changes caused equal measures of upheaval and uproar in the industry. In a market that has until then relied on such data to optimize results and maximize returns on their strategies, many of the most prominent players voiced their displeasure on what they viewed as a disastrous move. Meta, for example, even took itself to a full-page Wall Street Journal spread to condemn Apple’s move, with vague claims of the move’s possible harms to small businesses.
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Like with many industry shifts, the update presented a chance for smaller, more forward-looking companies to rise to the occasion. Among the first to take advantage of this chance are serial entrepreneur, marketer, and Chappell Digital founder Chase Chappell.
Through Chase Chappell’s attribution and tracking software Sirge.io, Chappell reaped massive rewards for finding a solution to a problem expected by very few in the industry but experienced by almost everyone. Today, Chappell’s company continues to struggle with unprecedented demand for Sirge as one of the few remaining solutions for getting ahead in digital marketing.
A big part of Chappell’s success with Sirge is his lengthy background in the digital marketing sphere, specializing in social media marketing – one of the niches most affected by the iOS update.
“I started in this space more than seven years ago managing social media for a watch brand,” said Chappell. “I was able to launch my career from my success and eventually founded Chappell Digital – a full-service media buying firm with an in-house marketing division, consulting arm and accounting team, as well as launch my very own Facebook and TikTok Ads Expert Mastery Classprogram. I think it was from this experience in moving in that space, having worked with companies like 7-Eleven and Power Crunch, and knowing what to expect in terms of problems and shortcomings that allowed me to turn Sirge into such a sought-after solution by the industry.”
Initially, Chappell explained, the iOS 14.5 update generally caused a panicked run-off for many companies engaging in digital marketing due to the seemingly lower returns on investment for such activities. However, analysis through Sirge combined with Chapell’s intuition revealed that there was not much difference in the post-14.5 market. Instead, the update cast a cloud on user data that previously allowed companies to effectively assess the impact of their marketing efforts – a cloud that Sirge effectively diffuses.
“It was a false reaction because the results didn’t change much for people,” said Chappell. “It’s just that the reporting aspect wasn’t fully there. It made it hard for advertisers, marketers and agencies to get and maintain good results or to get them to be willing to scale because the disappointing numbers they thought they had were often inaccurate.”
This lack of useful, readable data is where Sirge aims to fill the gap.
Through unique algorithms and intuitive UIs, Sirge allows users to see actual data on their digital marketing ROI, see their actual market, and validate the information with just a few clicks. Since the companies of interest are the direct users of Sirge instead of the process going through social media companies, the data collected are also first-party data that are both used and collected legally and ethically.
These features, combined with Sirge’s status as one of the first to fill the need for such a high-demand product, allowed the company to grow explosively into six figures almost overnight.
Today, Chappell’s team is working nonstop to upgrade Sirge to keep up with the massive traffic from its similarly-massive demand and user base.
“We’re building out 2.0 right now, which we hope to launch at the beginning of next year at the latest,” said Chappell. “Essentially, this version will allow us to onboard way more people, and we would be able to handle up to 15,000 users. We will ensure that we have all the necessary systems to ensure that the onboarding process is streamlined. Most notably, we’ll be upgrading by integrating multiple platforms to grow from our current involving Facebook and TikTok to one that includes Google ad accounts further down the line.”