This fall, Safari on the Mac will stop most video that plays sound by itself, and Safari everywhere will limit cross-site tracking cookies. Make home page video work silently, and expect ad reports to shift.

What Apple announced on Monday

At its developer conference on Monday, Apple announced the next versions of its software for the fall: iOS 11 for iPhones and iPads, and macOS High Sierra for Macs, both with a new Safari.

Two changes in Safari matter to businesses. On the Mac, it will stop most video that starts playing with sound by itself, and everywhere it will limit cookies that follow people from site to site.

Apple calls the second change Intelligent Tracking Prevention. Neither is out yet, and details may shift before the fall, but both are worth understanding now.

Video that waits for a click

Many home pages open with a video: a tour of the premises, the owner talking, a product demonstration, set to start as soon as the page loads.

From the fall, Safari on the Mac will hold back any of those that play with sound until the visitor chooses to play them. Silent video, such as a background loop, is not the target.

On iPhones and iPads this is nothing new, since video with sound has never started there without a tap. The Mac is catching up with the phone.

A page built around a video that greets visitors out loud will show Mac visitors using Safari a still frame instead. If the page relies on that video to explain the business, the explanation stops.

What the tracking change touches

Cookies your own site sets for itself are not the target. The change is aimed at companies whose cookies appear on many sites and connect a person's visits between them.

The second is the one likely to show up in reports. An ad platform that can no longer recognise a Safari visitor who clicked an ad last week may not credit that ad with the enquiry, even though it happened.

Why ad platforms may count less

Much advertising measurement relies on a cookie the ad company can read on many different sites: once when the ad is clicked, and again when the visitor later books or buys.

If Safari restricts that cookie, the second sighting may not connect to the first. The sale still happens. The platform's report simply shows fewer of them from Safari users.

How large the gap will be depends on details that may change before release, and on how many of your customers use Safari.

For businesses that judge campaigns by the conversions an ad platform reports, the fall may bring an apparent dip that is partly a change in counting.

How many of your visitors use Safari

Analytics answers that for your own site: the Browser and OS report shows visits by browser and operating system, including iPhones, iPads and Macs.

Many local businesses will find Safari a large share of their phone visits. Others, selling mostly to offices full of Windows computers, will find it small.

That share is a rough measure of how much of your advertising measurement this change could touch.

A worked example

An HR consultancy with four consultants, advising small employers on hiring, policies and workplace investigations, has a video on its home page and a modest AdWords campaign for its training workshops.

The video, a two-minute introduction by the founder, starts with sound as soon as the page loads. Remarketing ads follow people who read the workshop pages, and the campaign is judged on the registrations AdWords reports.

This week the consultancy looked at its own figures. Analytics showed a large share of visits from iPhones and Macs, since many of its clients' managers use them.

The video now starts only when clicked, with a short written summary beside it, so the page explains the business without it. Captions were added for anyone watching with the sound off.

The consultancy now also counts workshop registrations in its own booking records each month, so a counting change in the fall will show as a gap between two numbers, not a mystery.

Video that works without sound

The safest home page video is one that needs neither sound nor autoplay. Show a still image with a play button, and let visitors choose.

If movement matters, a short silent loop can still play by itself. Put any spoken message in text beside it, or in captions.

Never let the page depend on the video to say what the business does. A sentence above it should do that on its own.

Measurement worth keeping yourself

The more a business relies on one platform's conversion report, the more a change like this matters. Counting results in your own records is the protection.

Calls, bookings, quote requests and sales all have a count somewhere in the business: the booking system, the phone log, the accounts. Compare them monthly with what the ad platforms claim.

Campaign tags on ad links help too, since Analytics records where a visit came from on your own domain, which this change does not target.

None of this has to be finished before the fall. It needs a baseline, and a baseline only exists if someone starts keeping it.

What not to do

Do not rebuild a site around this announcement. The software is months away, and most of what it affects is measurement, not the site itself.

Do not cancel campaigns in the fall because reported conversions drop. Check them against your own records first.

And do not look for tricks to keep following people. The direction is towards less cross-site tracking, not more.

The counter-case

For a good many small businesses the effect will be slight. A site with no video and no advertising, measured through ordinary Analytics, will barely notice.

A business whose customers are mostly on Windows computers and Android phones will notice it only at the margins.

But any business running remarketing, judging ads by platform-reported conversions, or opening its home page with a video that talks should prepare now: silent video, and its own count of results.

Before the fall

  1. Check the share of visits from Safari.
  2. Stop home page video starting with sound.
  3. Add captions and a written summary.
  4. Count results in your own records monthly.
  5. Compare them with what ad platforms report.
  6. Tag ad links so Analytics sees the source.
  7. Annotate the release date when it arrives.

Step four is the one that will matter in the fall, because a count kept in your own records does not change when a browser does.

Making sure that count starts clean is covered in two analytics codes on one page.

Frequently asked questions

What has Apple announced for Safari?

That the next Safari, due this fall, will stop most video that plays sound by itself on the Mac and limit cookies used to track people across sites.

Will my home page video stop working?

In Safari on the Mac, video set to play with sound will wait for a click. Silent video can still play by itself, and iPhones already behave this way.

Does this affect Google Analytics on my site?

Analytics on your own domain should be affected least, since the change targets cookies that follow people across many sites. Advertising measurement is where differences will show.

Why might ad conversions look lower?

Ad platforms often link a click to a later sale through a cookie read on many sites. If Safari restricts it, sales still happen but some go uncredited.

Should I change campaigns now?

No. Nothing is released yet and details may change. Start counting results in your own records now, so the fall's reports can be checked against something.

How do I know if this matters for me?

Check the Browser and OS report in Analytics. The share of visits from Safari on iPhones, iPads and Macs shows roughly how much the change could touch.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Home page video that starts talking?

Point us to your home page. We will see how its video behaves in Safari and how your ad results are counted.

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