If you are a small business owner who runs Facebook ads or Instagram ads, and you are doing this through your iPhone, you need to listen to this episode.
Small business owners who run Meta (Facebook and Instagram) ads through their iPhone are going to start getting a surcharge or a service fee of 30% tacked on to your investment. So if you’re spending, let’s say a hundred dollars, they’re going to add a 30% service fee onto that hundred dollar ad spend - and you’re going to have to pay it. We don’t think enough people know about this, so we wanted to come on here and educate everyone about it.
Does this affect all Apple products? Are they going to charge me on a Mac?
No. In order to answer this, let’s back up a little bit. The 30% service fee that’s going to be added on is being added on by Apple. It is not being added on by Meta. So Facebook and Instagram have nothing to do with this. This is strictly something that Apple is doing, which is why it only affects Apple users.
If you are an Apple user, it is only going to affect you if you are going to run ads through an app. So if I’m ready to run an ad and I open up my iPhone, I open the Facebook app - that’s when it will charge me the 30% service fee. If you’re on an iPad and you go to the Facebook app - you will be charged. Anything that’s using the Apple App Store is going to be where that charge is being incurred. So if you’re using your Mac and going to the website, www.Facebook.com, and running your ad through there, it’s not going to charge you.
Why did Apple decide to start this surcharge? Honestly - because they can. There is no rhyme or reason to it really.
The thing we know for sure is that Meta is perturbed by this whole fee situation, because obviously it will affect their ad spend. People may decide to not spend as much. If my budget’s $100, then I now have to account for 30% of that going to this fee. So that is less to spend on the actual ad.
Meta is doing a really good job of putting all the news and information out there to tell people that there is a way to circumvent this service fee.
The way to avoid this 30% service fee is to actually just go to a desktop or a laptop and go through Facebook.com or Instagram.com or use Meta Business Suite.
Are there other apps affected? No. This is only with Meta, so they’re not going to add a service fee for TikTok ads or Pinterest, etc.
It is important to note that Apple is considering boosting posts as an ad. So if you are scrolling through Facebook and decide to boost a post, you will see a service fee attached to that.
Is Apple going to keep this service fee or will they likely get rid of it?
We do not know if this is something that’s going to happen indefinitely. Legislation is probably going to step in. Apple is already catching heat from some senators. On top of that, the EU has actually filed something or is investigating whether or not this is something that legally they can do.
Do you think other businesses will follow suit like Google Play? Will they try to add on a service fee?
Honestly, I doubt it. Apple is the only company that would think this is a good idea. There is no speculation or any confirmation that there’s any other businesses looking into doing this as well.
This surcharge started at the end of July 2024 - so it is already happening.
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