Escaping Meta’s Apple Tax with Boosterberg

In a recent move by Meta, advertisers promoting their content by boosting it face a new challenge: Apple’s 30 percent service charge on transactions made through iOS apps. This change, set to be implemented starting February 2024, has significant implications for advertisers, particularly small business owners and influencers.

Understanding the Apple Service Charge

Apple’s decision to extend its 30 percent cut of digital purchases to boosted posts, categorized as ads, stems from a 2022 App Store update. This move directly affected Meta and other social apps that enable users to pay within the app to boost their content’s reach. Under this change, advertisers who boost posts through Meta’s iOS apps will now be billed through Apple, with Apple retaining a 30 percent service charge on the total ad payment before any applicable taxes.

For small businesses accustomed to boosting posts through Facebook and Instagram iOS apps, the introduction of Apple’s service charge presents financial and operational challenges. Advertisers will now need to preload funds and pay for them before their boosted posts are published. There are two ways to do so.

The Apple service charge will apply if an advertiser adds the prepaid funds through the iOS app. But if they add prepaid funds using the tool’s desktop or mobile browser versions, “they can then use these funds to boost content from any tool, including from the Instagram or Facebook iOS apps, without incurring fees,” Meta informs. 

This new payment process is set to roll out in the US initially, with plans to expand to additional markets and countries later in the year.

How to Avoid the Apple Service Charge

There are a couple of alternatives advertisers can choose from to avoid Apple’s service charges on boosted posts:

1. Boost content straight from the Facebook.com website, whether on mobile or desktop.
2. Boost content through the Meta Business suite, the app, or the desktop. 
3. Add funds to your ad account from payments settings in the desktop or mobile web browser.
4. Create your boosted post ads in the Meta Ads Manager via the app or on your desktop.
5. Use Boosterberg to set up and automate your boosted posts campaigns and avoid issues arising from the Meta/Apple situation.

Boosterberg to the Rescue

Boosterberg provides advertisers with a browser-based alternative to iOS apps, enabling them to manage and optimize boosted posts without incurring Apple’s service charges. By using Boosterberg, advertisers can circumvent the need to preload funds and pay additional fees, preserving their advertising budgets and maximizing the effectiveness of their campaigns.

With Boosterberg, advertisers can:

• Optimize their advertising budgets by automating boosted post campaigns and achieve better results without overspending.
• Save time by streamlining the management of boosted posts.
• Use advanced targeting options and reach their target audience more effectively.
• Optimize their campaigns by using Boosterberg’s advanced boosting conditions for starting and stopping campaigns. This feature enables small business owners to set specific criteria for when their boosted posts should be active based on factors such as audience engagement, budget limits, or performance metrics. By customizing these conditions, businesses can ensure that their campaigns run efficiently and effectively, maximizing their advertising ROI.

Users can access Boosterberg via desktop or mobile browsers, allowing them to easily create, manage, and monitor boosted posts, all while avoiding Apple’s service charges and optimizing their advertising ROI.

Interested in learning more about Boosterberg and how it can help you improve your business?