Meta ads conversion results are central to the job of an advertiser. They are our guiding light for helping us understand whether something is or isn’t working.

But conversion results can be misleading, if not outright lie. That could be because an advertiser is knowingly manipulating the data. It could also be that they aren’t knowledgable enough to understand the nuances.

The purpose of this guide is to help you master those important nuances so that you can evaluate your results accurately.

Let’s get to it…

Conversion Events

Conversion data is pointless if you don’t have the infrastructure in place that allows Meta to attribute conversions. This starts with defining conversion events.

When someone completes a purchase, you need to notify Meta that it happened. This can be done using the website pixel or conversions API (or both). Regardless, it’s up to you to define these actions and make sure that they are sent to Meta.

There are two primary ways that you can define conversion events.

1. Standard Events: Conversions that Meta will recognize (Purchase, Lead, Contact, etc.)
2. Custom Events: Conversions that fall outside of the definition of Standard Events

You can use standard events, custom events, and custom conversions for both optimization and reporting in Ads Manager. These need to be set up properly to get accurate results.

Defining Attribution

Attribution is how Meta gives credit to an ad for a reported conversion. In order to report a conversion, it must happen within the defined attribution windows after a paid impression.

Two ads cannot get credit for the same conversion. If a user was served different ads within the defined attribution window, credit goes to the ad that received the most recent click.

Click Attribution

Click attribution gives credit for a conversion if it happens within the defined attribution window following a click on your ad. For example:

1. January 1 (2pm): User clicks on Ad A
2. January 1 (4pm): User completes a purchase

In this example, Ad A is given credit for a conversion because it happened within a day of clicking on it. The attribution window is 7 days by default, but you might also see 1 day or 28 days (for reporting only).

The conversion does not need to happen immediately, as long as it happens within the attribution window. It could happen like this (assuming a 7-day click attribution setting):

1. January 1: User clicks your ad
2. January 5: User returns to your website and completes a purchase

It does not need to be the same link that they clicked on your original ad. All that matters is that they initially clicked and converted within the attribution window.

Note that the “click” on your ad can be any click. It does not need to be a click on an external link to your website. It could be a click on media, reactions, or something else. (SIDE NOTE: I’m not a fan of Meta defining it this way.)

Also, the reported conversion does not need to be for the item that you were promoting. Consider the following scenario:

1. User clicks ad that promotes Product A
2. User redirected to Product A landing page
3. User navigates to Product B landing page and completes a purchase
4. Purchase is reported

If the Results column reflects Purchases, it will include all attributed purchase events — which could be for multiple products, regardless of what was promoted.

View Attribution

View attribution gives credit for a conversion if it happens within the defined attribution window following a view of your ad (but no click). For example:

1. January 1 (2pm): User is shown Ad A, but does not click it
2. January 1 (4pm): User completes a purchase

In this case, a conversion is reported even though an ad was not clicked. Here is a common scenario for how a view-through conversion happens:

1. January 1 (2pm): User shown your ad
2. January 1 (4pm): User remembers the ad, Googles your product, and completes a purchase

While no click was made, it is assumed that the ad contributed to that purchasing decision.

Another common scenario can lead to inflated results:

1. January 1 (2pm): User is shown Ad A from Company A, but does not click it
2. January 1 (4pm): User receives an email from Company A and completes a purchase

While it’s possible that the user saw the ad and it contributed to the decision to make the purchase, it’s also possible that the impression made no impact on them at all. It’s impossible to know for sure.

View-through conversions have less value overall because no click was made to indicate that the ad itself inspired an action. But that doesn’t make them worthless.

Where view-through becomes especially problematic is when advertisers use remarketing strategies and highlight their elevated ROAS and inflated conversion results as evidence of their success. This can be misleading if it’s not made clear that the results came from remarketing.

Attribution Setting

The attribution setting is defined within the ad set when utilizing a Website conversion location and maximizing the number or value of conversions.

The default attribution setting is 7-day click, 1-day view, and 1-day engaged-view.

Engaged-view merely means that, when using video in your ads, Meta will focus on people who watch at least 10 seconds of it before converting — regardless of whether the conversion is attributed from a click or view.

You can change any of these settings…

Here are your options:

• Click Attribution: 7-day or 1-day
• Engaged-View: 1-day or None
• View-Through: 1-day or None

This setting will control two things:

1. How conversions are reported. Conversions will only be reported by default that qualify under your attribution setting. If you define the attribution setting as 1-day click, Meta will not report on conversions that happen beyond one day or via view-through (these other conversions can still be uncovered using the Compare Attribution Settings feature).

2. How ad delivery is optimized. Since Meta prioritizes getting you the results that you want, the attribution setting can impact how your ads are delivered. If you define the attribution setting as 1-day click only, your ads will be shown to people most likely to convert within that window.

Conversion Reporting

When maximizing the number or value of conversions, you will need to select a conversion event.

This event will be what fills the Results column in Ads Manager.

But you can add columns for other conversion events as well. Click to customize columns…

Then add columns for standard events, custom events (if they’ve been used in ads before), or custom conversions.

Even if your conversion event is a Purchase, you can view how many other conversions resulted from your ads.

Note that one person can perform multiple conversions.

Compare Attribution Settings

Conversion results require important context to make sense of them. Otherwise, results can be misleading or cover an important part of the story. This context is found by using the Compare Attribution Settings feature.

This feature is found when clicking the Columns dropdown menu (Compare Attribution Settings is right above Customize Columns).

By default, your conversion results will be based on the attribution setting defined within the ad set. But you can use this feature to see how those results break down — or even uncover conversions that happened beyond your attribution setting.

Select all of the attribution settings that you want. We’ll select them all for the fun of it…

Note that there’s an option for 28-day click, even though that option was phased out from attribution settings after iOS 14+ changes. While your default reporting will never exceed 7-day click now, you can still view conversions that occurred within 28 days of clicking.

Once selected, Meta will create a column for each attribution setting when viewing a type of conversion.

1. Purchases (36): There are 36 total purchases reported based on the attribution setting.

2. 1-Day View (12): 12 conversions happened within a day of viewing your ad (and not clicking).

3. 1-Day Engaged-View (0): A video was not used in the ad, so no engaged-view conversions are reported.

4. 1-Day Click (13): 13 conversions happened within a day of clicking on your ad.

5. 7-day Click (24): 24 conversions happened within 7 days of clicking on your ad.

6. 28-day Click (32): 32 conversions happened within 28 days of clicking on your ad.

Now we need to do a little math to decipher what this means…

1. 36 conversions happened within 7 days of clicking or 1 day of viewing the ad.

2. 11 conversions happened beyond 1 day but within 7 days of clicking the ad (24 minus 13).

3. 8 conversions happened beyond 7 days but within 28 days of clicking the ad (32 minus 24).

4. A total of 44 total conversions can be attributed to your ad (Total Purchases + those that happened beyond 7-day click).

The Compare Attribution Settings feature is a great tool for helping us understand how our results break down to get a better sense of the overall confidence we may have in them. Consider these scenarios:

1. 70% of conversions are 1-day view. With such results, I’d have less confidence that my ads truly contributed to all of these conversions.

2. 20% additional conversions happened beyond 7-day click. These are results that are not reported by default, but indicate that our ads made a greater impact than expected. This could be due to an email sequence post-conversion or a longer buying cycle for a high-priced product.

First Conversion Reporting

There’s another way to add important context to your results using Compare Attribution Settings, and it’s with First Conversion reporting.

When you select attribution settings, you’ll have the following three options…

By default, Meta reports all conversions that happen within the attribution window. For example, someone could make two separate purchases during a seven-day period. If that happens, you could have two attributed purchases within a 7-day click attribution window.

But First Conversion would only count the first attributed conversion of that type. You could have multiple purchases, registrations, and add-to-cart events that fall within the attribution window. When selecting First Conversion, only the first of each would be counted.

Allow me to share an example of how this can be helpful. I am running an ad to promote my Cornerstone Tips lead magnet. Once the form is submitted, the confirmation page includes encouragement to register for other lead magnets.

The result is that one registrant might subscribe for multiple things, which will lead to multiple reported registrations. By using First Conversion reporting, I can break this out…

In this case, we can make a reasonable assumption that about 427 unique people completed 533 registrations. While 533 total registrations is accurate, the 427 number provides more context regarding the true number of people that my ads inspired.

I’ve used First Conversion repeatedly to solve reporting problems just like this one.

Reporting Errors

It’s important to have knowledge of attribution and use the tools available to you to add important context. But there are times when reporting is flat-out wrong.

As much as advertisers want to blame Meta for flawed reporting, it’s almost never Meta’s fault. In some cases, it may require troubleshooting on your part.

1. Inflated results. Complaints of inflated results off come from an inability to match Ads Manager with third-party reporting. Your results can appear inflated due to remarketing or multiple conversions performed by unique customers. These results wouldn’t be inflated, but would require a closer look.

Otherwise, results can be inflated due to a conversion event issue. If Meta is reporting conversions that did not happen, it may be due to one of the following:

• Firing the event on the wrong page or prematurely
• Events from multiple sources are not deduplicated

In these cases, you need to test your events and check logs to pinpoint the problem.

2. Underreported results. Otherwise, you may find that Meta isn’t able to attribute conversions fully. This can be due to privacy/tracking issues, particularly since iOS 14+ (though many of these conversions are modeled now). Meta may also be unable to attribute a conversion because it falls outside of the attribution setting.

Reporting Holes

Even if you are knowledgable of how attribution works and you’re diligent about providing important context, I recommend that you fully embrace the fact that reporting will never be perfect. Ads Manager numbers will almost never match up perfectly with third-party reporting.

That’s not necessarily because Ads Manager is wrong or the third-party reporting is wrong. But there are important quirks that make 100% consistently virtually impossible. Beyond clear errors that lead to over or under-reporting, you should otherwise embrace these likely differences.

There are some very clear reporting holes that often lead advertisers on an endless chase to find answers…

1. View-through conversions. Unless there’s direct integration with Ads Manager, third-party reporting will not have any information about whether a person viewed your ad and did not click prior to converting. This is information that only Meta has and you’ll drive yourself crazy attempting to verify it.

2. Clicks that don’t drive traffic. It took me more than a decade to realize this, but click attribution does not require a click on an external link. While the vast majority of conversions resulting from a click may result from people clicking on the link in your ad, some may not. And that would mean UTM parameters become useless for this segment of click conversions, which are no different than view-through conversions when it comes to being able to verify them.

3. The 7-day purchase decision. The easiest conversions to verify are those that happen immediately: A person clicked your ad, was redirected to your website, and immediately converted. But that’s not always how it works. Some conversions, especially the purchase of higher priced products, can take multiple days following the first click. It can take customers across devices and browsers, potentially negating URL parameters.

And that assumes that the conversion happens within the 7-day attribution window at all. As mentioned above, you can often find hidden conversions that happened using the 28-day click attribution setting. But depending on what you’re promoting, the customer journey may be even longer. This makes attribution and measurement difficult.

Your Turn

If you understand Meta ads conversion results at this level, you’re ahead of most advertisers. Anything else you’d add?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Meta Ads Conversion Results: A Guide appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

No matter how much experience you have as a Meta advertiser, expect to learn something new that surprises you to the point of questioning many of the things you once believed about them. Put Meta click attribution into this category.

I started this website in 2011. I’ve written and educated others on the topic of Facebook — and then Meta — advertising since 2012. I make it my responsibility to know every nuance on the topic as well as one could reasonably expect to know it. And yet, here we are.

Meta click attribution — how Meta gives credit for a conversion after clicking an ad — does not work entirely the way I’ve assumed it did for the past decade. If that’s true for me, it’s likely to be a surprise for you, too.

Meta’s documentation on click attribution is ambiguous. It’s easy to make assumptions based on what it does and does not say. It wasn’t until I ran a test that I have clarity on what it actually means.

I am certain that I am part of the majority who misunderstands click attribution. The confusion matters. This is surely the source of many of the reporting complaints that advertisers have.

In this post, I’ll cover the following:

• Click attribution and how I assumed it worked
• Meta’s documentation and a lack of clarity
• A test for confirmation
• Why this matters

Let’s go…

Click Attribution and How I Assumed it Worked

Attribution is how Meta gives credit for an ad. By default, Meta reports a conversion if it happens within 7 days of clicking or 1 day of viewing your ad without clicking.

View-through conversions are the source of the most controversy. In this case, Meta can give an ad credit for a conversion even though the person never clicked it — assuming they converted within a day of the ad impression.

Click-through felt a bit more straight-forward. These are people who clicked your ad and went to your website. They may not have converted immediately, but that conversion happened within seven days. Your ad very clearly contributed to that conversion.

View-through conversions are a reporting black hole. Only Meta knows whether a person was shown your ad, didn’t click, and then converted within a day. It’s very difficult to prove or disprove.

Click-through conversions reported in Ads Manager will not always match up with third-party reporting, but they should typically be close. You can use UTM parameters to help give reporting tools more insight into whether customers came from your ad. You could also use 1-day click attribution, which should help limit cross-device and multiple-session visits.

Click attribution is more dependable and easier to back up with other reporting because it requires a click from your ad to your website (or so I assumed). Any differences in reporting could generally be explained by the complicated journey that can happen over a seven-day period.

Meta’s Documentation and a Lack of Clarity

Click attribution first became my focus about a month ago when an astute reader asked me whether click attribution required an outbound click on your ad to your website. I reflexively replied that it did.

But I wanted to cite official documentation so that it didn’t seem as though I were making it up. The problem was that I couldn’t find any such clarity.

I went through page after page of Meta’s documentation on attribution. Nowhere was it clearly stated that click attribution requires a click on an outbound link on your ad. It also doesn’t say that it could be any click — clicks on images, videos, reactions, comments, or something else. It’s completely ambiguous.

Because of this ambiguity, I wasn’t ready to disregard what I believed to be true based on more than a decade of experience on the topic. But I also didn’t want to continue believing it blindly.

A Test for Confirmation

This situation was primed for a test. Meta might not be clear about what they mean by click attribution, but a strategically-run test could prove it.

Does click attribution include all clicks that result in a conversion, regardless of whether someone clicked an outbound click on my ad? In order to know for sure, we’d need to eliminate the outbound click option.

I created a campaign using the Engagement objective with the following conversion location settings:

• Conversion Location: On Your Ad
• Engagement Type: Post Engagement
• Performance Goal: Maximize Daily Unique Reach

Targeting isn’t particularly relevant, but I wanted to be sure to reach a highly engaged audience who would be excited to participate in my experiment. So, I used original audiences and targeted people who were engaged on my email list during the past month.

To keep this simple, I used only the Facebook feed placement. I didn’t want to worry about versions and quirks by placement.

Here is my ad:

The primary text did not include a URL. I made it clear that I was running an experiment and asked people to follow the instructions in the image.

They were asked to do the following:

1. Click the image
2. Open a browser tab
3. Go to jonloomer.com/experiment
4. Follow all instructions on that page

I asked for the click to make click attribution possible. I didn’t include the URL in text so the link itself could not be clicked.

When they went to that page, people were asked to click a button.

Once that button is clicked, a confirmation page loads and a custom event unique to this experiment (the custom event is called “experiment”) fires.

Test Results

If click attribution worked the way I originally assumed, the only conversions that Meta could report would be view-through. If someone viewed my ad, didn’t click an outbound link on my ad, and then converted within a day, that falls within my preconceived view-through definition.

But if click attribution doesn’t require clicks on an outbound link, we will know that immediately by comparing attribution settings. If there’s even one conversion reported using 1-day click, it’s clear evidence that an outbound click isn’t required.

It didn’t take long to get confirmation.

Meta attributed 33 conversions using the “Experiment” custom event. All 33 were the click-through variety.

This is convincing evidence, if not proof, that click attribution does not require a click on an outbound link.

Why This Matters

I’m not going to lie. This shook me.

For years, I was confident that click attribution required a click on an outbound link. And why wouldn’t it? If someone converts without clicking an outbound link, we already have a category for that: View-through conversion.

We know that view-through conversions are a reporting black hole. If you have huge reporting discrepancies between Ads Manager and GA4 or other third-party reporting software, the problems typically start there.

But now I’ve learned that many of the conversions that I’ve long believed to be view-through are actually falling into the definition of click attribution. And while view-through conversions are limited to a one-day window, these conversions can happen within seven days.

Your 7-day click conversion numbers consist of people who clicked the link in your ad. But they could also include people who made other clicks — on your image, video, comments, reactions, and more. If they convert within seven days, they’re counted.

Counting these conversions isn’t necessarily the problem. The issue is that you can’t separate the click conversions that happened from clicking an outbound link (the most valuable conversions) from those who clicked something else.

This will matter most when remarketing. Someone who is on your email list gets served an ad impression. They may “like” it simply to show appreciation. They get an email within seven days that they act on. The ad that was “clicked” then gets credit for a conversion.

I would normally say to mostly ignore view-through conversions when remarketing. They aren’t nearly as valuable as when reaching a cold audience — someone who would need to take steps to find your product again to complete the conversion.

But this tells me that it’s impossible to completely ignore view-through — and other conversions that don’t require a click on a link. Your numbers are likely to be inflated.

This also matters for those wanting to confirm their results. UTM parameters will not help you confirm this type of click attribution. Like view-through, you’ll need to take Meta’s word for it.

That leads to reporting discrepancies and frustration.

How Common Is It?

One question I have that is difficult to answer is regarding how often this type of conversion happens in the first place. We’re likely dealing with an extreme minority of reported conversions in most cases. And really, this is a big reason why I was oblivious to these conversions in the first place.

But there are a couple of factors involved…

1. Do you feature a link?

The typical static link ad provides very few options for clicking that don’t result in a click to your website. This includes carousels. If you click anywhere on the creative area of an ad, you’ll be redirected to a website.

There remain other clicks, of course. But then you’d need a scenario where someone from a cold audience “likes” your ad and then Googles you later. Granted, I saw this as a view-through conversion before, but it shouldn’t make up a large percentage of your click conversions.

2. Do you run remarketing campaigns?

Remarketing results are already likely to be inflated if you aren’t careful. Whether it’s ignoring view-through conversions or using 1-day or 7-day click attribution in the ad set, there have been ways to add context so that you aren’t misled by inflated numbers.

But now I’m seeing that it’s even more difficult to control these inflated numbers than I thought. You could ignore view-through conversions. But if you target people who receive your emails, visit your website regularly, or simply would have converted without seeing your ad, your are likely to reach people who click without clicking through to your website.

When that happens, you are likely to assume that they clicked through. But it will be impossible to know for sure. And Meta’s optimization will go after more of these people to get you the results that you want.

What Meta Must Do

First, Meta needs to clarify their documentation on attribution. It can’t be ambiguous. The definition of click attribution should specify that it includes all clicks, not just clicks on outbound links. Don’t let anything be assumed or it will seem deceptive.

But that’s not enough. We need more clarity in reporting. Meta provided this with engaged-view attribution. It tells us that while a conversion didn’t result from a click, the person watched your video for at least 10 seconds before converting.

We need something similar for click attribution. Otherwise, it’s impossible to separate those who actually clicked through from those who didn’t. Not only does that result in misleading reporting, but it can pollute Meta’s optimization.

How You Should Approach This

There isn’t much we can do differently as advertisers in response to this information. But it can provide important context that we can use to better understand the chaos of results.

Your results will never match up with third-party data. You can use UTM parameters and various tools that claim to fill in the blanks, but there will always be unexplained discrepancies.

Know why these discrepancies exist. Know that it’s because of view-through conversions, cross-device conversion journeys, and tracking limitations. But also know that even if you isolate click attribution, there are likely to be conversions that didn’t result from a click on an ad to your website.

We simply need to accept that and convey that guarantee of uncertainty to clients.

Your Turn

What are your thoughts on how click attribution works?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Uncovering the Reality of Meta Click Attribution appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Conversions are the centerpiece of any effective Meta advertising strategy. They help you define success, measure performance, and optimize for the action that you want. If your focus isn’t on conversions, you’re likely swimming in misleading, low-quality results.

It’s easy to say, “Focus on conversions.” But, there are many steps required to make sure that conversion attribution is complete and accurate.

That’s why I created this checklist for website-first businesses. You may not need all of these steps, but you should at least consider them all. In this post, we’ll cover the following:

1. Add the Pixel
2. Standard Events
3. Custom Events
4. Custom Conversions
5. Conversions API for Web Events
6. Conversions API for Offline Events
7. Test Events
8. Understand Attribution
9. Interpret Results

I’ll cover the basics of each. At the end of each section, I provide a list of resources for deeper learning.

Let’s get to it…

1. Add the Pixel

If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard the rumor that the pixel is about to die, I’d have at least $10. But, it remains relevant.

The Meta pixel is a snippet of code that is unique to the advertiser who controls it. When a page of your website loads, the pixel loads. Once that happens, any conversion events can be associated with the pixel. This will be necessary for conversion attribution, reporting, and optimization.

You need to add the pixel to your website. Not just on your home page. Not just the pages you believe are important. Every single page of your website. If some pages are owned by a third-party that allows you to inject your pixel, add it there, too.

I’d love to tell you that there is one, simple way to do this. But, it depends on how your website is set up.

If you’re lucky, there’s a simple integration. Shopify, for example, makes it very easy.

You can also inject the pixel to every page of your website using WordPress plugins and customizations of the header. I added the pixel to this website using Google Tag Manager.

Create a pixel.

To get started, go to Events Manager and click on the left to Connect Data Sources.

Select Web.

Enter the name of your dataset (whatever you’re calling your pixel) and click “Create.”

If you utilize one of the partners that can be used for integration, select it.

The “WordPress” integration utilizes the official Meta for WordPress plugin. Just know that you don’t necessarily need to use that plugin if your website is on WordPress.

If you’re connecting manually, let’s connect the pixel only for this demonstration.

Click “See instructions.”

You will now be taken through a pixel installation wizard.

Copy the pixel code and paste it into the bottom of the header section (right before the closing “head” tag) of the template of your website.

Consider turning on Automatic Advanced Matching to improve attribution (you can turn it on later within the Settings tab of Events Manager if you want to wait).

Apply a previously created pixel.

If you already have a pixel, find it within Events Manager under Data Sources. If there hasn’t been any activity on the pixel, select the option to Set up Meta Pixel.

If there has already been activity on the pixel, click the Add Events dropdown menu from the Overview tab and select “Add New Integration.”

Select “Meta Pixel” and click “Set Up.”

Choose to either manually add code or use partner integration.

From this point forward, the steps are the same as when creating a new pixel.

RESOURCES:

• How to Use Google Tag Manager to Manage the Facebook Pixel and Events
• What is the Meta Pixel?
• How to set up and install a Meta Pixel
• How To Set Up and Use Meta Pixel with Shopify
• Is the Meta Pixel About to Die?

2. Standard Events

The pixel itself is pointless without events. Events notify Meta when an important action occurs so that it can be used for attribution purposes. For example, if someone who saw or clicked your ad performs that event, it can be reported in Ads Manager.

Standard events are predefined actions that any advertiser can track. Examples include Purchase, Add to Cart, Initiate Checkout, Complete Registration, and Lead.

Once again, there are multiple ways to add standard events.

Add standard events manually.

Standard events are marked with a separate snippet of code that will be important if you’re adding standard events manually.

I also have a resource that generates the code if you are adding it to a page manually.

The main pixel will load with each page load. An event should only load when the action it represents has completed. For example, you don’t want the Purchase event to fire until the purchase is completed. This is why you might add the Purchase event code to the confirmation page following a successful purchase.

I add standard events manually, specifically with Google Tag Manager. A separate tag and trigger is created for each standard event.

Use the Event Setup Tool

The Event Setup Tool is a codeless method for creating standard events. You’ll find it once you reach the final step after creating your pixel.

You can also find it within the Settings tab in Events Manager.

Enter the URL of the page where you want to add a standard event and click “Open Website.” NOTE: Your pixel first needs to be on this page.

The page will load and a box will appear at the top left for managing events.

Only events created with the Event Setup Tool will appear here. You can create an event by button click (if the button is detected on the page) or URL (the URL of the current page).

Use partner integration.

If you use a partner like Shopify, most or all of this manual work will be unnecessary.

RESOURCES:

• A Guide to Standard Events, Custom Events, and Custom Conversions
• Facebook Pixel Event Generator
• Is the Event Setup Tool Worth the Hassle?
• Where Did The Event Setup Tool Go?
• Specifications for Meta Pixel standard events
• Best practices for Meta Pixel standard event setup

3. Custom Events

The concept of a custom event is rather straightforward. This is an action that is important but it cannot be defined using one of Meta’s standard events.

When possible, use standard events. Meta has standard event data from advertisers around the world to help optimize ad delivery to make sure that the people who are most likely to perform the action that you want will see your ads.

But, this isn’t always possible. You also may not use custom events for delivery optimization, but instead to provide additional reporting information.

I track dozens of important actions on my website that cannot be defined with standard events. They include:

• 2 Minutes Time on Page
• Scroll Depth 50%
• 2 Minutes AND 50% Scroll
• Video Watched
• Podcast Play
• Google Referral
• Internal Link Click
• External Link Click

Custom events for website activity are most often sent using code. They utilize the same code structure as standard events, but you define them. If you send an event that Meta doesn’t recognize by name, it’s a custom event.

I use Google Tag Manager to track these custom events. The primary reason for that is that GTM offers built-in trigger actions for things like timers (to track time spent), scroll depth, and embedded YouTube plays.

RESOURCES:

• A Guide to Standard Events, Custom Events, and Custom Conversions
• Create a Meta Pixel Event that Fires After Viewing a Page for 60 Seconds
• Create a Meta Pixel Event that Fires After Scrolling 70% Down a Page
• Create a Meta Custom Event That Combines Time Spent and Scroll Depth
• Create a Custom Facebook Event for a Watched YouTube Video in Google Tag Manager

4. Custom Conversions

Standard events and custom events are for tracking important actions so that they can be used for reporting, optimization, and even targeting. Custom conversions are similar, but they should not be used in place of standard or custom events.

Think of it like this…

You have a purchase event that fires whenever someone purchases a product from you. It could be your most expensive or least expensive product. It could be a training course or a t-shirt. They are all tracked as purchases.

Custom conversions allow you to segment those purchases. You don’t need code or help from partner integrations. It’s all done within Events Manager.

Click “Custom Conversions.”

Click to “Create Custom Conversion.”

You could create a custom conversion based on the specific URL that someone views.

Or select the specific standard or custom event…

…and then create a rule based on the specific URL, referring domain, or event parameters when that event fired.

A common use case for custom conversions is to add a column to your Ads Manager reporting for the purchase of the specific product that you’re promoting. Meta’s “Results” column will otherwise include all purchases (for example) that are attributed to your ads. But, those who engage with your ad may purchase something you didn’t promote. The custom conversion can provide more certainty.

Standard events fire on my website following any purchase or registration. I created custom conversions for the purchase of specific products and registrations to specific lead magnets.

RESOURCES:

• A Guide to Standard Events, Custom Events, and Custom Conversions
• Differences Between Custom Events and Custom Conversions
• Facebook Custom Conversions: The Ultimate Guide
• How I Use Facebook Custom Conversions for Reporting and Optimization
• Facebook Ads and the Role of Custom Conversions

5. Conversions API for Web Events

The purpose of the Conversions API is to send events to Meta directly from your server. Combined with pixel events from your browser, this can help provide a much fuller picture of conversions that customers are having with your business.

Of course, there are two primary ways that typical businesses can take advantage of this. One is for web events (we’ll get to offline events in a moment).

As discussed earlier, there have been rumors of the Meta pixel’s demise for years. It’s simply not as dependable as it once was. The reasons for this are mostly due to privacy restrictions and cookie blocking, but this is also where my technical expertise on the subject gets a little thin. The main thing is that the pixel alone has big holes.

The Conversions API for web events allows you to send a second set of events for website activity from your own server. By itself, the Conversions API for web events is far more dependable than the pixel alone. When you send events from both sources, Meta is more likely to reflect conversion activity on your website.

If you have some technical expertise or know someone who does, the Conversions API can be set up manually. Otherwise, it’s going to require partner integration.

The key consideration here is deduplication. Since events will be sent from two different sources, Meta will need to be able to sort out whether events are unique or duplicates. Otherwise, your results will be inflated.

This is where third-party integration can be especially helpful. Especially when a partner manages both your pixel and API integration, the deduplication is often done for you.

In some cases, this integration requires very little of you. If you’re on Shopify, it’s practically as simple as checking a box. That’s the case for many platforms.

I use the Conversions API Gateway, which mimics all of the events that are sent with the pixel. It utilizes an AWS server. While you can set up the API Gateway directly with Amazon (I have), you also may not need that much power (or cost). I’ve found a great alternative to be Stape, which allows me to set up the API Gateway at a fraction of the cost.

On average, I see about 10% additional events as a result of using the Conversions API Gateway.

This can be found within the Events Manager Overview tab.

RESOURCES:

• Set Up Meta Conversions API Gateway Using Stape
• How to Set Up Conversions API with Facebook for WordPress Plugin
• Importance of the Facebook Conversions API
• How to Set Up Facebook Conversions API Using Conversions API Gateway
• Increase Conversions by 10% or More with the API

6. Conversions API for Offline Events

Another reason you may send events using the Conversions API is so that Meta has events that do not happen on your website. In this case, you are passing offline events, which typically come from your CRM.

This method isn’t necessary for all businesses. If conversions happen exclusively online and you aren’t struggling to get full attribution, I have a tough time making the argument of sending offline events. But if you do, deduplication becomes an even bigger hassle, and you’ll undoubtedly need an expert who knows how to sort that out.

A use case for needing to pass offline events goes like this:

1. You collect leads on your website
2. A salesperson contacts these leads
3. The purchase and other important actions are recorded in your CRM (not via a customer-initiated website action)

I do pass a small number of offline events using the Conversions API, but these are events that are only recorded within my CRM. There isn’t going to be an issue related to deduplication, so it’s rather straightforward in that case. I use these events for reporting purposes so that I can see what leads who came in via ads, for example, do further down the funnel.

Another example of leveraging offline events is when running ads optimized for Conversion Leads. In this case, you pass the offline events so that Meta can follow new leads through various stages of your funnel so that it can help improve optimization.

An important point here is that the Offline Conversions API is getting phased out and will no longer be active come May of 2025. You’ll still be able to send offline events, but you’ll need to do so via the main API.

Admittedly, this is a transition that I still need to make. I use Zapier to pass offline events, and I haven’t yet been able to get it to work for sending them using the main Conversions API.

You may have another partner or method for sending those events. I encourage you to do so, especially if important actions happen exclusively away from your website.

RESOURCES:

• Sending Offline Events Using the Conversions API
• Offline Conversions API Deprecation Delayed
• Benefit of Offline Events for Reporting
• When to Use Offline Conversions API
• How to Sync Offline Events Using Conversions API
• Funnel Analysis Stage of Conversion Leads Setup

7. Test Events

Once you’re sending events, you’ll need to test them.

This is a primary source for overcounting and undercounting conversions. If you aren’t sending events properly (or they aren’t getting deduplicated), your results will be off.

The primary way to test events is within Meta’s own testing tool in Events Manager.

You can test web and CRM events.

When testing website events, you can focus on server events or browser pixel events.

When testing, you can get an actual accounting of the events that fire from your visit. This can help troubleshoot issues when you fear that events aren’t getting sent or they’re getting sent too often.

RESOURCES:

• How to Test Meta Conversion Events
• Are Ads Manager Results Too Good to Be True?
• Test your app or web browser events using the test events tool

8. Understand Attribution

Passing conversion events to Meta is great, but you also need to understand how attribution works. Otherwise, the entire exercise is pointless.

Attribution is how Meta gives credit to an ad for conversions. In the simplest terms, someone you paid to reach clicked on an ad and converted within the attribution window. As a result, your ad gets credit for that conversion.

The attribution setting is defined within the ad set when utilizing the Website conversion location and optimizing for conversions.



The default attribution setting is 7-day click and 1-day view. In other words, Meta will attribute conversions to your ads if someone clicks on your ad and conversions within 7 days or views your ad (without clicking) and converts within a day.

But, you have options for defining the attribution setting:

• Click: 7-day or 1-day
• View: 1-day or none
• Engaged View: 1-day or none

Engaged View is only relevant to videos. If someone views at least 10 seconds of your video, doesn’t click, and converts within a day, it’s considered an Engaged View conversion.

The attribution setting controls two things:

1. How conversions are reported, by default.
2. How delivery is optimized.

Meta’s goal will be to get you as many conversions as possible. Changing the attribution setting can impact who ends up seeing your ads. For example, if you remove 1-day view, Meta won’t see a view-through conversion as successful. Because of this, the focus may be on those who will click to convert.

Finally, understand that Meta utilizes a last-click attribution model. Two ads can’t get credit for the same conversion. If someone engaged with two different ads before converting, attribution goes to the most recent click. If neither ad was clicked and a view falls within the attribution setting, credit goes to the most recent view.

RESOURCES:

• Meta Ads Attribution Setting: A Complete Guide
• 5 Most Common Attribution Mistakes Advertisers Make
• How Attribution Impacts Performance
• When to Use 1-Day Click Attribution
• Can 3 Ads Get Credit for a Conversion?
• How Ads Get Credit for a Conversion

9. Interpret Results

This is related to understanding attribution, but it’s an extension of it. Knowing how attribution works is an important step. But, then you have to apply that knowledge.

You can’t always take your results at face value. You need context behind those results. There are two features that are especially helpful in this area.

Compare Attribution Settings.

Let’s assume that the attribution setting is 7-day click and 1-day view, which it will be in most cases. How many of those conversions were view-through? How many happened within a day of clicking? This context matters.

Within the Columns dropdown menu, select Compare Attribution Settings.



From there, you can choose to add columns for each attribution window — even if it wasn’t used in the attribution setting. There’s even an option for 28-day click.



Were most of the reported conversions from 1-day view attribution? If that’s the case, it’s likely that this is a remarketing campaign and many of the conversions would have happened without your ad. Were most 1-day click? That would be a good sign that your ads were directly responsible.



It’s not that view-through or 28-day click are worthless, but the context is important.

First Conversion.

This is the latest addition to the Compare Attribution Settings feature that helps solve issues where your results appear inflated. Let’s assume that someone clicks your ad and makes three separate purchases within the attribution setting. In that case, all three conversions would be reported.

But, you can have only the first of those conversions appear within your reporting.



And when you do, you may see a drastic difference in results — especially for non-purchase conversions.



RESOURCES:

• Compare Attribution Settings: Get the Most of Meta Conversion Data
• First Conversion vs. All Conversions for Meta Ads Attribution
• Benefits of First Conversion Reporting
• Do View-Through Conversions Matter?
• Why Wouldn’t You Use 28-Day Click?

Your Turn

This became a lot! Consider this your starting point with conversions, but drill down using the additional resources.

Have you had issues with conversions and attribution?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Conversions for Meta Advertising Checklist appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

]]> https://www.jonloomer.com/conversions-for-meta-advertising-checklist/feed/ 0 https://www.jonloomer.com/first-conversion-vs-all-conversions-for-meta-ads-attribution/ https://www.jonloomer.com/first-conversion-vs-all-conversions-for-meta-ads-attribution/#respond Wed, 03 Jul 2024 16:39:25 +0000 https://www.jonloomer.com/?p=45665

Meta is rolling out the ability to isolate First Conversion and All Conversions when comparing attribution settings. Here's what that means...

The post First Conversion vs. All Conversions for Meta Ads Attribution appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

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Meta is rolling out a uniquely useful update to ads attribution that will allow you to isolate the first conversion after an ad view or click.

In this post, I’ll walk you through the following:

1. Where to find it
2. Meta’s definitions
3. What it plainly means
4. How you can apply it

Let’s begin…

Where to Find It

Access the Columns dropdown menu within Ads Manager (the menu to the left of Breakdown).



At the bottom, select “Compare Attribution Settings.”



If you aren’t already using this feature, it’s time to start. It’s enormously valuable for providing context to reported conversions.

If you have this update, the Compare Attribution Settings menu should look like this…



This feature allows you to generate columns for each attribution setting. That way, you can see how your reported conversions are distributed across the various view and click attribution windows.

Once you select any of those attribution settings, you’ll get some new options.



The default view is “All Conversions.” But you now have the option of viewing “First Conversion” or “Both.”

Meta’s Definitions

Let’s go through Meta’s literal definitions here.

All Conversions: See every conversion that happened after an ad view or click.

First Conversion: See only the first conversion that happened after an ad view or click.

If you select “First Conversion” or “Both,” you’ll see some additional info…



First conversion counts only the initial measurable conversion that happens after someone viewed or clicked on your ad, which is why results will be lower than for all conversions. First conversion metrics are unavailable for date ranges before July 15, 2023.

The linked Meta resource says the following:

To see every measurable conversion that happened after an ad click or view, choose All conversions. To see only the first measurable conversion that happened after an ad click or view, choose First conversion.

What it Plainly Means

This definition is confusing if taken literally. Let’s consider an example.

After clicking your ad, a person performs the following conversion events in order during a seven-day period…

1. View Content
2. Custom Event (1-Minute View)
3. Add to Cart
4. View Content
5. Custom Event (1-Minute View)
6. Add to Cart
7. Initiate Checkout
8. Purchase
9. View Content
10. Add to Cart
11. Initiate Checkout
12. Purchase

You could interpret Meta’s definition to mean that only the initial View Content conversion is counted because it was the first conversion. That’s luckily not the case.

Instead, only the first instance of an individual conversion event within the attribution window will be counted. For our example, here’s how All Conversions might be reported…

• View Content: 3
• Custom Event (1-Minute View): 2
• Add to Cart: 3
• Initiate Checkout: 2
• Purchase: 2

If you used First Conversion instead, it would be reported like this…

• View Content: 1
• Custom Event (1-Minute View): 1
• Add to Cart: 1
• Initiate Checkout: 1
• Purchase: 1

How this impacts your results will depend quite a bit on the business. The types of conversions most likely to be impacted are those that happen multiple times. Several independent Purchase events may be much more common for an ecommerce business than for one selling training or services.

You’re likely to see the biggest disparities between engagement-type conversion events. That includes things like View Content, Add to Cart, and Initiate Checkout since a transaction is never completed. It also includes custom events (if you’ve created them) for things like time spent and scroll depth.

This is certainly true for me. Take a look at this difference in reported 15-second views using First Conversion and All Conversions…



I see very little difference in reported registrations or purchases. When I do, I have a good idea why that happens.

One example of purchase behavior on my website is that someone will first sign up for my PHC – Elite membership so that they can get a discount on a one-on-one session. So, they’ll complete two separate purchase events.

How You Can Apply It

My advice is to approach this as a way to add necessary context to reporting. Do not look at First Conversion as a replacement for All Conversions. Just like you shouldn’t look at 1-day click as a replacement for the default 7-day click and 1-day view attribution. This gives you more data so that you can better understand what your results mean.

When it comes to purchases, I would not discard the “All Conversions” view. If one person made five separate purchases within your attribution window, their initial engagement with your ad contributed to all five purchases. Ignoring the other four would be foolish.

By adding the First Conversion view, you get some helpful context. Instead of five customers, you have one. But, that one customer bought a lot of stuff!

As suggested earlier, I expect this is going to be most helpful for times when Ads Manager can very easily inflate your numbers. This is especially the case with custom events.

Even if you limit attribution to 1-day click, engagement-based custom events will be inflated. If you send someone to a video on your website, and they watch 20 videos, that would result in 20 custom event fires for each of those videos (assuming you created them like I did). This kind of behavior makes these results unusable.



But if you can isolate by only the first view, we suddenly have information we can work with. We now have a much better idea of the number of people who executed all of those events.

A Note on Value

On one hand, Meta could have named this a “Unique” metric, which is mostly what this does. We’ll find out the number of people (or Accounts Center Accounts) that performed these actions. But, counting only the first one will be relevant for value-related metrics.

Meta will only count the first purchase after engaging with your ad. That means that only the value of that first purchase will count towards your ROAS and Purchase Value metrics.

You will need to find what works for you, but I’d certainly recommend using All Conversions when measuring your advertising’s ROAS. As always, consider the various Attribution Settings (valuing click over view data) when evaluating those results.

Your Turn

How will you use this feature?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post First Conversion vs. All Conversions for Meta Ads Attribution appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

]]> https://www.jonloomer.com/first-conversion-vs-all-conversions-for-meta-ads-attribution/feed/ 0 https://www.jonloomer.com/are-ads-manager-results-too-good-to-be-true/ https://www.jonloomer.com/are-ads-manager-results-too-good-to-be-true/#comments Thu, 08 Feb 2024 01:06:47 +0000 https://www.jonloomer.com/?p=43583

Meta advertisers are constantly on a quest for good results. But sometimes those results can be too good to be true. Here's what to do...

The post Are Ads Manager Results Too Good to Be True? appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

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It’s a common problem. As Meta advertisers, we’re constantly on a quest for good results. But there’s a situation we’ve all encountered that will make any great advertiser uneasy. The results are good. Really good. But are they too good to be true?

There must be something wrong. I created a great campaign, and I’m proud of it, but this just doesn’t seem possible.

Unfortunately, sometimes your instinct is proven correct. Those results were, indeed, too good to be true. There was an explanation that lowers your excitement about the perceived accomplishment.

Learning that Ads Manager results are too good to be true usually comes down to one of the following:

1. Over Reporting: This tends to be because you set up something wrong that leads to double or over counting.

2. Low Quality: Typically related to low-quality leads or engagement of some kind.

3. Mistaken Interpretation: You took the results at face value, but there are layers to them that help explain what you’re getting.

On one hand, I understand how this is an uncomfortable situation. You feel really good about yourself. Maybe a client feels great about the results. It may be a matter of “ignorance is bliss.” But, eventually, you’ll need to face reality.

If you’re ever in the situation where you fear your Ads Manager results are too good to be true, follow these steps to check for common explanations…

1. Real-World Validation

This is the most obvious example of Ads Manager results that are too good to be true. If Ads Manager is reporting more results than happened, regardless of the source, that’s a problem.

Understand that this isn’t about validating that a secondary source confirms the number of conversions that came from your ads. There is a long list of reasons why Ads Manager can report results and other sources won’t credit your ads. That’s not necessarily a problem.

The issue would be that Ads Manager says you have 100 new purchases and only 40 happened — total, regardless of the perceived source. That’s a sign that something is wrong with your reporting.

Keep in mind, however, that how Ads Manager reports your results could also throw off your ability to match them up with real-world sales. Meta reports conversions based on the date of impression, not the date of conversion. So, the following could happen…

Ads Manager: 10 Purchases on Monday and no purchases on Tuesday through Friday.

Real World: No purchases on Monday, 5 purchases on Thursday and 5 purchases on Friday.

The default attribution setting is 7-day click and 1-day view, so an ad can get credit for a conversion that happened seven days after clicking. But the date of that conversion will be the date of the impression.

That’s a bit in the weeds, but keep it in mind when lining up Ads Manager with real-world results.

2. Compare Attribution Settings

This is how to uncover one of the most common and easiest explanations for results that seem too good to be true.

The problem isn’t that Ads Manager results results don’t match up with real-world results. You just don’t believe that your ads have been responsible for the number that Ads Manager reports.

Sometimes, it’s a matter of understanding context and not taking your results at face value. The conversions may have happened (as defined by the attribution setting), but not all of them may be considered equally valuable. Let’s use a couple of examples.

Purchases.

You have a campaign that has generated 38 purchases. Let’s compare attribution settings to see how those purchases are broken down. Select every attribution setting.



You’ll then get separate columns for each attribution setting.



There’s a lot happening here…

1. First, 14 of the 38 purchases are 1-day view. It’s not that view-through is completely worthless (especially for purchases), but they are less valuable than a 1-day click. Especially if you emailed many of the same people you were targeting, it’s possible that some of these 14 were simply people who had an impression they didn’t see and converted later that day due to the email.

2. Second, 13 of the purchases happened within a day of clicking. These are the results that you may have the most confidence in because it started with a click and the purchase completed either immediately or within 24 hours.

3. Another 11 (24 minus 13) happened from days 2 to 7 after clicking. I have no issue with these. But someone might make the argument that it’s possible something else was responsible for the eventual purchase.

4. Another 10 (34 minus 24) conversions weren’t even included in the default reporting! These happened between days 8 and 28 after clicking. Meta knows that these people clicked and that they eventually converted. Once again, I have no issues with counting these. But you may place less value on them than 1-day click or 7-day click.

It’s not that 38 (or 48) purchases didn’t happen. But you have differing levels of confidence that your ad is fully responsible.

Registrations and other lighter-touch conversions.

I dug up a campaign that I ran that promoted a blog post, and it led to 257 registrations. Seems crazy! Or maybe too good to be true. Let’s compare attribution settings…



You may not be surprised that this was a remarketing campaign. Of the 257 reported registrations, 142 (55%!) were 1-day view. While you can make the argument for view-through conversions when running a purchases campaign, you can’t here.

Why? Because 142 people didn’t click my ad to read a blog post. But they eventually registered for something within a day. It’s an enormous stretch to suggest that those 142 people were so inspired by the mere appearance of my ad that they googled or went directly to my website to register for something different.

More than likely, this was a case of targeting the same people who were visiting my website anyway.

You can make the argument that the 72 people who clicked this ad to a blog post eventually registered for something. It could have been my newsletter. I have popups and cross promotions. I consider those legit.

But beyond that, I wouldn’t give this ad any credit for the 115 7-day or 104 8-28 day click registrations. Maybe my ads resulted in 72 registrations, but anything beyond that is a stretch.

You may also be interested to know that this ad was also credited with 17 total purchases. But 8 of them were 1-day view (worthless in this situation) and none of them were 1-day click.

Too good to be true? Confirmed.

3. First Conversion Reporting

By default, all conversions will be reported. When comparing attribution settings, you have the option of viewing only First Conversions.



If someone who engages with your ads performs multiple purchase events within the attribution window, for example, all of those purchases will be reported by default. But, you can choose to have Meta only report the first purchase event.

This may not be particularly necessary for purchases (personally, I’d love to see a list of all purchases that result from my ads), but you may want to view both All and First in that case for comparison. Even so, if you have discrepancies with third-party reporting, this may be why.

Where this is most relevant is when the optimized conversion event is likely to happen multiple times. This is most common with custom events that are based on website engagement, but it may also be more common for leads and registrations.

If you ever feel that the Results column is inflated, check the First Conversion box and see if it makes a difference.



The example above is extreme, but it shows how much your default reporting can be inflated by an event that is performed multiple times.

4. Check for Duplication or Overcounting of Events

It’s possible that the reporting in Ads Manager is completely legit. Meta’s reporting conversions credited to your ads. But that relies on you properly defining these conversions.

Here are some things to check…

1. Event Deduplication. Are you passing events via both the Meta pixel and Conversions API? You should be. But, hopefully those events are properly deduplicated. If they aren’t, Meta may count each conversion twice — once from the pixel and once from the API.

If you ever spend any time in Events Manager, it should be obvious if deduplication is an issue. Meta should have alerts all over the place. Unfortunately (or luckily), I don’t have an example of that to show you.

Go to Data Sources and select your pixel. Then expand an event you want to check for deduplication that is working with both the pixel and API. Click “View Details.”



Then click “Event Deduplication” and you will get a review of whether there are any issues.



2. Check Event Location. Well, there was a time when this was possible. Within the same View Details screen from the Event Overview tab, go to Event Breakdown and select URLs.



This should technically list specific URLs where these events are happening. For whatever reason, I’m only seeing domains. I’m still including this step because this appears to be a bug and hopefully it will be fixed.

Ideally, you’ll be able to easily see where your events are happening. You may fire purchase and registration events on the confirmation pages after that action is completed. But this may help you spot a problem if those events are happening on other locations that may lead to overcounting — like the landing page.

3. Test Your Events. Go to the Test Events tab in Events Manager.



Select the channel (probably website) and select whether you’re confirming server or website events.



Assuming you haven’t seen a weird spike in one or the other, let’s use website events as the example.

You will want to go through each step of a conversion. Don’t simply test the confirmation page. Do your best to mimic the user experience.

Paste the URL for the landing page (or whatever starting point you want to use) and click “Open Website.”



The events will dynamically appear within this section of Events Manager as you walk through a conversion on your website.



Look for duplicate events or cases where the events are firing before they should be.

If you spot a problem, of course, you’ll need to fix it. That would require using whatever tool you currently use to create and add events to your website.

5. Check the Assigned Value

A common source of Ads Manager results that are too good to be true is an inflated conversion value that drives the ROAS and Conversion Value columns.



Here are a couple of specific steps to take…

1. Compare Attribution Settings. You would have done this before when checking the total number of conversions and cost per conversion, but it applies to ROAS and conversion values, too.

That ROAS and Conversion Value in the screen shot above? That’s too good to be true…



This was another example of promoting a blog post, but it “led to” purchases. The entire $10,548 in conversion value came from view-through conversions. This is also what drove the ROAS.

Once again, view-through conversions aren’t necessarily a problem. But they have to make sense. If you’re promoting a blog post and people end up buying something unrelated without even clicking the blog post link, you can assume your ad had nothing to do with those purchases.

2. Confirm Assigned Value. The ROAS and conversion value columns are dependent on how you’ve defined the value of these conversions. It may be dynamic or you may have added values manually with event code and parameters.

First, don’t assume that the product purchased is what you were promoting in the ad. As outlined multiple times here, that’s not always the case.

Second, do the math on the product you were promoting. Is the number of purchases multiplied by purchase value in line?

And finally, add custom conversions for specific products. There was a time when Ads Manager would display all of the conversions that happened when hovering over the Results column, but that no longer seems to be the case. So, now it requires that you would have set up custom conversions for your products so that you can view how many of them were purchased.

If a value is off, you’ll need to update it wherever it is set.

6. Double Check a Second Tracking Source

Now, let’s be careful about this one. It’s easy to get carried away with discrepancies.

It’s helpful if you use UTM parameters with your ad links so that you can double check results in GA4 or another reporting software. This is so that you can spot big problems. But ignore any somewhat minor differences.

Ads Manager and GA4 will not report the same. I’ve said it before in this post and I’ll repeat it as often as I need to. The most likely scenario is that Ads Manager will report more conversions than GA4 will give credit to your ads.

I hope the reasons are rather obvious:

1. Only Ads Manager can report on view-through conversions. If someone doesn’t click your ad, the URL with UTM parameters will never be loaded. You can’t even rely on Facebook as a source in GA4 since a link wasn’t clicked.

2. Ads Manager is better equipped to track 7-day and 28-day click. The conversions that should match up most closely are those that happened within one day of clicking. But even then, Ads Manager’s numbers may be a little higher than GA4 since those are unlikely to all be immediate purchases.

3. Ads Manager is better equipped to track across devices. This is getting more difficult for any tracking, but someone clicks an ad from their phone while in their Facebook app. That’s a lot of data. That same person moves to their desktop and opens their browser, which is already logged into Facebook. They go to your website and complete a purchase.

4. GA4 may report organic conversions and Ads Manager won’t. Google has no idea whether you paid to reach someone. While UTM’s might be stripped out when an ad is shared, it won’t necessarily be. That could lead to more conversions reported from Google.

I realize I’ve spent a bunch of words explaining how these numbers won’t add up. But this is intended to provide context for expectations. The 1-day click numbers should be reasonably close to what GA4 reports from Facebook, assuming you’ve properly set up UTM parameters.

One area I’ve found GA4 (which I hate, by the way — LONG LIVE UNIVERSAL ANALYTICS) useful here is for reporting of quality metrics like time spent and other events performed. Here’s an example…

I ran a traffic campaign as an experiment, and I was seeing really good results in Ads Manager — even from my custom events that track quality traffic activity like time spent and scroll. But when I cross-referenced those results with GA4 using UTM parameters, I was given a completely different picture. GA4 said that the average time spent on the page was 4 seconds.

Now, maybe there’s a reason why GA4 may provide suppressed results for time spent. But it at least made me doubt the Ads Manager results enough to think about digging deeper.

7. Breakdown by Placement

Up until now, the focus has been on conversion results that are too good to be true. But this is also extremely common when optimizing for actions further up the funnel.

If you optimize for link clicks or landing page views and get an insanely good Cost Per Action, be skeptical. Use the breakdown feature and take a closer look at the performance by placement.

Check this out as an extreme example…



Nearly every link click was from Audience Network. It’s a placement with a bad reputation as a source of bots, accidental clicks, click fraud, and overall low-quality results.

Amazingly, Audience Network can also be a problem when optimizing for ThruPlays. In particular, the culprit is Audience Network Rewarded Video.

Here’s another crazy example…



The Audience Network Rewarded Video was driving more ThruPlays than actual people reached — by a lot.

This is because Rewarded Video is a way for apps to monetize themselves with ads. Users of those apps are given the ability to view videos in exchange for virtual currency or something else that can be used in the app.

In other words, they likely have no interest in the video at all. They’re just trying to get that reward. And this is almost always reflected in the results — beyond the ThruPlay, these people rarely do anything else.

8. A Note on Small Sample Sizes

And finally, it’s important to drop the reminder that sample size matters. It matters a whole lot.

You may get some amazing results for a day that could be driven by a handful of conversions. And if you’re running a remarketing ad, your potential audience may be seriously limited.

Those results may be legit. But if they’re a small sample size without the ability to scale, you shouldn’t expect those results to continue.

Ultimately, we want scalability, consistency, and predictability. You’re not going to get that with small sample sizes.

Your Turn

I’m sure I forgot something. Is there another source of results that are too good to be true?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Are Ads Manager Results Too Good to Be True? appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

]]> https://www.jonloomer.com/are-ads-manager-results-too-good-to-be-true/feed/ 1 https://www.jonloomer.com/compare-attribution-settings-get-the-most-of-meta-conversion-data/ https://www.jonloomer.com/compare-attribution-settings-get-the-most-of-meta-conversion-data/#respond Tue, 03 Oct 2023 04:03:33 +0000 https://www.jonloomer.com/?p=41864

If you aren't using Compare Attribution Settings in Ads Manager, you are missing out on important context -- and extra conversions.

The post Compare Attribution Settings: Get the Most of Meta Conversion Data appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

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If you’re an advanced Meta advertiser, you understand the value of the Compare Attribution Settings feature. Unfortunately, not nearly enough advertisers know that this exists or how best to leverage it.

Let’s fix that. In this post, you’ll learn:

1. What attribution is
2. Why Compare Attribution Settings is valuable
3. How to access the feature
4. Specific ways to take advantage of it

Let’s go…

A Note on Attribution

Before we get to the feature, a brief explanation is in order.

1. Attribution is how Meta gives credit to an ad for a conversion. Attribution can either be click or view-through. Examples include:

• 1-day view: Someone converts within one day of viewing (not clicking) your ad
• 1-day engaged-view: Someone converts within one day of viewing (not clicking) at least 10 seconds of your skippable video ad
• 1-day click: Someone converts within one day of clicking your ad
• 7-day click: Someone converts within 7 days of clicking your ad

2. The Attribution Setting determines optimization and reporting. Established in the ad set when optimizing for conversions, the default Attribution Setting is 7-day click and 1-day view.



In other words, Meta will do two things:

1. Optimize to show your ads to people who are most likely to convert within the Attribution Setting.

2. Report your conversions, by default, based on that Attribution Setting.

Compare Attribution Settings

The value of the Compare Attribution Settings feature is that you can view conversion results based on any of the attribution windows, regardless of the Attribution Setting used.

Here are a couple of examples (we’ll get to more detailed approaches further down):

1. You used an Attribution Setting of 1-day click. Therefore, the default reporting will only include conversions that happened within 1 day of clicking. You want to see how many conversions happened within 7 days, too.

2. You want to see how many conversions happened within 1-day view. The default is 7-day click and 1-day view, and you’d like to see the share of click and view conversions.

To access this, open the Columns dropdown menu in Ads Manager and select Compare Attribution Settings.



You will then get this menu…



You’ll notice that there are five options in the top section, whereas we only discussed four options for the Attribution Setting. You can also select 28-day click, which is a big deal. This was previously available (and the default) prior to iOS 14 changes in 2021.

Click “Third-Party Reporting” for two more options: View and Click from SKAdNetwork.



These are for app ads. We’ll focus on the top five.

If you select any of the first five, a column will be added for any conversion metric. Here’s an example…



The first column is for how the conversions were reported based on the Attribution Setting. The remaining columns are those you have added from Compare Attribution Settings.

The Math

If you look at the screenshot above, the metrics can be confusing, if not misleading. Let’s recap what is reported.

• Reported: 3,977
• 1-Day View: 30
• 1-Day Engaged-View: 0
• 1-Day Click: 3,890
• 7-Day Click: 3,947
• 28-Day Click: 4,001

The mistake that advertisers can make is that they interpret all of these numbers as separate conversions. But there is overlap.

For example…

28-day click includes 7-day click and 1-day click.
7-day click includes 1-day click.

The reported number is 3,977, and the Attribution Setting used was 7-day click (3,947) and 1-day view (30). Add those two together and you get the reported number.

But, the vast majority of these conversions are 1-day click (3,890). Only 57 happened beyond 1 day and within 7 days (3,947 minus 3,890). There were also another 54 conversions that happened beyond 7-day click and within 28 days (4,001 minus 3,947).

If you wanted to give a total number of conversions that happened within 28-day click and 1-day view, it would be 4,031 (4,001 plus 30).

View-Through Conversions

Now let’s go through some specific use cases of the Compare Attribution Settings feature.

One of the most important is related to view-through conversions. A decent percentage of advertisers don’t even know that view-through conversions are a thing. But they are included within the default Attribution Setting.

View-through conversions have a bad reputation, but I have no issue with them overall. They can absolutely be the source of misleading results, but that’s your job as an advertiser to sort it out.

In my opinion, it makes sense to count view-through conversions for purchases. Someone saw your ad, didn’t click, and they bought your product within a day. You can make the argument that your ad contributed to that conversion.

Most frequently, this is the result of remarketing. You are targeting someone who regularly visits your website or gets emails from you. They saw your ad and didn’t act, but it may have helped push them to purchase when they eventually made that decision.

Is a view-through conversion as valuable as a click-through conversion? Probably not. That’s why you should use this feature to see how many of your conversions happened within 1-day view.

In most cases, you should remove 1-day view from your Attribution Setting for conversions other than purchases, particularly for actions that can happen multiple times. Otherwise, your conversions are likely to get inflated by view-through conversions that had minimal impact.

When in doubt, use Compare Attribution Settings to break down how many of the conversions are happening from 1-day view. If a majority or close to a majority of your conversions are view-through, you should consider removing it from your Attribution Setting. You want to be sure you’re getting a good cost per click-through conversion first and foremost.

Engaged-View Conversions

Engaged-view is the newest attribution, and I admit it’s still somewhat confusing. It applies when someone watches at least 10 seconds (or 97%) of your skippable video and converts without clicking within a day.

If you aren’t running video ads, don’t expect to get any engaged-view conversions. This adds a greater level of value to your 1-day view conversions. While these people didn’t click, we know that they at least watched your video for 10 seconds.

You can also compare 1-day view to 1-day engaged-view to get an idea of the overall quality of those view-through conversions.

Click Conversions

Make no mistake, click conversions are the most valuable. You can have the most confidence in these numbers.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that these numbers will match up with third-party reporting or Google Analytics. Even 1-day click doesn’t mean that someone clicked and then immediately converted. It just means that someone converted within a day of clicking.

Personally, I would only use 7-day click for purchases. There’s rarely any reason that someone would convert via view-through or several days after a click for a lead or lower-commitment conversion (there are always exceptions).

Especially when optimizing for a purchase, compare attribution settings to get a sense of where most of your conversions are falling. If most are within 1-day click, you may consider adjusting the Attribution Setting accordingly.

Of course, there’s one more click conversion option…

28-Day Click

Prior to iOS 14 changes in 2021, default attribution was 28-day click and 1-day view. What’s crazy to think about now is that back then, advertisers often complained that reporting seemed inflated. Now it’s the opposite.

While 28-day click isn’t available as an Attribution Setting in the ad set, you can still see how many conversions happened within 28 days of clicking your ad. And you absolutely should, particularly for purchases — especially high-priced purchases.

Look at it like this…

Your ad inspired someone to click your ad. They were interested in your product. But maybe it is a bit expensive and a high commitment. Maybe this person needs to consult their spouse, business partner, or higher up before making this purchase.

They copy or bookmark the link. Maybe they send it to that spouse or business partner. And maybe they wait for a meeting or the right moment in the budget to make this purchase.

And then, somewhere between eight and 28 days later, they make the purchase. Your ad contributed to that conversion. It was likely what inspired every step that followed.

The other example is that someone clicked your ad and was interested but didn’t buy right away for some of the reasons mentioned. Maybe they subscribed to your newsletter or for email reminders and they eventually acted on a message from you. Or maybe they remembered the product and later Googled you to find and purchase the product.

The bottom line is this: 28-day click doesn’t inflate your numbers. You simply need to provide important context when presenting your results.

Do not ignore 28-day click. These people actually clicked your ad. Meta knows that they later purchased. Just make sure to be clear about how many of your conversions are beyond 7-day click.

For the more expensive products, you may see that a lot of purchases are hidden here and completely change how you perceive results. For the typical campaign, though, you may be surprised to see an extra 5-10% or so.



First Conversion Reporting

One development in 2024 was the ability to isolate First Conversion reporting. Once you select any of the attribution settings, you should see the following options…



By default, Meta reports on all conversions. First Conversion means that Meta will report the first qualifying instance of an event. For example, if someone who clicks your ad performs multiple purchases within the attribution setting, only the first will be reported.

The difference between All Conversions and First Conversion is likely minimal for purchase events. But, you may see a far greater disparity when an event often occurs multiple times.



I’ve found First Conversion most helpful when providing much more realistic and precise reporting for custom events that are based on website engagement (scroll depth and time spent). These results can be grossly inflated by repeat actions.

I’ve also used First Conversion to help solve reporting discrepancy problems. Keep in mind that First Conversion isn’t meant to replace All Conversions. It’s not necessarily “better” in all cases. But, it’s a good option that may be preferred, depending on the conversion event.

Watch Video

I recorded a video about Compare Attribution Settings, too. Watch it here…

Your Turn

Do you use the Compare Attribution Settings feature? What other ways do you use it?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Compare Attribution Settings: Get the Most of Meta Conversion Data appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

]]> https://www.jonloomer.com/compare-attribution-settings-get-the-most-of-meta-conversion-data/feed/ 0 https://www.jonloomer.com/engaged-view-attribution/ https://www.jonloomer.com/engaged-view-attribution/#respond Mon, 17 Jul 2023 21:53:23 +0000 https://www.jonloomer.com/?p=39475

Meta rolls out Engaged-View Attribution to count conversions that result from deeper engagement with skippable video ads. Details here...

The post How Engaged-View Attribution Works for Meta Advertising appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

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Engaged-View Attribution provides a unique way to measure conversions after engagement with your video ads. It could be a sign of where attribution is heading.

Let’s take a closer look at what Engaged-View Attribution is and how it fits in with Meta ads attribution generally. In this post, we’ll cover the following…

• What is Engaged-View Attribution?
• Placements and Skippable Video Ads
• View-Through Conversions
• Ad Set Attribution Setting
• Results and Compare Attribution
• Value of Engaged-View
• The Future of Ads Attribution
• When to Use

It’s a lot! Let’s go…

What Is It?

First, attribution is how Meta provides credit to your ads for conversions that typically occur on your website. Credit can be given to ads that received a click (within 1 or 7 days of the conversion) or only a view (within a day).

Meta defines Engaged-View Attribution as the following:

When someone plays 10 seconds of a skippable video ad, or watches at least 97% of the video ad, if the video ad is shorter than 10 seconds, this will count toward engaged-view attribution. The person watching the video also needs to convert on your advertising objective within 24 hours.

Let’s simplify this. The following all need to be true for Meta to count an Engaged-View conversion:

1. Someone views a “skippable” video ad
2. They watch that video for at least 10 seconds (or 97% if under 10 seconds)
3. They don’t click to your website
4. They end up converting within 24 hours

Meta provides the following example of an Engaged-View conversion:

Sharon sees a video ad for yoga on-demand class in her Instagram Stories. She played the ad for more than 10 seconds instead of skipping to the next story/video. She continued to consume other content. The next day, she remembers the video and signs up for the on-demand yoga classes. In this scenario, Sharon signing up for yoga class the next day would be attributed to the campaign as an Engaged-view conversion.

Skippable Video Ads

It’s important to understand that Engaged-View Attribution doesn’t apply to all video ads. Meta’s documentation specifically mentions “skippable” videos. The question then becomes, “Which placements may have video ads that cannot be skipped?”

Meta provided some clarity on this:

Engaged-view is available for all placements except Facebook in-stream video ads that cannot be skipped.



In other words, Engaged-View attribution should be relevant most of the time. The rare exception is when an in-stream video cannot be skipped. How often that happens isn’t entirely clear.

View-Through Conversions

Meta didn’t do a great job of clarifying that this is only for view-through conversions. But it’s found here within Meta’s documentation…



Without that line, it was implied in multiple ways but was never explicit. It’s important to remember this when looking at your results.

Engaged-View conversions will always be a segment of your 1-day view conversions. If someone views a skippable video ad for 10 seconds, clicks to your website, and then converts within a day, it will not be counted as an Engaged-View conversion. It falls within click conversion.

Ad Set Attribution Setting

To access the Engaged-View Attribution Setting, you’ll first need to use the Sales, Leads, or Engagement objective and select “Website” as the conversion location.



Make sure to select your pixel and conversion event, too. Then scroll down a little within the section and click the “See More Options” link to see your Attribution Setting.



Hover to edit it, and you’ll see the following drop-down menus…



This is a design change. Previously, there was one drop-down menu to select from the various click and view Attribution Settings. Now, you select click and view attribution windows separately, and there’s a third drop-down for Engaged-View.

Beyond that, nothing’s truly changed. The only click options are 7 days or 1 day.



The only view options are 1 day or none.



If you did select “none” for your view window, Engaged-View would not be available.



Otherwise, you’ll have the options of 1 day or none for Engaged-View.



Results and Compare Attribution

You can add context when viewing your results in Ads Manager to see how many conversions happened within an Engaged-View. Select “Compare Attribution Settings” from the Columns drop-down menu.



The Results column in your reporting will display conversions that happened within the Attribution Setting you selected in your ad set by default. But you can add columns for each attribution window to see how that reporting breaks down.



Remember that you will only see Engaged-View for video ads that lead to a view-through conversion. The Engaged-View numbers will be included within the 1-day view numbers.

Here’s an example…



Let’s break down what this means:

1. There are 92 total conversions between click and view attribution.
2. There are 54 total 1-day view conversions.
3. Of those 54 1-day view conversions, 9 are 1-day engaged-view.

In other words, there are 45 1-day view conversions that didn’t qualify as engaged-view (54 minus 9).

Value

What need does Engaged-View attribution fill? I think there are two primary areas where it can provide value.

1. Improved optimization. If you run a video ad with the goal of a website conversion, Engaged-View may improve the signals that the algorithm focuses on. View-through conversions are often criticized because you can pad your results through remarketing this way. This doesn’t help you. But if the algorithm focuses on engaged-view conversions in this case, you may see more quality conversions.

2. Quality verification. The Compare Attribution Settings feature can provide insight on the quality of your reported conversions. If you see that a high percentage of your conversions are 1-day view, you may have less confidence in the results. But, if a greater percentage of those 1-day view conversions are Engaged-View, it would improve your impressions of those results.

The Future of Ads Attribution

While Engaged-View in its current form has a lot of issues, I still see some potential here. First, it’s important to recognize that Meta is doing something completely different by leveraging in-app engagement for conversion attribution. That’s new.

First, as I’ve said throughout above, why isolate this to skippable video ads? While I understand the argument to eliminate forced-views from Engaged-View conversions, I honestly don’t know that it’s necessary. If you’re forced to watch a video and you converted within a day, it seems perfectly reasonable to suggest that the video contributed.

But, maybe we’re overthinking all of this. Why limit it to videos? Why not instead use some sort of standard for measuring an “engaged view” that applies to any format or placement?

What we want to eliminate is that ad that barely appears for a person before they convert within a day. But, what if they reacted? Commented? Shared? Opened it? Stared at it in 100% view for 10+ seconds? All of these things could be considered deep engagement for signals Meta could use for optimization and measurement.

Maybe it’s an expansion of Engaged-View to include other formats and different types of engagement. Even if it’s not, Meta’s shown the willingness to include in-app signals in this way where they hadn’t previously. It could mean a future shift in conversion attribution.

When to Use It

The obvious answer is when running a campaign where your performance goal is a website conversion and you use video ads. There’s probably no clear reason not to use Engaged-View Attribution.

It’s important to remember that Engaged-View conversions are a segment of View-Through Attribution, which is normally a minority of your conversions anyway. And it’s only for a handful of placements.

In other words, we’re talking about a very specific use case and probably a very small number of conversions.

That use case, though, will find this valuable. When thinking about hypothetical scenarios where this will be most helpful, I come up with the following points of focus…

1. Higher budgets. If Engaged-View Attribution is likely to represent the smallest segment of your conversions, higher budgets will likely be necessary to generate those conversions.

2. Remarketing. This may be the most valuable part of Engaged-View. If you target your email list or recent website visitors, many of your conversions may end up being from people who were served your ad (didn’t really see it) and would have gone to your website to convert within a day anyway. That leads to padding numbers and can devalue your conversion results.

But Engaged-View could provide further verification of the value of your view-through conversions. If you know that a large percentage of these people watched at least 10 seconds of your video before converting, you may trust those results more.

3. Verbal CTAs. I’ve been trying to think of real-world scenarios that are likely to happen, and this is what I came up with: An influencer records a video showcasing your product and gives a verbal CTA to go to a shortened URL and buy the product. No link in the copy (or it wasn’t clicked). While this may be more indicative of an organic video than an ad, it’s more reflective of video conversions that could result in an Engaged-View now.

Your Turn

What do you think? How will you use Engaged-View Attribution?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post How Engaged-View Attribution Works for Meta Advertising appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

]]> https://www.jonloomer.com/engaged-view-attribution/feed/ 0 https://www.jonloomer.com/meta-ads-attribution-setting-a-complete-guide/ https://www.jonloomer.com/meta-ads-attribution-setting-a-complete-guide/#comments Mon, 12 Jun 2023 15:38:56 +0000 https://www.jonloomer.com/?p=39304

The Attribution Setting controls how your ads are delivered and how conversions are reported. It's not straightforward. This guide will help.

The post Meta Ads Attribution Setting: A Complete Guide appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

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Attribution is the process of giving credit to an ad for a conversion. It’s the foundation for the ultimate determinant of performance. As a result, you must understand the Meta ads Attribution Setting.

It’s not nearly as straight-forward as many expect it to be. Not only is it variable (you can change how attribution is defined), it controls more than just reporting.

If you’re confused, don’t worry. By the end of this post, it will all make sense…

Conversions

Attribution will only matter if you’re optimizing for any type of conversion that happens away from Facebook. Typically, this might be for a purchase or lead, but it can be for any conversion defined with a standard event, custom event, or custom conversion.

Usually, these conversions happen on a website. Someone visits a product landing page (View Content), adds a product to their cart (Add to Cart), begins entering their payment information (Initiate Checkout), and completes the purchase (Purchase). Or maybe they registered for your newsletter (Complete Registration) or provided contact details to learn more about your product (Lead).

The Attribution Setting does not apply to actions that occur within the Meta family of apps (clicks, Messenger conversations, Instant Form completions, comments, on-Facebook video views, and more).

Campaign Objective

Since a website conversion needs to occur in order for the Attribution Setting to apply, there are only certain campaign objectives that will make this possible.



Only the following three objectives can lead to a website conversion:

• Engagement
• Leads
• Sales

When using the Engagement objective, you would need to select Website as your conversion location, then “Maximum number of conversions” as your performance goal.



The Leads objective applies as well, but only if you select Website as your conversion location and, again, conversions as your goal.



Not surprisingly, the Attribution Setting applies to the Sales objective, but only when Website is your conversion location.



You may expect that the Attribution Setting would apply to the Traffic objective, but it doesn’t since you aren’t able to set a standard event, custom event, or custom conversion as your performance goal.



Ad Set Optimization

Now we have that out of the way, click the See More Options link beneath your performance goal.



You will now see the Attribution Setting…



The default setting, as you can see above, is 7-day click and 1-day view. The first thing to understand is that this setting defines a conversion as one that happens within seven days of clicking on your ad or one day of viewing (and not clicking).

Meta knows who is served your ad. Meta knows who clicks it. Because of the Meta pixel, events, and Conversions API, Meta also knows (mostly) who ultimately converted.

The default Attribution Setting of 7-day click and 1-day view means two things:

1. Meta will optimize to get you the most conversions within 7 days of clicking and 1-days of viewing as possible
2. Your results will be reported if they happened within this window

Edit the Attribution Setting

If you click the Edit link, you can also change the Attribution Setting…



As you can see in the image above, you have the following windows that can be adjusted:

• Click-Through Window
• View-Through Window
• Engaged-View Window (For Video Only)

Each window can be adjusted individually.

Click-Through offers the options of 1-day or 7-days.



View-Through offers 1-day or none.



And Engaged-View offers 1-day or none. But note that you can only select 1-day for Engaged View if View-Through is also set to 1-day.



Remember: This will change both how your ad set is optimized for delivery (who will see your ad within your designated audience) and how conversions are reported.

I get that the inclination will be to stick with 7-day click and 1-day view. In theory, that should result in more conversions reported than the other options. But, there are reasons to consider the other options.

If the action you’re optimizing for often happens quickly because it’s free or may be an event defined by a type of website engagement, 1-day click may make sense. This will also prevent you from getting inflated numbers if people return to make take that action multiple times (particularly related to the engagement action).

If the action is a purchase, 7-day click and 1-day view will usually make the most sense. It may take time to make this decision. And the ad may inspire a search that leads to a conversion, even if they never clicked your ad.

You may also consider eliminating the 1-day view if you feel it will unnaturally inflate your results. This can especially be the case if you’re remarketing to people who get your emails or who already visit your website.

And finally, consider including 1-Day Engaged-View whenever promoting a video with a CTA button to a product page. This will help isolate people who watch at least 10 seconds of your skippable video before converting within a day (without clicking).

Base Reporting

It’s critical to remember that the Attribution Setting you use determines how results are reported. There will typically be a column next to Results to remind you what Attribution Setting was used.



Here’s an example where the Attribution Setting was 1-day click…



Compare Attribution Settings

I understand why it may be difficult to go with a 1-day click Attribution Setting and trust that it will give you better results than sticking with 7-day click and 1-day view. Luckily, you can always see how many conversions happened within the other windows.

Of course, many advertisers don’t know this exists. It was even originally taken away due to iOS changes (and then returned).

Click the Columns dropdown menu in Ads Manager and select Compare Attribution Settings.



Here’s the beautiful part: Not only can you select from 1-day click, 7-day click, 1-day view, and 1-day engaged-view, but you can add a column for 28-day click.



Click “Third-Party Reporting” for two more options: View and Click from SKAdNetwork. These are for app ads.



You can then see how your conversions are reported across different windows.



The first column is for how the conversions were reported based on the Attribution Setting. The remaining columns are those you have added from Compare Attribution Settings.

Watch Video

I recorded a video about this, too. Check it out below…

Your Turn

I hope this gives you a much better understanding of the Attribution Setting and how you can benefit from it. How do you use it?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Meta Ads Attribution Setting: A Complete Guide appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

]]> https://www.jonloomer.com/meta-ads-attribution-setting-a-complete-guide/feed/ 8 https://www.jonloomer.com/meta-brings-back-28-day-click-attribution/ https://www.jonloomer.com/meta-brings-back-28-day-click-attribution/#respond Tue, 01 Nov 2022 15:11:10 +0000 https://www.jonloomer.com/?p=37060

Meta is bringing back 28-day click attribution! Here are the details on where to find it and what it means for your advertising...

The post Meta Brings Back 28-Day Click Attribution appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

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Just in time for the holidays, Meta is bringing back 28-day click attribution.

This is some of the best news advertisers have received in a while. At the moment, though, I haven’t seen anything official from Meta on the reasoning behind it, the quality of that reporting, or what it means for the future of optimization and reporting.

So, for now, let’s discuss what has happened, how it impacts your advertising, and what it could mean.

The History of 28-Day Click

Prior to iOS 14 changes, Facebook used separate attribution windows (for reporting) and conversion windows (for optimization). One major change was the move to an Attribution Setting (for both optimization and reporting) and the removal of 28-day click.

While advertisers complain of a drop in performance since these changes, I believe the blame has been misplaced on iOS opt-outs. Aggregated Event Measurement should still find many of your prioritized events. The biggest change was the loss of the 28-day click window.

When 28-day click attribution existed, we’d often get questions about whether Facebook ads reporting was inflated. But once it went away, those questions moved to panic about conversions dropping.

And it makes sense. Especially for sales of products that may take longer than seven days to make a buying decision, there’s every reason to believe that advertisers have been hurt by these “lost” conversions.

The Return of 28-Day Click

It’s been an eventful week or so. Just a few days ago, Meta brought back the Compare Attribution Settings feature. And it’s with that feature that we now see the return of 28-day click.

Open the Columns drop-down in Ads Manager and scroll down to “Compare Attribution Settings.”



That feature now looks like this…



You can add a column for 28-day click to view how many conversions happened in that window, regardless of your Attribution Setting.



Optimization vs. Reporting

Keep in mind, the addition of 28-day click is only for reporting. The default reporting is still based on your Attribution Setting, which is determined in the ad set. To see the 28-day click conversions, you’ll need to use the Compare Attribution Settings feature.

If you’re wondering, nothing has changed to Attribution Settings (yet, at least). There isn’t an option for 28-day click.



If there were, this would change how your ad set is optimized to include those who converted after 28 days of clicking.

How Can This Be?

Meta got rid of 28-day click for a reason. Presumably, various privacy changes have resulted in a lack of confidence in tracking beyond seven days. So, how could they bring it back now?

Well, there is no official statement from Meta on this, so I only have some assumptions. Keep in mind that originally the Attribution Setting was 7-day click only. Meta pulled way back initially. The company has said that modeling and machine learning have improved reporting.

It’s possible, if not likely, that Facebook has always had 28-day click reporting information during the past 18 months or so. And we also shouldn’t forget that not everyone is on an iOS device. Even if Meta is unable to attribute 28-day click conversions for users who opt-out on iOS devices (not known), there’s a world of potential conversions remaining.

It would seem, though, that privacy restrictions will only get tighter in the future. Meta must feel confident that those restrictions will not hinder 28-day click attribution or they wouldn’t have bothered bringing it back.

I would understand any cynicism related to the timing of this release. You may be able to uncover more conversions just in time for your holiday campaigns. This may alter your view of the performance of those efforts.

What You Should Do

This is where advanced advertisers will separate themselves from typical advertisers. Typical advertisers won’t even know this exists. Advanced advertisers will use this to uncover more conversions and show clients the relative success of their ads.

Do not be afraid to use this. Understand that the customer journey often takes longer than seven days after a click.

Watch Video

I also recorded this short video about the return of 28-day click. If you aren’t following me on TikTok yet, please do!

@jonloomer 28-day click attribution is back for Facebook ads! #facebookads ♬ Zodiac | Seamless Looping Trap Hip Hop Instrumental – xklbeats

Your Turn

Do you have this update? What do you think?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Meta Brings Back 28-Day Click Attribution appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

]]> https://www.jonloomer.com/meta-brings-back-28-day-click-attribution/feed/ 0