Conversion Attribution Archives - Jon Loomer Digital

Uncovering the Reality of Meta Click Attribution

Jon Loomer — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 20:23:22 +0000

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:

Click the image
Open a browser tab
Go to jonloomer.com/experiment
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 for Meta Advertising Checklist

Jon Loomer — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 23:57:18 +0000

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:

Add the Pixel
Standard Events
Custom Events
Custom Conversions
Conversions API for Web Events
Conversions API for Offline Events
Test Events
Understand Attribution
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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

You collect leads on your website
A salesperson contacts these leads
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:

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:

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:

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.

5 Most Common Attribution Mistakes Advertisers Make

Jon Loomer — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 22:27:01 +0000

Attribution may be the single most important element of advertising. It not only helps advertisers see what works and what doesn’t by assigning conversion credit to ads, but it impacts optimization and targeting. Get this wrong, and your mistakes spill down through every step of your advertising.

Last week, we covered the most common optimization mistakes that advertisers make. This week, let’s focus on attribution mistakes.

Maybe you are making some of these mistakes. It’s not too late. Make the necessary corrections.

Let’s get to the most common attribution mistakes…

What is Attribution?

First, let’s be clear about what we’re talking about.

Attribution is the ability to give credit to an ad for a conversion. While a simple concept, there are several layers to proper attribution that can impact advertising performance.

When something goes wrong with attribution, it’s due to a failure in one of these areas…

1. Setup. You’ve done everything on the back end to make sure that results are reported accurately and completely.
2. Application. You know how to apply your knowledge of attribution to different optimization strategies.
3. Interpretation. You are able to make meaning of your results.
4. Understanding. You understand how attribution works, it’s strengths, and weaknesses and how that impacts your approach.

Now let’s break down the most common mistakes.

1. Improper or Incomplete Setup of Pixel or Conversions API

Conversion attribution is impossible without first setting up a way for Meta to know how people are engaging with your business away from the Meta family of apps.

This starts with the Meta pixel. It needs to be on every page of your websites. When possible, it needs to be on other websites you don’t own where you sell products.

At one time, setting up the pixel (and events, which we’ll get to in a moment) was enough. But mostly due to privacy laws and weaker tracking, passing first-party data is critical to complete attribution. If you haven’t set up the Conversions API, you are sending incomplete data to Meta.

That could come in two forms:

1. Web API. This is the most common form of the Conversions API. By sending conversion information from the web API in addition to the pixel, you can help fill in blanks where the pixel can fail. There are multiple methods to accomplish this, but I use Stape to set up the API Gateway.

2. Offline or CRM API. If all business is done on your website, the web API may be sufficient. Otherwise, offline leads and purchases need to be passed to Meta via an offline or CRM API. This allows the possibility that you can see when your ads lead to conversions that happen away from your website. Meta can also optimize for these conversions.

2. Failure of Standard Events, Custom Events, and Custom Conversions

Of course, setting up the pixel and Conversions API is half the battle. Make sure you do that. But it’s the events themselves that define when someone performed an important action.

Events help define whether someone performed a purchase, registration, search, or other important action on your website. Custom conversions help provide granularity to your reporting, like the specific product that was purchased.

Failure in this area comes down to three primary things…

1. Misunderstanding their roles and unique purpose. Do you know the differences between standard events, custom events, and custom conversions? Most advertisers don’t, confusing custom events for custom conversions. Advertisers will attempt to use one in place of another. The reality is that you need to use all three.

2. Improper or incomplete setup. Set up standard events for all important actions when possible. Set up custom events for those unique actions that aren’t predefined. Pass the necessary details of these actions via parameters. Create custom conversions to add granularity to your reporting.

3. Over or under reporting. When results are clearly wrong, advertisers are often quick to blame Meta. But start with yourself. The pixel, Conversions API, and events all need to be set up properly to fire on the right page and at the right time. Do this incorrectly, and you may send too many or too few events, which will impact your reporting.

3. Inability to Understand Meaning of Conversion Results

One of the most fundamental failures is misunderstanding your results, how they are calculated, and the context behind different types of attribution.

By default, conversions are counted when someone clicks your ad and converts within seven days or views your ad and converts within a day (without clicking). Far too many advertisers have no idea this is the case. They assume that all reported conversions in the Results column are due to someone clicking their ad and immediately converting.

That conversion may not be immediate. It may happen later that day. It may happen seven days later. Or your customer may not have clicked at all, but they were shown your ad.

Attribution mistakes often come down to misunderstanding that either all conversions are equal or that all conversions of a type (1-day click or 1-day view) are always good or always bad.

Context matters.

If you are an experienced advertiser who appreciates the nuance of the various types of attribution, you regularly use the Compare Attribution Settings feature to see how your results break down. You’ll even add a column for 28-day click, which is otherwise buried.

How many of your conversions are view-through? Depending on what you’re promoting, a high percentage is a red flag. You may want to discount them. Or simply acknowledge that they aren’t as meaningful as the the click-through conversions.

Of course, if you’re selling a product and a high percentage of those view-through conversions are engaged-view (and your ad uses video), you may have more confidence in those numbers.

There’s also the matter of visitors performing a conversion event multiple times, which can lead to the perception of inflated results. This can be addressed with First Conversion reporting.

4. Expecting Google Analytics and Ads Manager to Report the Same

One of the advertiser’s biggest annoyances is a client who insists that Ads Manager reporting is wrong because it doesn’t match up with Google Analytics.

How do you respond?

Meta and GA4 will measure your conversions differently. And frankly, Google has less data than Meta does.

Only Meta has the knowledge that someone saw your ad without clicking prior to converting. And Meta may be better equipped to attribute a conversion to an ad when a customer switches devices or comes back days later to complete a purchase.

It doesn’t matter that you use UTM parameters. This still doesn’t solve for view-through conversions. And it’s unlikely to be enough to help GA4 properly attribute a conversion from Facebook if it happens days after the initial click.

It’s important to use both. Use GA4 with UTM parameters as a second source of information. This can also help you spot problems if you are unable to explain the disparity.

But one isn’t “right.” Neither is perfect. Embrace this.

5. Always Leaving the Attribution Setting at the Default

A big mistake is misunderstanding how the attribution setting applies both to default reporting and optimization for ad delivery.

Once again, the default attribution setting is 7-day click and 1-day view. Not only does that mean that conversions will be reported that happen within that window, but Meta will optimize to show ads to people who are likely to convert within that window as well.

This is important. If you’re optimizing for purchase, a 7-day click and 1-day view attribution setting makes sense. But it may not for any other type of conversion.

You can make the case that a view-through conversion is relevant for purchases. Someone saw your ad. They were interested. But it is a big commitment. They need to discuss with their spouse, business partner, or higher ups. They either go directly to your website or Google your product later that day and convert.

But this explanation for view-through conversions falls flat when discussing the typical lead. If something is free and easy to acquire, it makes very little sense that someone wouldn’t simply act on that ad when they see it.

This also applies to when optimizing for custom events based on engagement actions. These events can happen repeatedly. The result is that Meta can inflate your results by simply displaying ads to people who visit your website regularly. Even if they don’t click.

There is a solution. Edit the attribution setting in these cases to be 1-day click only. Since view-throughs won’t be counted as conversions by default, the algorithm won’t optimize for that type of conversion.

You can still see 1-day view conversions, though. They just aren’t included in the default reporting. Use the compare attribution settings feature to see them. Expect that you’ll get fewer of them when they aren’t included in the ad set attribution setting.

Watch Video

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

Your Turn

What areas of attribution do you struggle with?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post 5 Most Common Attribution Mistakes Advertisers Make appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

4 Most Important Factors That Impact Meta Ads Performance

Jon Loomer — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 01:58:31 +0000

There are four factors that, if you consistently prioritize them and get them right, will lead to high-performing Meta ads. If you run an agency or manage ads for others, invest in these primary areas.

First, allow me to state the obvious: There are limitless factors that impact the performance of your ads. I’m not saying that these are the only things that matter and you can ignore everything else.

But these things are easily the most impactful. I’m confident saying that if you aren’t getting the results you want, it’s likely due to a combination of these factors.

I should also be clear about what I mean by “performance.” Your ads didn’t just appear to perform well. You didn’t just get a great CTR or other surface-level result. Your ads performed well in a substantive and measurable way.

Let’s get to it…

1. Performance Goal

The Performance Goal is determined in the ad set and has the most impact on how your ads are delivered.

Don’t overcomplicate this. The Performance Goal is exactly what it sounds like. This is the action that you want. This is how you measure success. It is also how Meta measures success and the metric that is prioritized for optimizing delivery.

The algorithm is literal. Meta will do everything it can to get you as many of that action as possible at the lowest price. That means showing your ad to the people most likely to perform that event.

The Performance Goal is why broad targeting is possible. The algorithm knows the action you want and can then search out the people most likely to perform that action.

Meta will find ways to get you those actions, even if it means taking advantage of weaknesses in placements that can inflate your results. Setting a Performance Goal that is a surface-level action will guarantee you’ll get lots of those actions. But you may not get conversions.

When possible, you should optimize for some type of conversion. You can even adjust the quality of conversion Meta optimizes for and you get.

You can optimize for number of purchases or value of purchases.

You can optimize for any leads or conversion leads.

There isn’t one “right” Performance Goal you should use in all cases. But this one step is possibly the most critical.

2. Attribution

In the simplest form, attribution is the ability to give credit to an ad for a conversion. Here are examples of when that is important…

Have you properly set up events?

You have the Meta pixel on your website. You’ve set up standard and custom events to track the most important actions. You’re also passing first-party data via the Conversions API. If you take any shortcuts, the ability to measure the impact of your ads will be limited.

Can you interpret results?

This is under appreciated. Do you take the results at face value? Or do you compare attribution settings to see how many conversions fell within each window to better evaluate those numbers?

Is attribution complete and accurate for optimization?

Incomplete attribution doesn’t only impact reporting. It’s important for Meta to know that engagement with an ad led to a conversion for the purpose of optimization because Meta learns from and makes adjustments based on results.

Attribution could be deflated or inflated if set up incorrectly. That will impact how your ads are delivered.

3. Copy and Creative

Let’s assume that you nailed the Performance Goal and attribution. You did everything right, but your ads are still bombing. What’s the most likely explanation?

Especially these days, it’s copy and creative. Your ads need to be designed in a way that appeal to your target audience. They should invite the action that you want. The right Performance Goal won’t guarantee that.

You need to test different formats (video, static image, carousel, Instant Experience), language, primary text, headlines, and CTA buttons. You can test several at once using Dynamic Creative, Flexible Formats, or Advantage+ Creative.

There isn’t one right way to get the ad copy and creative right. It’s the most variable and difficult to pin down. But they can be the reason your ads failed.

4. Budget

I went back and forth on whether to include the budget, but I don’t think we can ignore its importance.

I’m not saying that you can’t have success with lower budgets. I’m also not saying that higher budgets will guarantee good results. But this is absolutely a factor.

In order to get optimal results, your ads should exit the Learning Phase. To do that, you’ll need to generate about 50 conversion events (your Performance Goal) in a week. If your budget is too low, that may not be possible.

You may still get acceptable results with that lower budget, even if you are unable to exit the Learning Phase. But you’re unlikely to get optimal results without spending more.

And because of that, advertisers often feel forced to adjust their Performance Goal when selling a product. You may use link clicks, landing page views, or a conversion event that’s further up the funnel.

These approaches aren’t guaranteed to fail, but they are much less likely to succeed than if you could spend the budget to optimize for purchases.

Prioritize These Optimizations

You may not be able to do anything about your budget, but you can understand how it impacts performance. Otherwise, a strategy that prioritizes all of these items will give your ads the best chance of success.

1. When possible, set the Performance Goal that accurately reflects the action that you want. If you choose something else, know the risks involved.

2. Make sure that Meta has an accurate and complete picture of attribution by properly and thoroughly setting up the Meta pixel, Conversions API, and events. Know how to evaluate the resultant data.

3. Invest in copywriters and creative resources to help generate ads that will give you the best opportunity for success.

Do these things, and you will consistently outperform those who deprioritize them.

Your Turn

Do you prioritize these four factors in your advertising strategies?

Let me know in the comments below.

The post 4 Most Important Factors That Impact Meta Ads Performance appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Compare Attribution Settings: Get the Most of Meta Conversion Data

Jon Loomer — Tue, 03 Oct 2023 04:03:33 +0000

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:

What attribution is
Why Compare Attribution Settings is valuable
How to access the feature
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.

How Engaged-View Attribution Works for Meta Advertising

Jon Loomer — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 21:53:23 +0000

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:

Someone views a “skippable” video ad
They watch that video for at least 10 seconds (or 97% if under 10 seconds)
They don’t click to your website
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.

Meta Brings Back 28-Day Click Attribution

Jon Loomer — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 15:11:10 +0000

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.

Compare Attribution Settings Returns to Facebook Ads Manager

Jon Loomer — Tue, 25 Oct 2022 04:24:04 +0000

Oh my goodness. Finally. After about a year-and-a-half on hiatus, the “Compare Attribution” feature has returned to Facebook Ads Manager.

Let’s provide a little bit of history on the feature, why you should care, and how to use it…

Understanding Attribution

“Attribution” is how Facebook gives credit to an ad for conversions. By default, an ad gets credit for a conversion if a targeted user clicks your ad and converts within 7 days or views your ad without clicking and converts within a day.

You determine how attribution is defined when you create your ad set. Options exist to change attribution to 7-day click, 1-day click and 1-day view, or 1-day click.

This setting impacts two things:

How Facebook optimizes ad distribution
How Facebook reports conversions

In other words, if you choose 1-day click, Facebook will focus (in theory) on people most likely to convert within a day after clicking. The reporting in Ads Manager will also be based on this attribution setting. This created confusion because you would only see 7-day click attribution if you determined this in the ad set.

Of course, it hasn’t always been this way. This was one of many changes post-iOS 14.

The Former “Compare Attribution Windows”

So, prior to iOS 14 changes, it didn’t matter what conversion window you optimized for within the ad set. Reporting would be the same in Ads Manager. By default, that was 28-day click and 1-day view back in the day.

Not only that, you could “Compare Attribution Windows” to view how many conversions happened within each window.

This was very valuable for so many reasons. First, it helped detrmine how to optimize. Second, it could help you get a clearer picture of the click-and-view-through breakdown (you may consider the numbers inflated if most are 1-day view).

The iOS 14 Changes

And then iOS 14 happened.

One of the biggest adjustments was the removal of 28-day click attribution. Advertisers went from having to defend “inflated” reporting to now needing to find “lost” conversions.

But, the other big change was losing the ability to compare attribution windows. This loss was one more item on the list which caused a decrease in confidence related to reporting.

What’s funny is that Facebook would eventually sneak in a “Standardize Attribution Setting” feature, buried in the custom ad reports.

Most advertisers didn’t know that it existed, and it was a weird work-around since you were required to select multiple ad accounts in order to access it.

Compare Attribution Settings Returns

And today, I was happy to see this little message within Ads Manager by the Columns menu…

Like the old feature, it’s found at the bottom of the Columns menu.

Click that, and you can select the attribution settings that you want to view as a column in your report.

How to Use This

This is a really big deal. The main reason: Context.

Imagine, if you will, a situation where you are remarketing to your website visitors and email list. Facebook reports some really big conversion numbers. You’re curious how many of these conversions resulted from a 1-day view. Such conversions can happen a lot with remarketing — some of the people you targeted were already visiting your website.

Now, you can get clarity on that question.

In this example, 8 of the 18 reported purchases were 1-day view. That doesn’t mean those 8 don’t count, but you may value them less than click-through conversions.

The other big reason to use this is for deciding how to optimize. It’s a running debate whether you should optimize for 1-day click in some situations or not because, technically, you’d “lose” all of the 7-day click conversions. But, maybe you’d get more 1-day click conversions as a result (or the argument goes).

When you have this data available, there is no longer a risk to using 1-day click attribution. You don’t lose the 7-day click conversions because you can still see them with this feature. And it’s possible that this will tell you that there isn’t a benefit to using a certain attribution setting.

Old Data Unavailable

I haven’t seen an official announcement from Facebook on this, but it looks like I onlly have this data for newer campaigns. I’m not sure how far it goes back, but I certainly don’t currently have these breakdowns for any of the 28-day click ad sets, prior to the big changes of iOS 14.

Why Not Create a Default View?

Honestly, I don’t understand why a full reporting of conversions based on all attribution settings isn’t available. You used the 1-day click attribution setting in the ad set. So what? Show how many conversions happened within each setting. Don’t force the advertiser to dig for it.

By making it default, this helps Facebook. Advertisers aren’t misled by under-reporting. They may have a more positive impression of their ad performance as a result. The context this ads can also lead to smarter decisions.

Your Turn

Needless to say, I’m pretty pumped about this. While I used the Standardize Attribution workaround, it’s nice to have a piece of pre-iOS 14 back.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!

The post Compare Attribution Settings Returns to Facebook Ads Manager appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Standardize Attribution Setting: You Can Still Compare Facebook Attribution Windows

Jon Loomer — Mon, 28 Mar 2022 18:00:20 +0000

I’ve long complained about how Facebook removed the Compare Attribution feature during the iOS 14+ updates in 2021. I even wrote about it last week. Recently, I was directed to a round-about way you can still do this.

That’s right, you can still view your results by attribution window. It’s not done the same way as with the old Compare Attribution feature. It’s not in Ads Manager. And, honestly, it’s a really odd workaround that I’m not even sure is supposed to exist.

Let me explain…

Use Custom Ad Reports

First, you’ll need to be in your Custom Ad Reports. You can get there from the Tools menu. Select Ads Reporting under Analyze and Report.

Or, from Ads Manager, click the “Reports” dropdown at the far right and select “Create Custom Report.”

This tends to be my preferred method since I can create a custom report based on my current view with customized columns in Ads Manager.

Select Multiple Ad Accounts

So, here’s where it gets weird and round-about. By default, you’ll be looking at results for a single ad account. At the top, click the button that should read “1 Ad Account.”

You’ll now see a slider option to “Standardize Attribution Setting.”

That’s exciting! Of course, this will be grayed out. You can only turn it on by selecting a second ad account.

If you only have one ad account, just create another one. It doesn’t need to be actively used.

Don’t ask me why you need to select a second ad account. I have no idea. It makes no sense. But I selected an inactive ad account that has never been used.

Once you select a second ad account, you can turn on the “Standardize Attribution Setting” feature. You may need to first create a new report (you’ll get a message to do so — just click it and pick back up where you left off).

Standardize Attribution Setting

When you turn this on, you’ll be able to view conversion reporting using any of the four attribution settings:

7-day click and 1-day view
7-day click
1-day click and 1-day view
1-day click

While you won’t have a side-by-side comparison the way we did with the Compare Windows feature, you can now view how many conversions Facebook would report for each window, but separately.

Why is This So Important?

I’ve talked before about the issues with remarketing and view-through conversions. Conversion reporting can be padded by view-through conversions when your ads may not have truly contributed.

Another example is you may have optimized using a 1-day click attribution setting. But, you want to see how many conversions actually came in at 7-day click. You can see that now!

Here’s an example…

A remarketing campaign promoting blog posts that was giving me clearly flawed results reported on the following conversions using the default 7-day click and 1-day view attribution setting:

Podcast Play: 60
2+ Page Views Per Session: 2,139
3+ Page Views Per Session: 1,576
Registrations Completed: 61
Purchases: 3

(In case you’re wondering, the first three are tracked using custom events.)

If I remove view-through conversions and go only with 7-day click, I get the following:

Podcast Play: 27
2+ Page Views Per Session: 866
3+ Page Views Per Session: 621
Registrations Completed: 24
Purchases: 1

That is already a significant drop. But, what if we narrowed it to 1-day click only?

Podcast Play: 12
2+ Page Views Per Session: 393
3+ Page Views Per Session: 279
Registrations Completed: 17
Purchases: 0

As you can see, the evaluation of this campaign changes significantly, simply by changing the attribution setting. That said, it was clearly wrong before, so these results are far more in line with what I’d expect.

What is Happening Here?

I’m glad that this option is available. I’m not sure how it’s been hidden from me, presumably for a while. But…

Why did Facebook get rid of Compare Attribution from Ads Manager in the first place? Originally, I figured it made sense due to a lack of confidence in reporting by window resulting from iOS 14+ changes. But, that must not be the reason since this capability still exists in a different form.

Second, how this feature is buried makes no sense. Not only that it’s hidden within Custom Ad Reports, but why is it required that you select two ad accounts to activate it?

This… is nonsensical. Why not make this available within Ads Manager?

Honestly, I don’t understand why Facebook can’t just fold in the benefits of Ads Reporting into Ads Manager anyway. It all feels like a duplication of efforts that makes things far more complicated than they need to be.

Your Turn

Have you been using Standardize Attribution Setting? Why do you think it has been set up this way?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Standardize Attribution Setting: You Can Still Compare Facebook Attribution Windows appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Understanding Facebook View-Through Conversions

Jon Loomer — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 18:00:00 +0000

Many Facebook advertisers don’t realize that view-through conversions are a thing. Ads Manager reports on conversions that happen within 7-days of clicking or 1-day of viewing your ad without clicking, by default (Facebook ads attribution).

In other words, your ad can get credit for a conversion without anyone clicking on it. Let’s talk about when this might happen and why it can be controversial.

When Might This Happen?

The general scenario for a view-through conversion is simple:

Your ad was served to a user
That user may have seen it and even engaged with the ad without clicking to your website
Later that day, the user Googled or went directly to your website
The user then bought the product you were selling

The user in this example was served the ad, didn’t click, and then converted on your website within a day.

Of course, Meta is the only one who can tie these things together. It’s Meta that knows who saw the ad and it’s Meta who knows (due to the pixel) who converted. URL parameters and Google Analytics wouldn’t be able to report this.

While the scenario above is easiest to explain, the following scenario may be most common:

You are running a remarketing campaign that targets someone who is on your email list
An ad was served, but the targeted user may not have noticed or engaged with it
Since that user is on your email list, you send them an email (coincidentally) later that day
The user clicks a link in your email, goes to your website and makes a purchase
Since Facebook knows the user saw your ad and can connect that user to your website, attribution is given

In this scenario, the ad may have promoted something that had nothing to do with your email or what the user ultimately bought.

Why Are View-Through Conversions Controversial?

It’s probably not surprising that view-through conversions have long been controversial. Even pre-iOS 14, clients were skeptical of Ads Manager results which always seemed to report more conversions than other sources.

The question has been whether a view-through conversion is as valuable as a click-through conversion. It’s certainly not, but you can make the argument that the view contributed to the conversion. How much it contributed will depend upon the situation, as described above.

Now, I’ve historically not had an issue with view-through conversions. That has changed recently, primarily because there’s no way to separate view-through and click-through conversions in reporting. This was previously possible, of course, but Facebook removed the compare windows feature with iOS 14+ changes.

(NOTE: There’s actually a buried way that will still allow you to break down your results with and without view-through conversions. Read my post here.)

I’ll have more to say on this topic in a separate post!

Your Turn

What are your thoughts on view-through conversions?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Understanding Facebook View-Through Conversions appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Solution: Verify Facebook Ads Results with Unique Landing Page and Form

Jon Loomer — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 19:00:51 +0000

The number of conversions Facebook can report is down now compared to years past. This is due in part to incomplete reporting because of iOS 14+ opt-outs as well as the move from 28-day click attribution.

There was a time when the complaint was that, especially due to the wide attribution window, Facebook was over-reporting conversions. Those days are long gone.

Understand that if Facebook is under-reporting results, your campaign may not be under-performing. Facebook is simply unable to attribute as many conversions to ads as they once could.

There are several things you can do to verify Facebook ads results. In this post, we’ll cover one solution that I use.

The Approach

If you suspect Facebook is underreporting conversions, I suggest you try the following…

1. Duplicate the landing page that you use for the product or opt-in. You have a public-facing landing page that is easily found on your website. But this duplicate will only be used for Facebook ads.

You may want to consider some SEO-related steps here as well. You could remove the new landing page from search engine results. Or you could use canonical URLs to make sure that the original landing page is the one that shows up in results.

2. Duplicate the form used on the landing page. This new form will only be used on this duplicate page. Depending on your CRM, you may be able to separate all conversions coming through this duplicate form. Or…

3. Tag users that come through the duplicate form. This is what I do. Basically, everyone that comes through the duplicate form still gets signed up for the same product as what was on the original form. But one difference: Anyone signing up for this form gets a special tag so that I can separate these people.

My Example

I’ve been running a campaign to promote two of my opt-ins:

10 Tips from 10 Years with Facebook Ads
The Basics: Introduction to Campaign Creation

The links in both ads went to the duplicate landing pages. I made sure that the names of my ads made this clear because not all of my ads promoting these opt-ins used the special landing pages.

I used a duplicate form and created a duplicate Infusionsoft campaign. Anyone going through this campaign will get the typical tags as well as special tags that are used only for those who register with these duplicate forms.

My Results

The results are really easy to figure out. Everyone with the special tag in Infusionsoft came through the duplicate landing pages (which are only used for these Facebook ads).

Ads Manager is reporting a total of 56 sign-ups with these ads (27 for 10 Tips and 29 for The Basics).

Note that I’m ignoring the person who signed up for 10 Tips after clicking on the ad for The Basics. That person most likely signed up for both, but not until clicking on the single ad.

The number of total sign-ups through these duplicate landing pages is quite a bit more. There are 44 sign-ups for 10 Tips…

And 43 sign-ups of The Basics.

That means that there have been 31 more total sign-ups (+55%) from these duplicate landing pages than Ads Manager reports. Such an increase drastically impacts my evaluation of that campaign. According to Ads Manager, the cost per registration is $6.98, but the reality may be closer to $4.50.

The Weaknesses

I know what some of you are thinking. Ads Manager provides attribution only when a targeted user clicks an ad and converts within seven days or views an ad without clicking and converts within a day. That ad could be shared. A user who sees the shared post and acts on it won’t be counted in the results. This is true.

Also, Facebook ad attribution is limited by the 7-day click window. While my duplicate landing page doesn’t care whether someone was targeted with my ad, it also doesn’t care if someone clicked and then came back to it eight days later.

We also know that event reporting may be limited in Ads Manager for users who opt-out of iOS tracking. Once again, my duplicate landing page doesn’t care.

We know the numbers won’t add up. But it’s surprising that the difference is this much.

Is That Bad?

The primary “weakness” of this approach is that someone could find this duplicate landing page organically, usually from a user who shared a link to that page. My answer: “So what?”

I’ve long found it strange that Facebook finds no way to highlight conversions that happen as a result of someone sharing your ad with a user who wasn’t targeted. While you didn’t pay to reach that user, it was still the ad that is the source of this conversion. Without the ad, it never happens.

I’m not suggesting that Facebook should lump in organic conversions with paid conversions. That would be misleading. But they absolutely should find a way to highlight organic conversions that came from someone sharing your ad. It helps build a more complete picture regarding the impact of your ad.

Whether the discrepancy is due to someone sharing the ad, iOS opt-outs, or some other random occurrence, it’s not particularly easy to come up with a good explanation for how Facebook could be missing this many conversions. It’s a really big deal, and it’s helpful to know that they are happening.

What Else Can You Do?

The duplicate landing page is one approach that I use. I also use URL parameters and Google Analytics to uncover conversions that Facebook doesn’t report.

Even the URL parameters approach, though, has some weaknesses. The duplicate landing page approach is the one most likely to be complete. And I see that in my results (I use URL parameters for the ads in this example). Ultimately, Ads Manager reports the fewest conversions, followed by URL parameters with Google Analytics, and then the duplicate landing page.

There are certainly third-party tracking solutions that you can try as well. In most cases, they’ll use a similar approach to hook into your platforms to isolate where your conversions are coming from.

The Problem with Optimization

Let’s use my results as an example here. It’s certainly good that I was able to uncover 31 more conversions from this approach. But, this is troubling, too.

Facebook is automatically optimizing the distribution of my ads based on the results. If Facebook’s results are depressed, it will impact what Facebook sees as successful and what doesn’t appear to be working. Facebook may throttle ads or start dedicating a greater budget to one ad that it thinks is performing best (but may not be).

This is a big potential problem. While it’s good that we can get this info, our ads may underperform if Facebook doesn’t know that these conversions are happening.

Your Turn

Do you have ways to uncover conversions that Facebook isn’t reporting? What do you do?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Solution: Verify Facebook Ads Results with Unique Landing Page and Form appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Example: Use URL Parameters to Verify Facebook Ads Results

Jon Loomer — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 19:00:51 +0000

Inspired primarily by the negative reporting impact resulting from iOS 14-related changes in 2021, Facebook advertisers are searching for ways to verify and uncover conversion results. One approach is using URL parameters.

I wrote a tutorial previously about using Dynamic URL Parameters with your Facebook ads for this purpose. Today, I want to walk through an example of it in use.

First, let’s take a quick step back to detail what URL parameters are and why this is necessary.

Background

URL parameters add information to the end of a URL. An example might look like this:

https://www.jonloomer.com/url-parameters-facebook-ads/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=ad&utm_campaign=How+to+Use+URL+Parameters+-+Traffic

Everything after the “?” would be the parameters. Each key and parameter is separated by a “&” sign. Note that including this information does not change the destination of the URL.

Let me be clear that I don’t consider myself an expert on URL parameters. What I mean is that I’m sure there are best practices for which parameters to use, format, dos and don’ts, etc. The main thing is that I get out of it what I want (though I’m sure I could do better!).

The goal, for me, is to look in Google Analytics and get GA’s interpretation of how many people came to my website from my ad. Ultimately, I want to compare the number of conversions reported by Ads Manager to those by Google.

The intent isn’t to find that one is “right” and one is “wrong.” The truth is that both Facebook and Google Analytics will be right according to how they report things. Both will have strengths and weaknesses.

Namely, Facebook can report on view-through conversions and those that didn’t happen immediately after a click (but within seven days). Google Analytics won’t care whether the click came from someone you paid to reach or if that person shared the ad with a friend who then converted.

An easy way to add parameters is using the Dynamic URL Builder when creating your Facebook ad. I like to pull in information like the campaign name, placement, and ad name.

Now, let’s look more closely at an example of how I’m using URL parameters.

My Ad and Parameters

I’m running an ad that promotes my 10 Tips in 10 Years on Facebook Ads free opt-in.

I set up URL parameters to automatically pull the name of the campaign and ad (among other info) into URL parameters.

Results from Ads Manager and Google Analytics

Facebook is reporting that this ad has generated 15 registrations (using a Custom Conversion for the specific opt-in).

To access this information in Google Analytics using Universal Analytics, go to Acquisition > Campaigns > All Campaigns. Within Primary Dimension, I click the “Other” link to add “Ad Content.” This pulls where I add the Facebook ad name.

Assuming you created a Goal within Universal Analytics for these registrations, you should now be able to select that to get the number of those registrations from people who visited your website from that ad.

[NOTE: This entire process is different in GA4, but I haven’t perfected it yet!]

Google Analytics is reporting 21 registrations from people who clicked on my ad with the URL parameters.

That’s quite a difference!

Analysis

There’s certainly good news and bad news coming from this discovery.

The good news is that Google Analytics reports that six more conversions (+40%) happened than Ads Manager does. In other words, that ad seemed to do better than I thought! Uncovering this information gives me a different perspective on the performance of that ad.

The bad news, of course, is that Ads Manager didn’t report those conversions in the first place. Accurate attribution is important, and it impacts how Facebook views the performance of your ad and how it optimizes.

Look, we don’t know the true source of these extra conversions. It certainly could be that all six were as a result of a targeted user sharing the ad. It also could be that Facebook was unable to report those conversions due to iOS 14 or other browser restrictions (if the registration was the highest-ranking event performed in a visit, it still should have been reported).

And we can’t ignore that it’s entirely likely that Facebook was able to report some conversions that Google Analytics couldn’t. We don’t know how many of those 15 registrations were view-through. Or how many were people who clicked and came back five or six days later to convert.

The most important thing here is that the process of using URL parameters gives us a fuller picture of the impact of our ad. Regardless of whether the people who converted were targeted or clicked a link shared by a targeted user, the ultimate source was the ad itself.

I’ve long contended that Facebook should display these people in some way. Maybe not as a primary measure, but in a “your ad also led to these X conversions, even though you didn’t target them” kind of way.

What to Do With This?

A year ago around this time, advertisers were trying to convince clients that the numbers Facebook reported were legit. Should my ad really get credit based on a 28-day click? AND view-through conversions? The argument was that Facebook was over-reporting.

But now, the attribution setting is 7-day click and 1-day view. And thanks to iOS 14 and Aggregated Event Measurement, the reporting is potentially incomplete and modeled. Facebook is not reporting the conversions they once were.

Does that mean the conversions aren’t happening? We need to use other methods to uncover that information. URL parameters provide an option.

If Ads Manager says your ads aren’t performing well, make sure you can verify that in other places. Because if your ads actually are driving conversions, but Facebook simply isn’t reporting them, you need to be able to show those additional conversions to clients.

That, unfortunately, is the new world we live in. Too many conversions are falling through the cracks. You will need to use multiple methods to prove the impact of your advertising.

Your Turn

Are you using URL parameters or other approaches to confirm conversion numbers? What are you seeing?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Example: Use URL Parameters to Verify Facebook Ads Results appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Facebook Attribution Setting Default Changes Again

Jon Loomer — Sun, 03 Oct 2021 23:35:52 +0000

Facebook has changed the default method for reporting and optimization of conversions — again. The default Attribution Setting going forward will be 7-day click and 1-day view (it may not be reflected on all ad accounts yet).

If your head is spinning, you’re not alone. It’s been a long year for Facebook and Facebook advertisers when it comes to conversion attribution. The central force here is iOS 14 (and then iOS 15), the ATT Prompt, and the resultant impact to tracking users across devices and websites.

So, let’s back up for a minute to explain what the Attribution Setting is, the history of default attribution, and how the change may impact your reporting.

What is Conversion Attribution?

I try not to assume anything, so it’s possible you need a brief explanation of “attribution.”

Attribution is Facebook’s ability to give credit for a conversion to an ad after someone saw or clicked it. For example, your ad is given credit for a conversion because someone you targeted clicked it and converted on your website within a specified number of days.

What is Attribution Setting?

You may recall that prior to 2021, there existed separate Conversion Windows and Attribution Windows.

The Conversion Window was set at the ad set level and it was used for optimization and delivery. For example, you could select a Conversion Window of 1-day click and Facebook would show your ads to people most likely to convert within a day of clicking your ad.

The Attribution Window was set at the account level and was used for reporting. This did not need to be the same as the Conversion Window. You could actually compare conversion windows and view how many people converted within different periods of time (previously 1, 7, and 28 days) after clicking or viewing your ad without clicking.

Facebook has since combined these two into a single Attribution Setting. You establish the Attribution Setting at the ad set (set by default if you don’t change it).

This is then how Facebook defines your conversions in reporting.

Recent History of Default Attribution on Facebook

It’s been a busy year. Prior to January 19, the default Attribution Setting was 28-day click and 1-day view. Beginning January 19, default attribution was changed to 7-day click and 1-day view. Once the iOS 14 changes went live and were reflected in Ads Manager, default attribution was updated to 7-day click only.

All of this was done in response to less tracking and less confidence in reporting. The result of all of these changes was fewer conversions reported. Some of that was related to less tracking. But it was also due to a shorter reporting window. You could technically get the same number of conversions but have fewer reported than in the past. This led to unhappy advertisers and clients.

Since then, Facebook has made improvements to modeling to hopefully catch some of the reporting that was otherwise lost.

The Latest Change

As of September 23, 2021 (this change may not be reflected on all Ads Managers yet), the default Attribution Setting has been updated to 7-day click and 1-day view.

You can still edit this, of course…

That means that if you don’t make changes, any new ad set will use this new setting — and your reporting will reflect it for any ad set using that setting.

How Will Reporting Be Impacted?

The good news is that this change can only have a positive impact — if any impact at all — on your results. Prior to September 23, Facebook only reported on conversions that occurred as a result of clicking on your ad and converting within seven days. Going forward, conversions that happen within one day as a result of seeing your ad but not clicking will also be reported.

These view-through conversions do happen. They are most common when you reach the same user in multiple ways. For example, someone may see your ad but not click. You may then reach them with an email. They act on that email, leading to a conversion. Assuming it happens within a day of seeing the ad, a conversion would be counted.

If you target mostly cold audiences, expect this to happen far less often — leading to minimal increases in reporting, if any.

The Disappearance of Compare Windows

How much this changes your reporting will be difficult to prove. One of the nice features from the “old days” was the ability to Compare Windows.

This allowed you to see how many conversions are reported as a result of each window for both clicks and views. That feature is no longer available, so you won’t be able to prove whether any new conversions are being reported that weren’t before.

Your Turn

Does your Ads Manager reflect this change? Do you feel like more conversions are being reported?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Facebook Attribution Setting Default Changes Again appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Facebook Ads Attribution and iOS 14

Jon Loomer — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 22:41:14 +0000

When iOS 14 goes live and users begin acting on prompts related to sharing their data, Facebook advertisers are likely to see a drop in conversion reporting. While this could at least partially be attributed to performance, the primary reason will be a fundamental change in Facebook ads attribution.

Let’s discuss why this is and what you should expect.

What is Ads Attribution?

First, let’s make sure we all understand the premise. Ads attribution is the method for determining whether an ad led to a specific user’s conversion. How does Facebook decide what appears in the results column?

For years, the default attribution window has been 28-day click and 1-day view. That means that anyone who converted within 28 days of clicking your ad or one day of viewing (without clicking) your ad will be counted as a conversion attributed to that ad (there are other rules related to seeing and clicking on multiple ads, but that complexity isn’t necessary here).

The New Attribution Window

Due to difficulties collecting data as a result of iOS 14, Facebook is updating attribution globally for all advertising. Once iOS 14 goes live, the new default attribution window will be 7-day click only.

Historically, advertisers have been able to customize reporting to reflect results outside of the standard attribution window, going up to 28-day click and 28-day view.

With the change to 7-day click attribution by default, the following windows will be deprecated:

28-day click
28-day view
7-day view

While 7-day click attribution will be the default for both optimization and reporting, advertisers will be able to customize either by using the following windows:

1-day click or view
7-day click or view
1-day click
7-day click (default)

Impact to Reporting

How much this change to attribution impacts your reporting will vary from business to business and product to product. If anything, though, your results will go down.

If the vast majority of your conversions occur within a 7-day click window, you should see very little change in reporting. This may especially be the case for anyone who uses broad targeting on low-priced or free products that result in a quick conversion.

High-priced and high-commitment products, however, may see the biggest drops. A car or home, for example, wouldn’t typically be purchased within seven days of clicking an ad. The final purchase will likely fall outside of the attribution window.

I’d also expect a drop in reporting for those (like me) who often target their warmest audiences. These people may already visit your website or be on your email list. Someone may see my ad and not click but may act on an email or visit later in the day. These view-through conversions will no longer be reported by default.

Are Results Down or Underreported?

This is where it gets tricky. In theory, your campaign could lead to the same number of real-world results post-iOS 14 as an identical campaign run pre-iOS 14, but reporting will show fewer results due to the change in attribution.

So… Will that mean that the performance of your ads is actually down… or not?

This is where it gets tricky. So many factors, even before iOS 14, lead to poor results. We won’t necessarily know whether you’re getting conversions outside of the 7-day click window or not.

We’ll need to use context. If your cost per action remains the same, that’s good! It means you’re probably getting better results than before.

If your results are down, you’ll first need to understand how conversions tended to be distributed before the change. If you assume similar distribution, that can help you determine whether results are acceptable.

But the other factor is that Facebook warns iOS 14 could simply lead to poorer performing ads. Reporting, optimization, and targeting will all be impacted. It will be difficult to maintain your prior level of performance.

What About Other Tools?

If you’re like me, you’re thinking about all of the ways you can check and double-check your results to help fill in the blanks. Until we’ve had some time with iOS 14, it’s very unclear how these updates will impact marketing outside of Facebook ads — and it isn’t even entirely clear in some cases how Facebook ads will be impacted. It seems Facebook isn’t even sure.

Use whatever tools are available to you. I can’t imagine Facebook Analytics will escape unscathed, but it’s a tool that allows you to view results across Facebook and your website, regardless of whether traffic is paid or organic, no matter the source. Will it provide some of the info lost in Ads Manager?

What about Google Analytics? What about using UTM parameters?

I’m sure some very smart people have already started thinking about these things. They may have answers. For now, I’ll keep asking the questions.

Your Turn

How much do you expect the change in attribution impact your results?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Facebook Ads Attribution and iOS 14 appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Facebook Ad Conversion Attribution: What You Need to Know

Jon Loomer — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 16:15:01 +0000

[This article has been updated and rewritten since its original publication.]

Facebook ad conversion attribution is one of the most confused and least understood topics for advertisers. What is considered a conversion? Which ad gets credit?

This post will provide necessary clarification.

Ready? Let’s go…

What Does Facebook Consider a Conversion?

For Facebook to report a conversion when you run ads, you’ll first need to use the Facebook pixel. Additionally, you’ll need to create Custom Conversions and pixel events so that Facebook knows when a conversion happens.

This part is important, if not obvious. Facebook doesn’t know when a conversion happens unless you provide rules that tell Facebook when they happen. By creating Custom Conversions or adding event code to a web page, you tell Facebook that a conversion happens when that page is visited.

Knowing that a conversion happened and reporting it are two different things, of course. Facebook will tell you how many registrations have happened, for example, within Events Manager…

And you can also see how many registrations have occurred for a particular product on the Custom Conversions page…

But here’s a point that is often misunderstood: These numbers do not necessarily represent the number of people who clicked your ad and converted. They include all activity on that event or Custom Conversion — whether they came from your Facebook ad, a Facebook post, or somewhere else entirely (including non-Facebook platforms). The source doesn’t matter.

That’s why the numbers you see here will almost never match up with the numbers associated with your Facebook ad campaign. When Facebook reports that someone converted as a result of being shown your ad, rules need to apply to assure accuracy.

Here’s an example of a campaign promoting my Facebook Ads Quiz Library in Ads Manager…

There were 71 reported conversions in this case. That includes:

Anyone who clicked the ad and converted within 7 days (changed in 2021)
Anyone who saw the ad (without clicking) and converted within 1 day

Advertisers often wrongly assume this number only includes those who click the ad and immediately convert. Facebook knows who saw or clicked an ad. Facebook also knows who visited a page you’ve defined as a conversion (thanks to the Facebook pixel).

In some cases, the majority of your conversions will occur immediately or soon after a click. But that also depends upon how long it typically takes for someone to convert (often influenced by price or commitment level). Another factor would be if you send concurrent email messaging to the same audience.

[NOTE: This post was originally written when the Compare Windows feature was available. That feature has since been removed.]

You can either change the attribution reporting rules or simply view how those windows currently make up your conversions by clicking on the “Columns” drop-down and selecting “Customize Columns.”

At the bottom right, you’ll notice the default attribution settings.

At the time of this image, the default attribution window was 28-day click and 1-day view (it is now 7-day click and 1-day view). You can actually change this default by clicking on the “Edit Attribution Settings” link.

You’ll be taken to your Reporting Settings…

Click on the Edit link…

This allows you to change attribution to “Click” only if you want, or you can adjust the sliders to change the days in each window.

Back to where we were, click on the “Comparing Windows” link…

You’ll then get checkboxes for 1, 7, and 28-day Click and View attribution windows.

Let’s select the 1-day view and all click options (1-day, 7-day, and 28-day), and then click the “Apply” button.

You’ll now see one new column for View Attribution and three for Click Attribution.

In my example above, you’ll see the following:

View Conversions:

1-day: 21

Click Conversions:

1-day: 41
7-day: 46
28-day: 50

Understand that if something falls within the 1-day window, it also falls within the 7 and 28-day windows; and if something falls within the 7-day window, it also falls within the 28-day window. So there are a total of 50 click conversions and 21 view conversions here.

You’ll recall that by Facebook’s default attribution settings (1-day view and 28-day click in this case), there were 71 conversions. We can see now how those conversions are distributed:

1-day View: 21
1-day Click: 41
7-day Click: 5
28-day Click: 4

This campaign ran prior to Facebook’s global change that removed 28-day click attribution. Note that under these new rules, there would have been four fewer conversions reported.

When Will You See Conversions Beyond 1-Day Click?

As mentioned briefly above, there are two primary reasons why you may see more of your conversions happen beyond the 1-day click:

1. It often takes longer than one day for someone to convert.

The typical registration is a simple decision. Do I want to register for this free thing? But a purchase decision, in particular, is more complicated.

Does the potential customer have enough money? Do they have their credit card handy? Do they need to do some research before making their decision?

The more money a product costs, the longer we can expect the decision to take. And as a result, you may see more conversions happen beyond the 1-day click.

2. You are sending concurrent messaging to the same audience via email or other means.

Consider this scenario…

You reach Person A with an ad for your product. They see it, but don’t act. Facebook knows that the ad appeared in their news feed.

Later that same day, you send an email to this same person. They then decide to act and make the purchase.

Facebook will count this as a view conversion because it happened within one day. If it takes longer than a day, Facebook will not count it (at least, according to the default settings).

Some advertisers don’t like this. But my counter is that the ad likely contributed. The person may not have acted on the ad, but that branding and messaging may have helped make the decision to open the email, click, and buy.

Of course, if you don’t like this attribution, you can change it!

Which Ad Gets Credit?

Let’s consider another scenario…

30 days ago: User clicks ad, doesn’t convert
7 days ago: User clicks ad, doesn’t convert
4 days ago: User views ad, doesn’t convert
2 days ago: User clicks ad, doesn’t convert
Today: User views ad, converts

According to the rules mentioned above, there are three ad actions that could qualify as a conversion (7-day click, 2-day click, and 1-day view). So do all three ads get credit??

Nope. And while you may assume that the ad the user viewed today would get credit, you’d be wrong.

Here are the conversion attribution rules when a user is shown more than one ad and then converts:

The ad that received the most recent click (assuming it falls within attribution window)
If no clicks, the ad that received the most recent view (assuming it falls within attribution window)

So in the example above, the 2-day click would get credit because it was the most recent click. Had there never been a prior click within an attribution window, the 1-day view would have received credit.

Watch the Video

Your Turn

Clear as mud? Hopefully, this helps you better understand how Facebook counts a conversion. The primary takeaways are these:

Default attribution is 1-day view and 7-day click (previously 28-day click)
When multiple ads are shown to the same person, the most recent click wins

Anything you’d add? Let me know in the comments below!

The post Facebook Ad Conversion Attribution: What You Need to Know appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Facebook Eliminates 28-Day Attribution Window

Jon Loomer — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 01:14:51 +0000

Facebook reports on conversions that occur as a result of someone seeing or clicking on your ad, rather than a simple click to immediate conversion. Facebook is changing conversion attribution by phasing out the 28-day window on October 12, citing privacy initiatives.

Per Facebook:

Digital privacy initiatives affecting multiple browsers will soon limit the ability of businesses to measure people’s interactions across domains and devices. In support of these initiatives, Facebook is planning updates to attribution windows across our ads reporting surfaces.

Let’s take a closer look at what this means, how it will impact your advertising, and what you can do to prepare.

What Does This Mean?

Historically, Facebook reports conversions attributed to advertising that occur within 28 days of clicking or 1 day of viewing (and not clicking) your ad. This has long been a rather controversial (to some) and even mysterious (to others) method for conversion attribution. It’s often a surprise to newer advertisers who assume that Facebook is only reporting on those who click and immediately convert.

It’s not clear from Facebook’s announcement, but it seems as though they expect that collecting and reporting on this information will become increasingly difficult due to “privacy initiatives.” It suggests that they believe a 7-day attribution window is safe, whereas anything more may soon lack dependability — if it’s available at all.

How Will This Impact Your Advertising?

It depends, and it’s not entirely clear.

Facebook suggests that you may notice fewer reported conversions as a result of this change. That’s a potentially bad thing when it comes to determining the success or failure of your ads. But, how much it impacts your reporting will depend upon the length of the customer journey, as well as how you advertise.

For example, if the typical sale or conversion happens quickly (impulse buys or low-priced products), you can expect very little change in conversion reporting. On the flip side, higher-priced commitments may take longer for a customer to convert from initial click to purchase. This could be especially bad for such companies.

Also, it likely depends on how you target. If you regularly remarket and target those who also receive messaging from you elsewhere, you may see fewer conversions counted. An example is that I often see my Facebook advertising conversion numbers jump on days that I promote a product via email that I’m also promoting with ads. The reason is that some of these people who received my email (and acted on it) also clicked on one of my ads (but didn’t previously convert).

No Impact on Delivery and Performance?

According to Facebook:

Note that this change has no impact on delivery or performance of your ads.

I was initially skeptical about this, but after hearing more from Lucas on our team and getting further confirmation from some of our helpful readers in the comments, this does appear possible.

Facebook is eliminating the 28-day attribution window, which wouldn’t necessarily impact the conversion window (two different things).

The attribution window is how Facebook reports conversions to you; the conversion window is how Facebook optimizes. And the conversion window already falls within a maximum of seven days.

The whole thing feels a bit unnecessarily inconsistent and complicated (why can’t they be measured the same way?), but in this case that may actually be an okay thing. It doesn’t appear this change will negatively impact delivery or performance, as Facebook claims.

How You Can Prepare

One primary way you can prepare for this change is to get a sense of how many conversions Facebook historically reports beyond the 7-day click attribution window. Knowing those will go away will help you understand how your numbers will be impacted in the future.

Customize your columns in Ads Manager.

At the bottom right corner of the window that pops up, you’ll see an area for Attribution Window and a link to compare windows.

Once you click that, you’ll be able to add columns for each click and view window. There isn’t much reason to bother with anything beyond a 1-day view because those aren’t reported by default. Focus on 1-day view as well as 1-day, 7-day, and 28-day click.

Facebook will add columns for each. Here’s an example for the Purchase event…

Note that this can be a little misleading, and you’ll need to do some math. The 28-day click numbers also include 1-day and 7-day; the 7-day click numbers include the 1-day click numbers. So, to isolate the 2-7 days and 8-28 day clicks, we’d do this…

1-Day Click: As reported
2-7 Day Click: (7-Day Click) MINUS (1-Day Click)
8-28 Day Click: (28-Day Click) MINUS (7-Day Click)

While there are 8 purchases that occurred within 28 days of a click in the example above, that includes the 6 that happened within 7 days and the 2 that happened within 1 day. So, the reality of attribution distribution in the example above is as follows:

1-day View: 2
1-day Click: 2
7-day Click: 4
28-day Click: 2

I’ve done a historical breakdown of my reporting for the past four years, and it shakes out like this for purchases and registrations for 28-day click (not including 1 and 7-day click)…

Registrations: 7% of all reported
Purchases: 30% of all reported

What explains the difference? Registrations are for free stuff like a webinar, quiz library, or video series. These decisions are made quickly and without much thought. Someone who clicks an ad for a product may take days or weeks to finalize their decision.

This means that I shouldn’t expect a noticeable drop in my registrations once this change goes into effect. But my purchase reporting, however, may take a significant hit. That doesn’t mean that fewer purchases will happen, of course, only that Facebook will report fewer of them.

Now, how my numbers shake out are heavily influenced by how I target. When it comes to selling products, I do a lot of retargeting to a small and relevant audience. These people are more likely than most to get prodded from me in different places, leading to an initial click and eventual conversion much later.

This, of course, isn’t necessarily the strategy for many — or even most — advertisers, who are likely to see a lighter distribution of purchases beyond seven days.

Your Turn

What are your thoughts on this change? Do you expect it to make a noticeable difference? Do you believe that it won’t impact delivery or performance?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Facebook Eliminates 28-Day Attribution Window appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Facebook and the Mystery of Organic Conversions

Jon Loomer — Fri, 22 Nov 2019 21:14:52 +0000

If you want to know how many conversions were driven by an ad, Facebook is very good about helping you uncover that information. They are eager to show how responsible the ad was for your impact.

Strangely, it’s a different story when it comes to organic distribution — whether it be of a purely organic post of an otherwise paid ad. This is a huge missed opportunity.

We scraped the top of this recently in a post about Facebook Lead Ads and organic distribution. Make sure you read that post.

Today we’ll talk more about conversions from organic distribution, the ways you can track it, and how it ultimately impacts our actions as marketers.

1. Facebook Ads and Organic Distribution

A little-known secret: Ads Manager isn’t giving you all of the data.

If your ad is particularly effective, there will be a viral component. Those you target will comment, like, and share your ad. As a result, their friends and followers will have the opportunity to see your ad, too, even though you didn’t pay to reach them.

And if you didn’t pay to reach this new viral audience, guess what? Ads Manager doesn’t report on it. It only reports on paid distribution.

The problem is that most brands and advertisers completely forget about this. When we measure the effectiveness of an ad, we only look at Ads Manager. But there is the potential for a completely different story that is left untold.

If the ad lacks virality, the difference in this impact will be minimal. But for other cases, you may be grossly underestimating the impact of your ads.

The result: We think an ad isn’t performing well, so we turn it off. Meanwhile, it was driving more conversions than we knew.

2. Organic Posts and Conversions

Here is the really weird thing: Facebook does everything it can to show that your ads were effective (related to your paid distribution). Some would argue that Facebook’s attribution model (7 days after a click, 1 day after a view) takes too much credit for conversions at times.

And yet, Facebook makes no attempt whatsoever to show the conversions you generate with an organic post.

Here’s an example of the metrics that Facebook provides for a post I published that was never promoted as an ad. It only has organic distribution…

This is not, on the surface, a particularly impactful post. It only reached about 3.5% of my potential audience. It didn’t get much engagement. Facebook only reported on 133 link clicks.

These types of numbers are why I rarely share promotional content to my page, instead reserving that content for ads only.

But, guess what? This pedestrian post drove more than 100 leads, according to Google Analytics…

The numbers Facebook provided made me feel like the post was a waste of time. And yet, it generated 116 completely free leads. Particularly during these high competition times, I could easily spend more than $200 for those results.

And that’s from a poorly performing post!

3. Tracking Conversions with UTM Parameters

If you’re wondering how I determined that post generated 116 leads, it’s because I used UTM parameters. In other words, I altered the end of my URL so that Google Analytics could track my traffic and report on those who arrived on my website from that specific link.

You can create your own with the Google URL Builder (or freehand if you’re a pro).

When you use that new URL, find out the results within the “Campaigns” section of Google Analytics.

4. Conversion Attribution Consistency

Of course, you shouldn’t have to go through all of this to track the number of conversions coming from your organic post. Facebook should display it.

And one reason Facebook should display it is that this method is imperfect for one primary reason: attribution consistency.

As discussed earlier, Facebook reports a conversion when a targeted user clicks on your ad and converts within 7 days or views your ad without clicking and converts within a day. Facebook also tracks you across devices.

Google can’t do this. They have no idea if you saw an ad without clicking and later acted on it. We know that Facebook and Google Analytics will never match up. It’s not because one is trying to mislead you. They simply have access to different information.

As a result, the use of UTM parameters is merely a Band-Aid for uncovering the full picture when Facebook could easily provide this information.

5. Facebook Attribution Tool

Some of you may be ready to shout at me about the Facebook Attribution Tool. Yes, this tool can help you uncover how many conversions you get from both paid and organic efforts on Facebook.

But there are two primary issues with this that don’t solve our problem.

First, it displays both paid and organic conversions coming from Facebook, but it doesn’t separate those that weren’t the result of a post you shared. But this is a smaller issue.

The bigger issue is that these stats aren’t post-specific. You’ll get a sense of conversions driven from Facebook (organic and paid), as well as other sources, but you aren’t given information on the number of conversions driven organically by a specific post.

This is incredibly frustrating since we know that Facebook has this information. They’re just choosing not to show it.

6. The Disappearance of Organic Distribution Metrics

While doing the research for this post, there’s also been a change that impacts our ability to even see the basic organic distribution metrics associated with our ad.

When viewing a post published to my page from Facebook’s Pages mobile app, I’m able to see the difference in organic and paid distribution of that post (assuming I promoted it).

But what about the organic distribution of a post that only exists as an ad?

There was a time when you could go to the permalink of your ad, and Facebook would display organic and paid distribution — just as displayed above with a page post. This helped understand the viral impact of the ad, even if it didn’t help uncover organic conversion information.

As far as I can tell, this is no longer the case…

Another place that previously helped display total reach, organic and paid, of an ad was the Page Posts section within Ads Manager. Well, whether it’s a bug or intentional, it now displays all zeros for me…

For whatever reason, Facebook now makes it insanely difficult to uncover any organic distribution information related to an ad.

7. Why Doesn’t Facebook Make This Easier?

So, let’s try to look at this from Facebook’s perspective. Why don’t they display this information?

The first explanation would be that it’s not possible. But that would seem unlikely, particularly for those page admins who are already using the Facebook pixel. What’s so different about a paid post and organic post that allows Facebook to report on paid, but not organic, conversions? The organic post itself has every other metric.

And since Facebook provides the general organic conversion numbers within the Facebook Attribution Tool, I’m even more inclined to believe it’s possible.

I’m left to assume this is a business decision on the part of Facebook. What is the danger of displaying this information? Let’s think about it…

Facebook’s been criticized for putting such a focus on organic reach. Well, actually, I’d say that highlighting organic reach has resulted in complaints about not reaching more people. And the implied goal of highlighting that metric is to get people to spend money to reach more.

But, what if reach isn’t all that important after all? What if you’re getting a bunch of conversions from that organic post? A post that you otherwise presumed hadn’t been that effective?

In my case, I could have spent more than $200 to get the same impact of a poorly performing, strictly organic, post. That certainly made me think about my distribution of paid and organic efforts.

8. The Missed Opportunity

This all seems like a colossal missed opportunity. It really shouldn’t be that hard. Create a prompt that encourages the page admin to connect their pixel, if they haven’t already. Then report on organic conversions that happen as a result.

I don’t know if this would change behavior, leading marketers to spend more or less on ads. But I do know that it would provide a much clearer picture regarding the impact they are making.

Was this ad effective? Well, these are the numbers based on those I paid to reach, but…

Was this organic post effective? Well, these are the numbers based on how many people it reached and other basic metrics, but…

This is especially important for those running ads for others. It’s possible that these advertisers are currently missing a portion of their impact. A full picture may keep clients happy.

Show us the conversions, Facebook. Paid and organic. There’s really no excuse.

Watch Video

I also talked about this on the video below…

Your Turn

What are your thoughts on organic conversions?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Facebook and the Mystery of Organic Conversions appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

The Value of Facebook Pixel Events

Jon Loomer — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 19:26:30 +0000

A few days ago, I wrote about Facebook’s new Event Setup Tool that simplifies adding pixel events to your website. This is a huge development because Facebook pixel events aren’t fully utilized by marketers as they should be.

Why do you need to use pixel events? How can events benefit your marketing? Let’s break down a few of the primary ways…

[Learn more about how to master the Facebook pixel for 2019 in my upcoming training. SIGN UP HERE.]

1. Advanced Website Custom Audiences

If you have the base pixel installed on your website, you can create audiences like…

All website visitors
Visitors based on URL visited
Visitors based on time spent

All are great! But, if you add events to your pixel, you can also create Website Custom Audiences based on these actions.

You could, for example, create an audience of all people who have performed any purchase on your website during the past 30 days.

Of course, it could be a search, lead, registration, or any other event that happens on your site.

For extra credit, you can add event parameters, which provide more details to the transaction. For example, adding the “Purchase” event allows you to create an audience of those who performed any purchase. Add parameters, and you can create audiences of those who purchased a specific product or spent over a certain amount.

Here’s an example of an audience that consists of people who performed purchases that, in aggregate, were equal to or greater than $100…

2. Conversion Optimization

One of the powers of Facebook ads is the ability of the algorithm to optimize to help you reach your ideal audience. One way Facebook can do this for you is optimizing to show ads to people most likely to convert — or perform the specific conversion action you want.

If you want to use the Conversions objective, you’ll need to select a pixel event to optimize for…

While you can optimize for a Custom Conversion (typically a specific product), optimizing for a broader event action (like “Purchase”) gives Facebook more data to help you effectively optimize.

3. Conversion Tracking

How effective are the Facebook ad campaigns that you’re running? Without the pixel and events, your focus is likely on a combination of Cost Per Click, Click Through Rate, and Engagement Rate. But these may have little, if any, connection to whether conversions occurred.

If you use pixel events, you can add a column specifically for the total number, unique number, value, cost, and unique cost of any standard event.

And if you use event parameters and utilize a product catalog, you can break reporting down by product ID.

While you can (and should) track results by Custom Conversion, you are limited to 100 of them per ad account. There are no such limitations to events.

4. Facebook Analytics

Facebook Analytics is a pretty awesome marketing tool. It’s a free tool (described by my friend Andrew Foxwell), “designed to help you visualize your entire sales funnel, understand the lifetime value of users, and see how your organic and paid strategies intersect.”

Facebook naturally has valuable data from interactions with your Facebook page and posts (organic and paid). But, how valuable are those interactions? Do these people buy from you? Are some reactions and interactions more valuable than others?

Well, you won’t know the answers to these questions without the Facebook pixel and events.

The number of valuable reports that you can generate with Facebook Analytics is too many to cover in this blog post. But, you can create funnels to view the percentage of your top of the funnel that ultimately converts…

You can track customer lifetime value…

You could also look at a breakdown of age, gender, and country by purchase value…

You can create a cohort of those who registered and then eventually purchased a product…

You can run a breakdown of the demographics of those who make a purchase to view info based on age, gender, country, city, language, and more…

Compare the stickiness of someone who registered for something to those who made a purchase…

This is just scratching the surface regarding the reporting available to you with Facebook Analytics. But none of it is available without the use of pixel events.

5. Facebook Attribution

Facebook Attribution is yet another powerful tool that not enough marketers are using and benefiting from. As I described in my introduction to this tool, Facebook Attribution is designed to help you understand the impact of your content and ads across multiple publishers, channels, and devices. Note that this includes and goes beyond Facebook — not only the organic referrals from Google and others, but your non-Facebook advertising efforts.

There are limitless use cases of Facebook Attribution, but let’s lay out a few.

View the top sources of website purchases by channel…

View the number of conversions that occurred on mobile after viewing your content from desktop…

Or vice versa…

In order to get any of this information, you’ll need to utilize Facebook pixel events.

6. Dynamic Ads

If you manage ads for an e-commerce brand, dynamic ads are invaluable. They allow you to dynamically show ads to people based on their interaction with that or other similar products in the past. This is done, in part, with ad templates and product catalogs that are provided to Facebook.

These are most useful for those with dozens, hundreds, or thousands of products, particularly those with high ad spend. You don’t need to manually create ads for all of these products, or focus only on a select few. You can hyper-target those expressing interest with a highly relevant ad.

You shouldn’t be surprised to learn this, but you need the Facebook pixel and events to utilize dynamic ads. This is how Facebook knows what stage of the funnel a visitor has reached (add to cart, add payment info, add to wishlist) and organize what products were viewed by product ID.

Your Turn

The reality is that Facebook pixel events aren’t only beneficial, they are required for any serious Facebook advertiser. The benefits are simply too great, and I’m undoubtedly missing some here.

Are there any other benefits of Facebook pixel events that I’m missing here? Let me know in the comments below!

The post The Value of Facebook Pixel Events appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Facebook Attribution: View Top Sources for Conversions

Jon Loomer — Tue, 04 Dec 2018 06:16:15 +0000

Facebook quietly launched Facebook Attribution last month, a free tool that gives marketers “a more holistic view of the customer journey, both on and off Facebook.”

“Holistic” is a fancy way of saying “complete.” Essentially, Facebook Attribution helps you get a more complete view of what people are doing on and off of Facebook.

I wrote a thorough guide on this tool a few weeks back, but I wanted to highlight how Facebook Attribution truly shines in this area.

Top Sources opened my eyes. Let me give you an example…

Facebook Attribution: Top Sources

Your Facebook Ads Manager helps you understand how your paid Facebook campaigns contribute to results like engagement, traffic, installs, and conversions.

But Ads Manager only provides results related to your paid efforts on Facebook. It neglects the organic side.

The beauty of Facebook Attribution is that it helps you easily compare organic versus paid. It separates out Messenger, Instagram, and Audience Network. But, it also includes conversions from other sources (like Google, Pinterest, and email campaigns).

All of that info comes with little or no effort. Copy and paste some code here and there, and you can also bring in paid efforts from other platforms.

One of the biggest advantages of this all-in-one approach is reporting consistency. As we all know by now, Facebook and Google Analytics will never match up. But having one report act as the equalizer can provide a much more accurate sense of the impact of your respective efforts.

Top Sources: Website Registrations

Here’s an example of the top sources of website registrations for a single line of business…

In the example above, paid Facebook efforts bring in by far the most website registrations for this line of business. It’s brought in more registrations than Infusionsoft (email campaigns), organic Facebook, organic Google, and paid Instagram efforts combined.

Way down the list are paid Messenger (5 conversions) and paid Audience Network (2 conversions). The most valuable source of website registrations to this line of business is clearly paid ads from Facebook.

Top Sources: Website Purchase

Of course, a website registration may not be your final goal. You likely want a sale.

You can switch to view the sources of website purchases as well, complete with conversion value (if you track this). Here’s an example for that same line of business…

This time, Infusionsoft email campaigns represent the strongest source of website purchases — both in volume and revenue. Organic Google searches make up about half of the number of sales, but a larger share of revenue.

Paid and organic Facebook fall in a distant third, followed by a single sale via paid Instagram and Messenger campaigns.

What we are seeing is how, specifically, Facebook advertising is being used for this business. Build the email list with Facebook ads. Drive sales via email campaigns. And do some solid SEO to get organic website registrations and even purchases through Google search.

Top Sources: Add a Platform

Facebook Attribution automatically provides these sources, assuming you connect your Facebook pixel and ad account. But what about if you are also running ads via Google AdWords and want to get this information included in your results?

At the bottom of the source list, click the button to add a platform…

Scroll down to Google Ads and select the item for either display or search (depending on where you are running ads).

You may agree to the terms…

Facebook provides a tag to add to your Google AdWords account. While viewing all campaigns, click on Settings > Account Settings. There, paste the tag in the tracking template.

Click the button to test. If all comes out well, click to save. Within a day or two, you should start seeing paid Google results appearing in your sources.

This Line of Business

If you hadn’t figured it out, the line of business above is my own. If you know much about my business, it was obvious. I spend the bulk of my Facebook ads budget on driving traffic and building my email list. Further down the funnel, I spend less (to a small and warm audience) to sell. I let my email campaigns, built and nurtured with Facebook ads, do the heavy lifting.

I’ve long been spoiled by my organic search traffic driven by Google. I admit that I take it for granted. But this report opened my eyes.

Why? Because Google isn’t just sending me traffic. It’s not just driving website registrations. It’s bringing revenue (quite a bit of it). And this is without spending a dime on AdWords.

But this report changed my thinking. Yes, Google has been great to me. But why not leverage that success? Let’s throw some money at it.

It’s been years since I spent money on Google. My strategy is heavily focused on Facebook ads, my email list, and website content. But, thanks to Facebook Attribution, I’ve decided to give AdWords another shot.

That, my friend, is one example of why Facebook Attribution is so powerful. It helps you see things you may otherwise miss — or completely ignore.

Learn More About Facebook Attribution

I encourage you to discover your “holistic view” of your own customers’ journeys on and off of Facebook. Poke around Facebook Attribution yourself.

Your Turn

Does Facebook Attribution shed any light on information you had been missing about your top conversion sources?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Facebook Attribution: View Top Sources for Conversions appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Facebook Attribution Tool: The Ultimate Introduction

Jon Loomer — Wed, 31 Oct 2018 03:58:26 +0000

Facebook recently announced the launch of the Facebook Attribution Tool, a free tool “designed to give marketers a more holistic view of the customer journey, both on and off Facebook.”

A couple of things…

1. This tool is DEEP. Have fun poking around this Facebook Business help guide to learn all of the ins and outs of the Facebook Attribution Tool.

2. I just got access to this thing for the first time, too. I’m still learning it. I’m still discovering its value.

Bottom line? There’s a lot to discuss here. There’s a lot that can’t be put into this single post. And, quite frankly, I’m just discovering everything that can be done with it, too.

But, if you’ll scroll to the bottom and back up, you’ll see just how dense this post is. And it’s simply an introduction to the tool — how to set it up and what it’s for, at least at a top level.

There’s so much more we’ll need to discuss about this in the coming weeks and months. But for now, let’s get to know this tool better. And if you haven’t set it up yet, let’s do that, too!

What Is the Facebook Attribution Tool?

In the simplest terms, think of it like this… When discussing attribution — or in this case, Facebook attribution — we’re looking to determine the cause of a conversion. Where did someone come from? What device were they on? Did they access multiple devices? Was the content organic or paid?

You may have heard of Atlas, which provided valuable cross-platform and cross-device information to the biggest of brands. Atlas has now been repurposed in the form of the Facebook Attribution Tool, and it’s available to all advertisers.

Facebook Attribution is designed to help you understand the impact of your content and ads across multiple publishers, channels, and devices. Note that this includes and goes beyond Facebook — not only the organic referrals from Google and others, but your non-Facebook advertising efforts.

Set It Up: Get Started

To set up the Facebook Attribution Tool, go here. You should also see it within your Business Manager’s top menu.

If you aren’t connected to Business Manager, it’s possible that you won’t get access to this tool. Based on my testing, there is a separate Attribution for each Business Manager. But I tried to access it with my personal account and could not.

The first time you access this tool, you’ll see this…

Click “Get Started.”

Set It Up: Lines of Business

Facebook will first ask you how your business is organized (single business; multiple brands, verticals, or regions; or agency).

Essentially, do you manage ads for multiple businesses as an agency within the same Business Manager? Are you a single business? Or do you have more than one business that you own or oversee within this Business Manager?

Next, you’ll need to set up your line(s) of business by grouping your ad accounts and data sources.

When you click “Set Up Line of Business,” the first thing you’ll be asked to do is choose ad accounts related to that business.

If you use more than one ad account to manage a particular business, make sure to select them. If an account isn’t listed, you’ll need to add it to your Business Manager.

After selecting the ad account(s), click “Pixels, Apps, and Offline Event Sets” on the left.

Logically, you’ll want to select all of the pixels, apps, and offline event sets related to this particular business.

Then click “Time Zone and Currency” on the left and adjust the settings according to your local time zone and currency.

Note the message that you won’t be able to change the time zone or currency after setting this up.

When you’re done, click “Confirm” at the bottom right.

Now, you’ll see a brief summary of your line of business on the main Facebook Attribution set-up page.

If you need to add another line of business, do so now. If you’re done, click “Finish” at the bottom right.

Now, you’ll see this rather pointless alert, and you’ll — of course — want to “Continue to Attribution.”

Set It Up: Ad Platforms

To complete the set-up, you’ll need to add any non-Facebook ad platforms that contribute to your traffic and sales. “Ad Platforms” is the final tab within the “Settings” view and will provide a list of all ad accounts that feed into this line of business. You should see the Facebook ad account(s) that you added earlier.

But note that you can also add another platform. It doesn’t have to be Facebook only.

Why would you do this? Facebook will already know if traffic comes from a particular domain (like Bing, Pinterest, LinkedIn, or Google). However, by connecting your other ad platforms, the Facebook Attribution Tool can then differentiate from organic vs. paid traffic.

Click that button to “Add a Platform”…

As I type this, there are 37 options, including Bing Ads, Google Ads, LinkedIn, OutBrain, Pinterest, SnapChat, and Twitter. (NOTE: Some are showing as “unsupported by the publisher,” but you can send a message to request support.)

Manual configuration is required for some of the platforms. For example, adding tags for Adition…

While others, like Bing Ads, are preconfigured…

And if an ad platform that you use isn’t on the list, you can choose to add a “custom” platform.

You likely have questions about this process, and we’ll undoubtedly need to discuss it more later. In the meantime, this tutorial may help.

Facebook Attribution Overview: Quick Tour

Okay, so now we’re all set up. So we should see lots of valuable stuff right away, huh? Well, not so fast.

This is what you’ll see after first getting set up…

As mentioned earlier, this is the equivalent of creating and adding a new pixel to your website. The data that Facebook can collect and then report to you starts at that point. You will not get info for activity that occurs prior to configuring Facebook Attribution.

As a result, it may take a day. It may take several days or even weeks to get meaningful data. It just depends upon the amount of activity on your properties.

The Facebook Attribution Tool is broken up into the following sections:

Performance
Custom Reports
Cross-Device
Settings

Facebook Attribution Settings: Quick Tour

After the initial set-up, you’ll default to “Settings,” which is also broken into four sections:

Diagnostics
Data Sources
Referring Domains
Ad Platforms

Diagnostics won’t show you much of anything at first while the tool is building data from your data sources. It needs traffic and conversions.

Eventually, though, it will look something like this…

You’ll see a reporting of conversions, impressions, clicks, visits, and errors (if there are any).

Data Sources will show the pixels, apps, and offline events that you added earlier. It will also list the recent events that have occurred on your pixel since adding it to the tool.

Depending on the events you track with the pixel, you may see something like this…

Referring Domains will list out all of the domains that have referred traffic to your website or app.

Once you have data, it may look like this…

We already discussed the Ad Platforms tab earlier.

Drop-down Controls: Conversion

At the top right you’ll notice three drop-downs that will allow you to filter and alter data.

First, you can choose the type of conversion or event that will receive focus in the data on that page.

What appears here will depend upon what events you use with your pixel.

Drop-down Controls: Time Window

You can also change the time period, as you would for your Ads Manager.

Select specific days or go with “Last 7 Days” or “All Available.”

Drop-down Controls: Attribution Model/Window

And finally, you can change the attribution model or window.

The default attribution model is “Last Touch,” which gives 100% of the credit for a conversion to the last click or visit (if no click or visit, then an impression) that happened in a conversion path. But, you can also select from several other options…

Here are your options and how they’re defined…

Even Credit: gives an equal percentage of the credit for a conversion to each touchpoint on a conversion path.
Last Click or Visit: gives 100% credit to the last click or visit that happened in a conversion path.
Last Touch: gives 100% of the credit for a conversion to the last click or visit that happened in a conversion path. If there was no click or visit, then it will credit the last impression.
Positional 30%: gives a specific percentage of the credit for a conversion to the first and last touchpoints in a conversion path, with the remaining credit distributed evenly across all other touchpoints.
Positional 40%: gives a specific percentage of the credit for a conversion to the first and last touchpoints in a conversion path, with the remaining credit distributed evenly across all other touchpoints.
Time Decay 1-Day: gives an increasing percentage of the credit for a conversion to touchpoints as they get closer in time to the conversion.
Time Decay 7-Day: gives an increasing percentage of the credit for a conversion to touchpoints as they get closer in time to the conversion.

We can’t go much deeper on this topic here, but feel free to check out this tutorial on attribution models.

There are also some advanced settings…

And you can alter how Facebook defines a conversion based on the attribution window (default being within 7 days of a click or 1 day of a view).

Attribution windows tend to be an eye-opener for new advertisers. You may assume that Facebook counts conversions based on someone clicking an ad and immediately converting on your website. But the reality is that Facebook measures people who click ads and come back on another day — or don’t click, but view, and convert later that day.

Facebook Attribution Performance: Quick Tour

The first tab at the top left is for Performance. Once again, you won’t see anything there right away, and it may take some time to get much of value there. But eventually, you’ll see data splitting out the source of your conversions (paid, organic, domain, ad platform, etc.).

Here’s an example provided by Facebook:

By default, you will be viewing all channels (organic and paid). But you can choose to focus on one or the other by clicking the Channels drop-down at the top left.

Facebook Attribution Custom Reports: Quick Tour

The next menu item is for Custom Reports.

The default view is for the sources of your conversions. One of the cool things about this info is that you can customize the type of report you create (hence, the “Custom Reports” title, I guess).

First, a few presets, including Return On Ad Spend…

And from there, you can add or remove columns of data as you please…

Some helpful metrics here include Return On Ad Spend and Visit Conversion Rate.

Instead of sources, your custom reports can also be broken down by campaign (controlled at the top right).

This report pulls out specific ad campaigns you’re running (across platforms) while also including rows for organic.

Within that last drop-down was the ability to create a custom breakdown.

This topic may require a separate blog post, but read more here for now.

Finally, the custom reports are displayed in columns by default, but you can also choose to view them as a graph instead (toggle at the top right).

Here’s an example of what a graph looks like in these reports…

Facebook Attribution Cross-Device: Quick Tour

Finally, Cross-Device provides some top-level information regarding how interaction via multiple devices related to conversions. Here are examples…

How many conversion paths included both desktop and mobile?

How many conversions on mobile resulted after users interacted with your ads on desktop?

And what percentage of your conversions on desktop happened after users interacted with your ads on mobile?

That’s it. It’s interesting information, no doubt. But there’s no slicing and dicing of data the way there is in the other sections. At least, for now.

How Will You Use the Facebook Attribution Tool?

What’s your customer journey? How much value do your Google ads have versus Facebook ads in terms of leading to sales? What’s the mix of device types for a customer most likely to convert?

We’ll need to discuss in more detail — in another post — some specific use cases for the Facebook Attribution Tool, but these questions provide a start.

Your Turn

We’re just getting started here, my friend. As long as this post is, I fully realize it simply leads to more questions. And as someone who is just diving in myself, I don’t have all of those answers.

But there’s more to come. We’ll figure it out together. And it will be glorious.

Have you set up the Facebook Attribution Tool yet? What types of information are you finding?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Facebook Attribution Tool: The Ultimate Introduction appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.