We had been hearing whispers of these impending changes to website conversion campaigns from members of our community and through our inbox. Now it’s official.

In short, Aggregated Event Measurement is Meta’s protocol for reporting web and app events from people who opted out of tracking from iOS 14.5 and later devices. Meta says that “it will continue to evolve,” but many of the advertiser requirements related to iOS 14.5 changes and Aggregated Measurement are going away.

What this means for the future is unclear, but Meta says that no further action is needed from advertisers for now.

Here’s what’s happening…

1. No Need to Prioritize 8 Conversion Events

Previously, advertisers needed to configure and prioritize eight website conversion events that could be used for Aggregated Event Measurement.

Prioritized events were treated differently than non-prioritized events. When optimizing for a non-prioritized event, you would not reach users on iOS devices who had opted out of tracking. You could reach them when optimizing for prioritized events.

Some limited reporting for iOS users was also available for prioritized events whereas reporting for non-prioritized events would not include users who opted out of tracking.

Prioritization will not be needed going forward. It’s not entirely clear yet what that means for how these things will be handled.

2. No Need to Turn on Value Sets to Optimize for Value

Value Optimization allows advertisers to optimize for higher value purchases.

In order to make use of Value Optimization post-iOS 14.5, advertisers were required to turn on Value Sets within Web Event Configuration.

Doing so took up a minimum of four of the eight event prioritization slots. These steps, of course, are going away.

3. Aggregated Event Measurement Tab Will Be Removed

Within the Events Manager, advertisers had access to a tab for Aggregated Event Measurement.

This was intended to display a reporting of events processed utilizing Aggregated Event Measurement, but most advertisers saw limited and incomplete data, if anything, here. It was also how you accessed Event Configuration.

This tab will go away.

4. No Longer Required to Verify Your Domain

Previously, you could not configure and prioritize your eight web events without first verifying the domain — a process of confirming ownership.

This will no longer be a requirement related to event configuration. This is great news for those who are unable to verify the domain because purchases are completed on a website they do not control.

While domain verification is no longer required for this purpose, it’s still recommended for other benefits related to link ownership control.

5. No Need to Select a Conversion Domain

Advertisers were previously required to select a conversion domain where their pixel was found when creating an ad.

This will no longer be required.

Unanswered Questions

What we have from Meta right now is only an explanation of what is changing. But there remain some important unanswered questions.

1. Why is this changing?

Yes, it was a hassle for advertisers, but it was a required step to stay in line with iOS requirements. Why is it that Meta felt it was a good time to make this change?

2. How is this possible?

Apple’s own App Tracking Transparency (ATT) protocol isn’t going away. The requirements related to the handling of opt-outs remains. So, how can the event prioritization step be removed?

3. What is changing to Aggregated Event Measurement?

Presumably, Aggregated Event Measurement will continue to exist (and “evolve,” as Meta says), but many of the advertiser responsibilities related to it are going away. What is changing about AEM? Will new steps emerge?

4. How will this impact optimization and attribution?

This, of course, is what we care about most. The steps that were removed had a direct impact on attribution, reporting, and ads optimization. Will we notice a difference with these changes? Will there be positive or negative changes? Presumably, there will either be no noticeable change or it will be positive, otherwise why make the change at all?

Watch Video

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

Your Turn

What do you think about this update? What are you hearing?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Meta Announces Big Changes to Website Conversion Campaigns appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Facebook Ads Manager is changing all the time. There were three recent changes that may not have been big enough to create a lot of noise individually, but you need to be aware of them.

In this post, we’ll discuss the following:

1. The return of conditional formatting
2. The return of conversion breakdowns
3. The loss of Instant Articles placement

Let’s go…

Conditional Formatting is Back

It was just a week ago. It feels like yesterday. I wrote a blog post lamenting the disappearance of conditional formatting.

Well, it’s back.

I don’t know what happened. But conditional formatting has returned to your custom ad reports. And this is good news because it’s a valuable tool.

You can access it in one of two locations (reminder: This is in the custom ad reports, not the main Ads Manager):

1. The header row drop-down menu.

2. The “Format” button.

I prefer the header row menu since it’s one less step to format the metric that I want.

You can format cells based on a single color or a color scale.

I prefer the color scale, so let me show you a quick example.

With a green/white/red scale, I can automatically assign colors to cells depending on whether results fall within the bottom, middle, or top of the scale (signifying good, average, and bad).

Here’s an example of what that might look like…

It’s a great tool to quickly get a visual on how your ads are performing. Read this blog post for more details on conditional formatting.

Conversion Breakdowns Return

Back in November, Facebook announced that breakdowns of conversion reporting would return after a long, post-iOS 14 hiatus.

I didn’t have this right away. Admittedly, I mostly forgot about it. Eventually, I’d see it in my custom ad reports, but I still wouldn’t have it in my main Ads Manager.

And then today, I finally saw it…

So, a quick recap of what happened is in order. When Facebook made a bunch of changes in response to iOS 14 opt-outs, one piece of functionality that was lost was the ability to breakdown conversions.

For example, go to the Breakdown drop-down menu and choose to breakdown by Placement.

Previously (and post iOS 14 changes), you would get a total for conversions but you wouldn’t see how that metric broke down by placement.

You would get these breakdowns for other metrics, but not for any type of conversion (standard events, custom events, or custom conversions).

Now, of course, that is back.

This is super useful. Until now, we didn’t truly know how segments like age, gender, country, and placement performed. We could get breakdowns of surface-level metrics, but not conversions.

If you don’t have this yet, it appears to be rolling out now.

Instant Articles Placement Going Away

Finally, you may have noticed this update if you’ve manually selected placements recently.

We already knew as of October of last year that Meta planned to retire the Instant Articles format in April. This is a good reminder.

If you have ads running to the Instant Articles placement, you shouldn’t see an interruption of delivery. Your ads will keep running, but they’ll no longer run to that non-existent placement.

I’ve seen that less than 1% of my budget is spent on this placement, so it’s hardly a big loss. Still, advertisers prefer to see the addition of placements rather than subtraction. This means less ad inventory, which can lead to higher costs (even if it isn’t noticeable).

Your Turn

Have you noticed any other big changes?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post 3 Recent Facebook Ads Manager Updates appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

What once was old is new again. After more than a year-and-a-half hiatus, Meta is bringing back breakdowns for conversion reporting.

This update follows a recent theme. After removing functionality in response to iOS 14 restrictions in 2021, Meta is beginning to bring them back. The return of breakdowns for conversions follows closely behind the Compare Attribution Settings feature and 28-day click attribution.

In this post, let’s clarify what Breakdowns are, what specifically went away, what’s back, and why it matters.

What are Breakdowns?

Breakdowns exist in both Ads Manager and Ad Reports, but for the purpose of simplicity let’s focus on Ads Manager.

Breakdowns allow you to take a single campaign, ad set, or ad and break down the results by a single segment. There are four categories of breakdowns: Time, Delivery, Action, and Dynamic Creative Element.

Let’s focus on the Delivery category since that’s what’s most impacted by this latest development. There are several ways you can break down your advertising…

There are a few more options below the scroll that aren’t picked up in this image.

Let’s say you use the Placement breakdown (admittedly my favorite). When you break down by placement, separate rows will be added to your reporting for each placement that received delivery. This helps advertisers understand, for example, how your advertising performed on Desktop Newsfeed, Facebook Stories, Instagram News Feed, and all the rest.

Whether it’s placement, country, age, gender, or something else, this can be incredibly enlightening.

What Went Away and Why?

When Apple announced the iOS 14+ changes related to opt-outs, Facebook made several adjustments in response. One of them was removing access to conversion data when running breakdowns.

This means that you could still perform a breakdown by placement, for example, but you wouldn’t get detailed segmentation for any conversion data. You’d only get it for the on-Facebook activity.

You’d get the summary row, but that’s it.

I don’t know that Meta has ever been incredibly clear about why this was. We can assume it has something to do with a lack of confidence in the data due to opt-outs. They may know, for example, that a conversion happened, but they are less sure about where.

What is Back?

Breakdowns for conversions are returning for the following (all fall under the “Delivery” category):

• Age
• Gender
• Age and Gender
• Country
• Impression Device
• Platform
• Platform and Device
• Placement

Here’s a quick video that walks through it.

@jonloomer Meta’s bringing back breakdowns for conversion reporting! #facebookads ♬ Hip Hop Background(814204) – Pavel

This, like every update, is a rollout. I only have it in one ad account, and it’s inactive. There’s been no official announcement from Meta (as far as I’ve seen), beyond messages from ad reps to advertisers.

Why Does it Matter?

These extra data points are so important. They provide necessary context.

Without split testing, you can quickly uncover which placements, ages, countries, and impression devices are performing the best. This might impact how you construct your campaigns going forward.

Loss of context has been significant since iOS changes. We are getting so much of that back with the return of Compare Attribution Settings, 28-day click attribution, and now breakdowns for conversions.

Your Turn

Do you have this yet? What do you think?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Meta is Bringing Back Breakdowns for Conversion Reporting appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

You may be seeing that reported conversions are down since iOS 14+ changes of 2021. You aren’t alone. While there are many reasons for a drop in reporting, one may be the way that you configure your custom Facebook ads reports.

It has to do with unranked events. Let’s discuss…

Custom Ads Manager Reports

If you’re like me, you create custom Facebook ads reports in Ads Manager. You don’t rely only on the default construction of columns that Facebook provides.

I even wrote a post about how I have a saved report called “The Good Stuff.” It allows me to monitor the impact of my ads on the metrics that I care about most, regardless of optimization.

My custom report consists of about 30 metrics in all, from standard Facebook ads metrics to standard events and custom conversions.

And there, of course, is the potential issue.

Ranked and Unranked Events

A quick refresher on Aggregated Event Measurement, ranked and unranked events, related to iOS 14+ changes…

When an iOS user opts out of tracking, only that user’s highest-ranked event will be reported (no change to reporting for an iOS user who opts-in). This, of course, assumes that you have ranked your events (you can rank up to eight).

In theory, only a ranked event has the potential to be reported for an opted-out iOS user. And the higher that event is ranked, the greater the possibility that it will be reported when executed.

Unranked events, though, won’t be sent. They are bound to be far less complete (the level of completeness, of course, will depend upon the density of opted-out iOS users in your targeted audience).

An Example

I’m running a Reach campaign to a very warm audience to promote my 10 Tips free opt-in lead magnet. One of my columns is for the Complete Registration standard event. Facebook reports 51 registrations.

However, I added a column for registrations for the specific opt-in I’m promoting as well using a custom conversion. There, Facebook is reporting only 39. Where are the other 12?

Well, the next thing I did was add a column for my other primary lead magnet, The Basics. If a user I targeted opted in for both within seven days of clicking the ad, they could both be counted.

But, nope…

Then it occurred to me: The Complete Registrations event is ranked among my eight events. The custom conversions for each opt-in are not.

While it’s impossible to know whether opted-out iOS users account for the full 12 additional conversions (reasonable to assume there are other explanations, too), it’s certainly consistent to assume that some or most of those missing conversions are due to opt-outs.

If these signups follow my normal traffic trends, about 12-percent came from iOS devices. So, it’s reasonable to assume that at least something in the neighborhood of 6 of the 12 weren’t counted due to opt-outs.

The Lesson

It’s important not to overreact to this. I could simply stop tracking unranked events in my reports. Instead, I understand that this information still has value.

Just understand that while reporting may be incomplete overall, reporting for unranked events should be expected to be even less complete. Be aware of it. Don’t act on that raw data. Maybe compare it to a related ranked event for clarity (like the Complete Registration event in my case).

It’s situations like this where it’s important to cross-check results these days. It’s why I use URL parameters with Google Analytics, and why I’ve also experimented with duplicating landing pages and forms that are used only for ads.

Your Turn

How do you address the issue of unranked events in your custom reports? Do you ignore them entirely or do you simply look at them with more scrutiny?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post The Problem with Unranked Event Custom Facebook Ads Reporting appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

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.

Facebook advertisers have been vocal about the negative impact of iOS 14+ during the past year. Even when it’s never clear what’s led to a drop in performance, iOS 14+ often gets blamed.

Truthfully, the primary culprit may not be the direct impact of iOS 14+ to drops in performance. It may actually be an indirect cause that impacts all advertisers, not just those with a high volume of iOS users.

In this post, we’ll discuss the direct impact of iOS 14+ on performance, the (likely bigger) indirect cause, and what you can do about it.

Aggregated Event Measurement and Performance

When iOS 14+ changes went into effect, the primary focus was on Aggregated Event Measurement. This is the protocol that Facebook uses for handling attribution related to users who have opted out of the ATT prompt.

That prompt, you’ll recall, gave users the ability to prevent an app from tracking them across apps and websites. Facebook and advertisers wouldn’t lose all data at that point, but access would certainly suffer.

When a user opts out of tracking and clicks on an ad that goes to your website, Facebook will then receive very limited information. Only that user’s highest-ranking event (as determined by the advertiser, among eight eligible events) will be sent for attribution, and it will be delayed for up to 72 hours.

The direct result to reporting is simple: Not all conversion events will be received. They’ll be incomplete. They’ll be delayed. And because of this, performance may be underreported.

Facebook does attempt to fill in the gaps with modeling. But it’s not entirely clear how much data Facebook is actually losing here. And this impact, of course, is more pronounced for advertisers targeting users more likely to be on an iOS device.

Facebook isn’t exactly forthcoming on what is lost here, and it’s entirely possible they don’t truly know. But, it’s reasonable to think that attribution for your highest-ranking event (typically a purchase) should see little, if any, impact. In theory, Facebook should still receive those. It’s the lower-ranked (and unranked) events that should be subject to underreporting.

Attribution Change

I contend that the biggest change coming from iOS 14+ had nothing to do with iOS devices at all. In fact, your audience could be entirely on a different device and you may have seen a drop in performance.

Because of the drop in confidence in attribution that resulted from iOS 14+ opt-outs, Facebook cut default attribution from 28-day click and 1-day view to 7-day click and (eventually) 1-day view.

In other words, advertisers previously saw conversion results in Ads Manager for users who clicked an ad and converted 8-28 days later. After the change, these conversions would never appear.

If your focus is on free opt-ins or sales of cheap products, this may not have impacted you. But, consider products that take more thought prior to commitment after that initial click. Consider memberships and more expensive products that may require discussion or approval before payment.

I strongly believe that this is the biggest impact of these changes. The performance of your ads may not have changed at all. Instead, Facebook is simply unable to provide attribution to conversions because those conversions fall outside of the 7-day click window.

What Should You Do?

Unfortunately, the tools Facebook previously provided to view conversions that occur beyond a 7-day click — even for historical data — are long gone. You’ll need to get creative.

First, evaluate the customer journey. What do you see — on your websites, in your CRM — that can help you understand how long it takes for a potential customer to become a paying customer? Are you likely to get conversions beyond the 7-day click window?

Second, compare your overall traffic and budget from Facebook year-over-year. If it’s unchanged, are the total sales down? You shouldn’t look at your Ads Manager numbers here but from the merchant side.

I use a couple of strategies for uncovering conversions that Ads Manager is no longer reporting, for one reason or another.

One is using URL parameters and Google Analytics. I’ve never been a big user of URL parameters in the past, but Ads Manager reporting had always been more complete in the past. Now that I’m using it, I see more conversions than Ads Manager reports. This completely changes my evaluation of campaigns.

Another strategy I’ve used (and I’ll write a separate blog post about this) is creating a separate landing page and form specifically for Facebook ads. This way, any conversions that come through that page and form are likely to originate from a Facebook ad. I then compare results to Ads Manager, often finding that Facebook reports fewer than I see on the back-end.

Watch Video

I talk about the impact of Facebook’s attribution change in the video below…

Your Turn

How much of an impact have you seen due to the change in attribution? What have you done about it?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Facebook Ads Performance Related to iOS 14 appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

One of the biggest complaints during the past year since Facebook implemented changes related to iOS 14 updates is a drop in reporting. While it may not be accurately represented, Facebook is reporting fewer conversions.

I have a simple tip for you that may help, and it’s related to the Facebook ads reporting window.

Understanding Aggregated Event Measurement

One of the changes that Facebook implemented in response to iOS 14+ relates to how to handle events performed by users who have opted out of tracking.

Aggregated Event Measurement allows Facebook to receive such a user’s highest-ranking event during the attribution window. After clicking your ad, for example, that user may perform four web events. Facebook will receive one.

But, an important and often forgotten point is that this data will be delayed. Unlike other event data that will be received immediately, it may take up to 72 hours for Facebook to receive it.

How This Impacts Your Reporting Window

If your targeted audience is likely to use an iOS device, this means that much of your conversion reporting is likely to be delayed. It means that any same-day or recent reporting is bound to be incomplete.

It will look worse than it actually is.

Your reporting in Ads Manager won’t technically be complete (or be as complete as it’s going to be) for 72 hours. That impact will be most significant if your audience is more likely to use iOS devices.

You should understand how this impacts you. Before you make any big decisions based on the performance of your ads, change the reporting window to end four days ago.

It doesn’t mean everyone will see a drastic difference. Only about 12% of my traffic comes from iOS devices, so that’s the most impact I will see. But make sure to use an adjusted reporting window before you make any rash decisions related to the campaign.

Impact on Automated Rules

Keep this in mind when it comes to the Automated Rules you use, as well. If you have determined that your reporting is delayed, your rules shouldn’t execute based on recent data. Base it on wider reporting windows, where the impact of the most recent three days will be watered down. Or adjust the rule to accept a slightly worse result.

Facebook also includes custom date ranges that may be a solution here as well. They don’t omit the most recent three days, but they can go up to the most recent 7.

Your Turn

Have you noticed a delay in your reporting? How do you handle it?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Tip: Facebook Ads Reporting Window appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

One of the biggest negative results related to iOS 14+ and browser restrictions that have gone into place during the past year is a drop in targeting effectiveness.

The Facebook pixel has become less dependable. We should expect it to get less effective as more and more browsers and devices move towards less tracking. These restrictions negatively impact reporting, but also the ability to target people based on their website actions.

That doesn’t mean you should abandon the pixel or targeting built off of pixel events. But, you should consider building and targeting the audiences that aren’t impacted by these restrictions.

In this post, we’ll provide a list of options that you still have available to you that haven’t been impacted.

A Clarification

The important thing to remember here is that impact is isolated to activity across websites and apps. However, Facebook is still able to update audiences based on activity within the Facebook and Instagram apps themselves.

1. Lead Form Custom Audiences

USE IN ADDITION TO: Link ads for website leads

Facebook lead ads leverage forms that are easy to complete. They can pre-fill contact info like name and email address from a user’s profile. They are super fast and, most importantly, they keep people on Facebook. As a result, these audiences will remain complete.

Lead Form Custom Audiences allow you to create audiences of people who:

• Opened your form
• Opened and submitted your form
• Opened your form but didn’t submit

Audiences include people for up to 90 days at a time.

Beyond having the advantage over the pixel, the “opened and submitted” audience will also be more complete and accurate than a customer file custom audience, which relies on the email address matching up to a user’s Facebook profile.

2. Video View Custom Audiences

USE IN ADDITION TO: Custom audiences based on embedded YouTube video views

Facebook videos (videos that you upload to Facebook) have many benefits. First, they are engaging for the user since they auto-play and can be watched directly from the news feed. Second, engagement with these videos gives advertisers retargeting capabilities.

You can create a video view custom audience of people who viewed one or multiple videos for as little as three seconds or for up to 95% of the video.

The greater engagement rates can give advertisers targeting capabilities to reach people who provided clear buying signals based on watching a product video, for example.

One of the nice things about these and Engagement Custom Audiences (next on this list) is that people can remain in the audience for up to 365 days.

3. Facebook Engagement Custom Audiences

Facebook Engagement Custom Audiences give advertisers the ability to target Facebook users for many types of interaction:

• People who currently like or follow your page
• Everyone who engaged with your page
• Anyone who visited your page
• People who engaged with any post or ad
• People who clicked any call-to-action button
• People who sent a message to your page
• People who saved any post

The “People who currently like or follow your page” audience replaces the prior method of targeting your followers using Connections.

Targeting “everyone who engaged with your page” gives you the largest possible audience of people who engaged with you. Many of the other audiences are likely to be small, depending on your audience size and level of activity.

While these are all solid audiences to use, Facebook has an opportunity to provide more granularity here. I’ve previously written about how Facebook could very easily allow advertisers the ability to target people based on more granular interactions with Facebook content.

4. Instagram Account Custom Audiences

Instagram Account Custom Audiences work much in the same way as Facebook Page Engagement Custom Audiences, but with your Instagram business account (it needs to be connected to your Business Manager).

You can create audiences of people based on the following levels of engagement with your Instagram business account:

• Everyone who engaged with your account
• Anyone who visited your profile
• People who engaged with any post or ad
• People who sent a message to your account
• People who saved any post or ad

If you have an active Instagram account, you should take advantage of these options.

5. Instant Experience Custom Audiences

USE IN ADDITION TO: Website custom audiences based on traffic sent to a landing page

Instant Experiences are like custom landing pages created within Facebook. Combine text, videos, photos, buttons, and other components to build an immersive experience.

In the news feed, an ad that links to an Instant Experience may look mostly like a typical link ad. When it’s clicked, the Instant Experience appears.

Of course, advertisers can create audiences based on engagement with Instant Experiences, including:

• People who opened the Instant Experience
• People who opened and clicked any link within the Instant Experience

One reason to use Instant Experiences could be to replace the targeting lost due to iOS 14+ opt-outs. Let’s assume someone opted out of tracking. If they click on your ad, you will not be able to create an audience of that user’s activity on your website. You won’t be able to retarget or exclude them based on clicking the ad.

If you create an Instant Experience to showcase your product, you could still have a link that goes out to purchase the product on your website. But, you could first create an audience of the person for opening the Instant Experience in the first place. And then you could create an audience for clicking the link within that Instant Experience that goes out to your website — even though they won’t be included in the website custom audience!

6. Facebook Event Custom Audiences

USE IN ADDITION TO: Website custom audiences for events sold on your website

Facebook has enhanced the Events product during the past few years, now integrating Facebook payments. That provides more targeting opportunities when creating Facebook Event Custom Audiences.

You can now create audiences based on the following engagement types with your events:

• People who responded Going or Interested
• People who have responded Going
• People who have responded Interested
• People who have visited the event page
• People who have engaged
• People who entered the ticket purchase flow
• People who have purchased tickets
• People who abandoned the ticket purchase flow

Many of these audiences would be the equivalent of targeting and remarketing that could be done with website custom audiences related to the purchase funnel.

7. Shopping and On-Facebook Listing Custom Audiences

If you sell products on Facebook or Instagram using a Shop or Facebook Commerce Catalog, you can create audiences of people based on their engagement with those products.

First, there are several targeting options based on engagement with your Facebook Shop:

• People who viewed products
• People who viewed products and navigated to website
• People who saved products
• People who viewed Shops page
• People who viewed Shops collection
• People who added any products to their cart
• People who intiated checkout for any products
• People who purchased any products

These audiences can be based on engagement with either your Facebook or Instagram Shop.

If you sell products within Marketplace using a Marketplace Catalog, you can also create audiences of engagement with your products there.

On-Facebook Listing Custom Audiences you can create include:

• People who viewed products in my catalog
• People who messaged about products in my catalog

The one problem with all of these is that there isn’t granularity based on the specific product viewed or purchased.

8. Interests, Demographics, and Behaviors

All of the first seven audiences are “warm” based on engagement with you on Facebook or Instagram. Of course, most cold audiences won’t be impacted by iOS or browser restrictions.

Age, gender, location, interests, behaviors, and language are mostly or completely unaffected by these changes.

9. Lookalike Audiences

Finally, advertisers can find users who are similar to those who have engaged with them before by creating Lookalike Audiences.

The only potential negative impact to Lookalike Audiences is because your source audience may be based on a website custom audience that is incomplete. The quality of the Lookalike Audience depends upon the quality of the source audience.

Your Turn

These are all targeting options that you should consider adding to your advertising mix if you haven’t already. It doesn’t mean that you should replace website custom audiences or app engagement custom audiences entirely — that’s crazy! But using these more could give you more complete targeting overall.

Have you started using these audiences? Let me know in the comments below!

The post Facebook Ads Audiences That Aren’t Impacted by iOS and Browser Restrictions appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

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.

Not all sales are equal. Not all customers are equal. That’s why Facebook gives you the option of optimizing for the most valuable customers using Value Optimization.

In this post, let’s discuss the following:

• What is Value Optimization?
• Who is eligible?
• Collecting value
• What about Aggregated Event Measurement?
• Things to consider

Let’s go…

What is Value Optimization?

You’ve created a Facebook campaign using the Conversions (or Sales) objective. By default, you’ll optimize for a conversion. But, what if you want Facebook to optimize for the highest value conversion?

You can do that with Value Optimization. From Facebook:

When you optimize for value, we use machine learning to predict how much return on ad spend (ROAS) a person may generate. We then use this prediction to bid for your highest value customers. By bidding more for people who are likely to spend more, you can help ensure you are maximizing the ROAS for your campaigns.

You can use Value Optimization for Conversions/Sales, Catalog Sales, and App Promotion objectives. If you’re eligible, you will see Value as an option when you set up optimization.

As a result, Facebook will show your ads to people most likely to convert AND spend more than a typical customer.

This can be enormously helpful for advertisers in search of high profits and quality customers. Getting a $10 sale may not be enough to maintain a high return. You want those $100+ purchases.

Value Optimization is one of the rare cases where Facebook can help you focus on the quality of an action.

Who is Eligible?

If Value doesn’t appear as an option when setting up optimization for a conversion campaign, it may be because you are not eligible.

For web events, you must generate at least 30 attributed click-through purchases with values over the past 7 days. For app events, you’ll need to generate at least 15 app sales with values during that same period.

This technically means that you need to not only generate 30 purchases on your website in a 7-day period, but you need ATTRIBUTED clicks that lead to those purchases. You need Facebook ads.

For some businesses, this may seem like a lot. Note that all you need is to generate those 30 purchases once during a 7-day period. I don’t always run purchase campaigns. But since I generated enough purchases over a single 7-day period, I will always have Value Optimization as an option.

As strict as this may seem, these requirements were actually far more restrictive prior to iOS 14 updates.

Collecting Value

For Facebook to optimize for Value, you need to not only generate purchases on your website, but Facebook must receive the values of these purchases. You are likely collecting this information already, but make sure to confirm first.

When you create a pixel event for a Purchase, you need to include “Value.” Here’s an example…

If you need help setting up pixel events, you can use my Pixel Event Generator. Otherwise, here are a few other resources:

• How to Create Facebook Pixel Events and Parameters Manually
• How to Use the Facebook Pixel Event Setup Tool
• Facebook Pixel Events: An Introduction

What About Aggregated Event Measurement?

You will need to determine whether you want to turn Value Optimization on for the Purchase event when ranking events in Aggregated Event Measurement (in response to iOS 14). There are benefits and drawbacks of doing so. The primary benefit is that you’ll be able to continue to reach users who have opted out of iOS tracking when optimizing for Value.

When you configure web events for Aggregated Event Measurement, you can choose to turn Value Optimization on for the Purchase event.

When you turn Value Optimization on, it will take up a minimum of 4 of the 8 total event slots (one for each value set).

You will not need to define these value sets when using web events (you’ll need to define them if using app events). More details here.

It’s possible that you have too many events that you want to optimize for and there’s no room to turn Value on when configuring your events. In the case where Value Optimization isn’t ranked in Aggregated Event Measurement, you’ll still be able to optimize for Value as a non-configured event. But those ads will not reach people who have opted out of iOS tracking.

Things to Consider

First, understand that when you optimize for Value, the focus will no longer be on the number of conversions. You have told Facebook that you prioritize value over the number of conversions. The result is that you will likely spend more per conversion while optimizing for Value, with the expectation that the conversions you get will be more valuable.

Second, volume always helps Facebook optimize. If the cost per conversion is higher, it’s going to be even more difficult to exit the Learning Phase — that point when you should get optimal results.

Optimizing for Value may be best suited for big brands with big budgets. That does not mean that you shouldn’t experiment with it if you have access to it. Try it and see what happens!

Your Turn

Have you experimented with optimizing for Value? What kind of results have you seen?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post How to Use Value Optimization for Facebook Ads appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

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.

We’re entering a time when tracking users from app to app and website to website is becoming increasingly difficult. Browser settings and Apple’s iOS 14.5 update are making the Facebook pixel less dependable for the purposes of tracking conversions and creating audiences for ad targeting.

That’s rough for advertisers. It creates a need for more granular targeting that isn’t impacted by these privacy developments. Activity that occurs entirely within the Facebook app, for example, can still be tracked and turned into audiences used for targeting.

Facebook offers some options. They just aren’t as robust as they could or should be. I’ve long wondered why many of the requests I make in this post aren’t already available. Until now, it was more of a luxury need. Now, though, they’re the type of options advertisers will need to replace or supplement some of their favorite options that are becoming less useful.

Facebook, if you’re reading this, it’s long past the time to offer these options for advertisers. You have the ability. Doing so will provide a little bit of sunshine during an otherwise tumultuous period.

Let’s go…

Clarification: What Is and Is Not Impacted

These additional audience targeting options are necessary because iOS 14 and other tracking restrictions are impacting the ability to target people based on their activity. Understand that iOS 14, specifically, applies to tracking across apps and websites.

This applies to the creation of website custom audiences and app activity custom audiences. If someone opts out of tracking, they will be removed from these audiences related to their activity while using an iOS device.

That said, this does not impact tracking that Facebook does and can do within their own app. As a result, this does not impact the following audience types:

• Video
• Lead Form
• Instant Experience
• Shopping
• Instagram Account
• Page Events
• Facebook Page
• On-Facebook Listings

It also doesn’t impact things like customer list audiences, interests, or lookalike audiences (though the source audiences may be impacted).

In this post, we’ll explore ways that Facebook can expand on those audiences that aren’t impacted.

Expansion of Engagement Types

The Facebook Page Engagement audience allows for several ways to target an audience that engages with your page…

Advertisers also have a similar method for building audiences of people who have engaged with their Instagram business account.

This is great and all, but the types of engagement are extremely general. The nice thing about website custom audiences is that I can isolate very specific types of events for targeting. That granularity does not exist here.

Here are a few engagement types that Facebook could turn into targeting audiences…

1. Post Shares
2. Post Comments
3. Post Reactions (or segmented by specific reaction type)
4. Image Click

You probably don’t realize this, but most of these actions (except for image click) were previously possible. Creation wasn’t part of Facebook’s main audience interface, though. It was done within Facebook Analytics.

In the example above, you’d first create a filter, save it, and then create a custom audience from it. Perfect, right? The problem is, of course, that Facebook Analytics went away on June 30, 2021.

We know that Facebook has the information to create these audiences. We could create them before. Facebook needs to make this part of the main audience interface.

Engagement on Specific Posts

Maybe you want to reach those who shared or commented but limit retargeting to that activity related to a specific post. In the example above, creating audiences for all comments, shares, or reactions would be good for building general targeting audiences. But there’s often a more specific need.

If you liked, shared, or commented on a specific post, I could then show you an ad related to that topic. Relevance, as always, is key.

Look, I understand that Facebook’s argument may be that this type of granularity wouldn’t be useful for those with small budgets or low levels of activity on their posts. The audience sizes will be small.

Fine. But it could be enormously valuable for those with higher budgets and those with more activity. Just make it available and let us sort out whether we have the volume to make it useful.

More Granular Instant Experience Actions

The Instant Experience ad format is likely to become more popular among Facebook advertisers since it doesn’t rely on the uncertainty of the pixel for audience creation. It keeps users entirely inside an “instant” experience that can consist of various “components,” or blocks of text, images, videos, products, or more.

You can create audiences of people who engage with these experiences. Audience creation options include anyone who opened the Instant Experience or anyone who opened and then clicked a link within it.

That’s a pretty soft offering of options. In addition to adding the components that were engaged with, what about adding specificity to the link clicked within the Instant Experience? You could include multiple links and buttons within the experience. Why not allow the ability to create an audience based on which one was clicked?

Impressions Shown

You may have been shown an ad or post, but you didn’t necessarily click on it. In fact, the odds are better that you didn’t. What if I could target or exclude people who were already shown a post or ad?

For example…

1. Show to followers who haven’t seen it.

Let’s say you published something organically to your followers. As we know, a small percentage of those followers will likely see it. What if we could create an ad that reaches only those who weren’t shown it so far? We could do that, but only if we could create an audience of those who were shown an impression and exclude that group.

2. Control frequency.

One of the biggest complaints among advertisers is that Facebook doesn’t give us enough ways to control frequency. We waste money showing ads to people who see them over and over again.

Currently, the best way to do that would be to use Frequency Capping when optimizing for Reach or using Reach and Frequency buying.

But, how would you control reach when simply optimizing for Conversions or something else with a modest budget? We could do that by creating an audience of people who already saw our post or ad during a set window of time (let’s say 14 days) and exclude that group.

3. Show a variety of content.

Or maybe we want to reach people who saw a post or ad (but didn’t necessarily engage with it) and show them something else. We could do that if we could target those who were shown that post or ad.

Frequency of Engagement or Impressions

One of the really cool and underutilized features related to website custom audiences is buried within pixel event audiences. You can create audiences based on parameters, values, and frequency of actions.

This is great! But we’ve already discussed how the pixel is becoming less dependable in the age of iOS 14 and less tracking. Anyone who opts out of tracking will be removed from these types of audiences.

What if we could apply this type of granularity to engagement with other types of Facebook content?

1. Frequency of engagement.

We mentioned creating an audience of people who engaged with a specific post or ad. But what about people who have engaged multiple times across your content? People who routinely like or love your posts, for example, may be valuable. Or people who message frequently, click links, comment, or provide numerous other types of engagement. It would be great to be able to isolate these people!

You can currently create an audience of people who engaged with any post or ad, but there’s no frequency element. That would decrease the audience size but increase the relevance.

2. Frequency of impressions.

Once again, a way to control frequency. Previously, we discussed creating an audience of people who were shown a specific post or ad during a specified window of time so that we could exclude them. Instead, what if we could exclude only those who saw that post or ad three times during the past seven days?

Watch Video

Your Turn

Facebook has the ability to provide these targeting options to advertisers. It would only enhance the performance of ads and the creativity of advertisers. Why not provide them?

Any other targeting options you want to see? Let me know in the comments below!

The post Audience Targeting Options Facebook Needs in the Age of Less Tracking appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Heading up to the launch of Aggregated Event Measurement and the enforcement of other changes related to iOS 14, one of the biggest things we heard repeated was that we needed to give thought to ranking our eight pixel events because changing them would be problematic.

Well, Facebook appears to have made a change here — at least a change that is reflected in their own documentation. Let’s take a closer look at the 72-hour pause, how documentation reads now, and how to address this going forward.

The 72-Hour Pause

In prior posts and training, I’ve advocated for assembling an 8-event ranking that is flexible and can continue to be usable six months or a year from now. I suggested grouping purchase events by category as an example, rather than relying only on the Purchase standard event.

Why? Because any change to your ranking of those events could have a significant — and annoying — impact on the delivery of your ads.

How would this be applied? It would appear that adding a new event, changing the order, and removing an event from the ranking could potentially result in significant disruption.

Advertisers approached this with extreme caution. No one wanted a 72-hour pause.

The Update to Facebook Documentation

Facebook documentation has been updated to reflect a softer handling of changes to your event ranking.

Per Facebook:

You can submit changes to your web event configuration once every 72 hours. When you confirm your changes, ad sets immediately start optimizing for the new event configuration.

So, now it would appear that you can make these changes without disruption. The caveat, of course, is that once you make a change to event ranking you won’t be able to make another change for 72 hours.

Given that advertisers have been conditioned to not make any changes ever under threat of 72-hour pause, I don’t think most will mind being limited to making changes once every three days.

72-Hour Pause for App Advertising

An important distinction, however, is that while the delay has been scrubbed from Facebook documentation related to Aggregated Event Measurement, it still exists for SKAdnetwork. This is the protocol used for handling users who opted out of tracking for app advertising.

If you run ads to promote app installs and engagement, this applies to you. If you don’t, you can ignore this part.

From that same article:

If you change the priority order or remove an event, impacted ads and ad sets are paused for 72 hours to eliminate the risk of incorrect attribution.

Again, this is for app advertising only, not for optimizing for and tracking website conversions.

Should You Make Changes?

The confusing part, of course, is that I still get the 72-hour pause warning when I look to make changes. The screen shot I shared above was from today, not the distant past. My assumption is that this alert simply needs to be updated.

It’s also possible that this change hasn’t been completely rolled out yet. Something to keep in mind before you test this update. It’s possible that while Facebook’s official stand is that a 72-hour pause will not occur, it hasn’t been applied globally yet.

Worst case scenario, you may want to consider testing this only if a 72-hour pause isn’t a significant risk. You may need to optimize for something else for a short period of time.

Have you made changes to your 8-event ranking lately? Did it result in a pause?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Elimination of the 72-Hour Pause for Facebook Ad Set Optimization appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

One of the biggest Facebook advertiser complaints related to iOS 14 changes and Aggregated Event Measurement is the limitation to eight events per website for optimization purposes. Luckily, that is changing.

Let’s take a closer look at what the limitation meant, what happens with the change, and how this will impact your advertising.

The 8-Event Limit

When Aggregated Event Measurement was originally rolled out, advertisers were asked to provide a priority ranking of the eight pixel events they would use for ad set optimization.

Only these eight events would be allowed for optimization.

The ranking would be applied when collecting results from users who had opted out of iOS 14 tracking. In those cases, Facebook would only receive a user’s highest-ranking event, and receipt of that conversion would be delayed for up to 72 hours.

Problems Related to 8-Event Limit

Of course, there were many problems related to the 8-event limit. Those problems ranged from eight events not being enough to not being able to rank an event at all.

1. 8 Events Not Enough: Maybe you have dozens or hundreds of products. You may find success optimizing for the purchase of that specific product, rather than a standard Purchase event.

Or you may have a company that shares the same website across locations and departments. You don’t want to share the same eight events across those locations and departments.

2. Event Doesn’t Occur on Owned Website: This may be the most common. You have your own website, but the purchase itself occurs on a third-party domain that you don’t control. You can place your pixel on that website, but you can’t rank an event occurring there since you aren’t able to verify the domain (among other potential issues like sharing that event among other vendors).

Solution: Optimize for Non-Prioritized Events

Luckily, advertisers will now be allowed to optimize for events that are not included within their ranked eight (this feature is rolling out, and you may not have access to it yet).

There will be limitations to this approach that you’ll need to understand, but optimizing for non-prioritized events might be a great option for you.

Targeting Limitations for Non-Prioritzed Events

When optimizing for a non-prioritized event, your ad will not reach anyone on an iOS device who has opted out of tracking. That means that you WILL reach the following people:

• Those on iOS device who opted in to tracking
• Those on a non-iOS device

Keep in mind that this means you can also reach people who opted out of iOS tracking but are using a non-iOS device when your ad is shown.

The question is going to be how much this impacts your audience pool. If most of your traffic comes from non-iOS devices, this may be a great option. Even if you have a large iOS audience, it may be interesting to test.

Reporting Benefits of Non-Prioritized Events

The really interesting benefit of optimizing for non-prioritized events is that you won’t have to worry about reporting issues related to Aggregated Event Measurement.

As you know, AEM means reporting for users who opted out of tracking will be delayed and aggregated. It will take up to 72 hours to receive. You will only receive the highest ranking event. And other reporting may be modeled. This is a very inexact science. The uncertainty is frustrating.

But, what if you could get “normal,” pre-iOS 14 reporting? That’s essentially what happens when you optimize for a non-prioritized event. Reporting will be complete. Aggregated Event Measurement won’t apply.

Experiment!

Let’s see how this works. If you don’t have room in your ranked eight or simply have no ability to rank a given event, optimize for it as a non-prioritized event.

I’d take it a step further. Even if you don’t have these limitations, let’s try it anyway. Personally, I’m curious about the results we’ll see for non-prioritized event optimization vs. prioritized event optimization. Create a custom conversion, don’t rank it, and try to optimize for it.

Assuming you’re able to do this (not everyone has it so far), what results do you see?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Campaign Optimization Using Non-Prioritized Facebook Events appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

We were first warned about iOS 14 and how it would impact Facebook advertising in 2020. Now that Apple has launched iOS 14.5 and begun enforcement of the new rules we’ve been warned about, it’s time to review what you may be seeing.

So, what’s happening now? Let’s run through what you need to know…

Optimization for Eight Events Only

If you want to create a conversions campaign, you can only optimize for one of your eight configured events. Before this was enforced, you could still pick an event that wasn’t configured, but you’d get a soft, yellow warning icon.

Now, only your configured events will be selectable for optimization…

Any events that haven’t been configured will be grayed out…

If you haven’t yet configured your events, you’ll need to do that by going to Events Manager > Aggregated Event Measurement > Configure Web Events. Just know that you should expect up to a 72-hour delay before being able to optimize for any new configured events.

If you’re unable to configure your events, it’s either because you don’t own the domain where events occur or you need to first verify domain ownership.

Paused Ad Sets

If you created ad sets within conversion campaigns prior to iOS 14 enforcement that were optimized for events that aren’t among your configured eight events, those ad sets will now be paused.

Here’s what that will look like (courtesy of Andrea Vahl):

Delayed Access to New Configured Events

If you change your configured events, know that any new event will result in up to a 72-hour delay. Until that time passes, you will not be able to optimize for that event.

If you remove an event from your configuration list in this process, any ad sets optimizing for that event will be paused.

Shrinking Audiences

You are likely seeing messages from Facebook about your custom audiences shrinking.

This is related only to audiences that include people who have opted out of iOS tracking (mainly website custom audiences and app activity custom audiences). If you target or exclude these audiences that have been impacted by iOS opt-outs, expect them to be incomplete.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use them. Just know that they’ll be smaller. How much smaller will depend upon the volume and percentage of your overall traffic coming from iOS devices.

The frustrating part is that unless you’ve been tracking the size of these audiences closely, Facebook does not provide a way to see how much their sizes are being impacted.

Delayed Reporting

If someone opts out of iOS tracking, Facebook will receive the highest ranking event from a given visit. However, it will take up to three days for it to show up in your reporting.

In other words, you may want to ignore your conversion reporting for the most recent three-day window. If you have significant iOS traffic, those numbers will not be complete.

Instead, consider customizing your reporting window to a period prior to three days ago.

Similarly, consider how this impacts automated rules. If reporting is delayed for up to three days for some of your conversions, the most recent-three day window isn’t ideal for determining whether to make adjustments. Unfortunately, Facebook doesn’t provide a window that excludes the past three days.

Consider expanding the window to a longer time period. Or, adjust your expectations for a Cost Per Action, knowing that conversions will be underreported.

Reporting for Non-configured Events

You can technically continue to add a column to your ad reporting for non-configured events using the Customize Columns feature.

However, know that if events occur from iOS users who opted out of tracking, those events will not be included in the reporting.

This is different from reporting for events that have been configured using Aggregated Event Measurement. In that case, Facebook will continue to show the highest-ranking event from a given visit. But, if you never configured an event (it isn’t ranked), it will not show up in your reporting for iOS users who opted out.

In other words, expect non-configured events to be (more) underreported than configured events. If you have significant iOS traffic, you may want to rely only on configured events for reporting.

Aggregated Event Measurement Reporting

If you haven’t yet started to see data appear within the Aggregated Event Measurement tab in Events Manager (I haven’t), you will soon.

It appears Facebook will list the events that are being processed using the Aggregated Event Measurement protocol. In other words, it will list the configured events that have occurred, displaying the number of times each event was the highest priority event for a given visit by a user who opted out of iOS tracking.

Note that it does not matter whether these events are attributed to ads. Unlike your Ads Manager reporting, this section will display all events — paid and organic — that were processed using this protocol.

Considerations

With this live, I think it’s important to remember a few things…

1. Mobile vs. Desktop Traffic.

Let’s say that 50-percent of your audience owns an iOS device. Know that this doesn’t mean that 50-percent of your audiences and reporting will be impacted. Many of the same people who have iOS devices also access your website from their desktop. Tracking will occur normally in those cases.

Have an idea regarding how much of your traffic is from an iOS device. I know that 8-percent of my total traffic comes from iOS. That means up to 8-percent of my website custom audiences and reporting may be impacted.

2. How Many Will Opt-Out?

We’ve heard some preliminary reporting on the number of people opting out of tracking, but it’s been a bit across the board. Plan for the worst-case scenario, but don’t assume it. We’ll need to wait a while before we know the full impact of opt-outs.

3. Don’t Blame All Bad Results on iOS 14.

During this time, it’s going to be easy to blame iOS 14 for every poorly performing campaign. Was every campaign effective prior to these changes? Probably not. It will be important that you separate iOS-related factors from those within your control (like copy, creative, targeting, product, etc.).

4. Be Creative.

You’ll need to start doing things differently than you’ve done them before. Experiment. Find solutions. This is no time to be stubborn and stuck in your ways.

How I Can Help

I know this is overwhelming. I’ve created a number of resources that can help you:

1. iOS 14 Resources Page

This is a collection of all ways that I can help on this topic in one place.

2. iOS 14 FAQ

I created a list of frequently asked questions and answers related to this topic.

3. Power Hitters Club – Elite Membership

Every week, I conduct a strategy session, webinar, and Hotline Q&A for my most exclusive members within the PHC – Elite community. You can also get answers from other members within the private Facebook group as well as get access to iOS 14 training and all other training I’ve conducted.

Go here to learn more about PHC – Elite.

4. Book a One-on-One with Me

This has been a popular option for brands, advertisers, and agencies lately. You can book a private, 45-minute session with me to discuss what you’re doing, answer questions, and recommend some strategies to take. You can access my calendar here.

Anyone can book a session with me, but PHC – Elite members get a deep discount.

Your Turn

Have you started seeing the impact of iOS 14 on your advertising? What are you doing?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Enforcement of iOS 14 Changes for Facebook Advertisers Begins appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Back in February, I covered the challenges facing different types of businesses when it comes to domain verification, the 8-event limit, and conversion optimization. It looks like there may be a glimmer of hope for some e-comm businesses, particularly those using Shopify.

Understand that this entire situation is fluid. Facebook established Aggregated Event Measurement, the 8-event limit, and other protocols in response to iOS 14 and privacy rules related to tracking. Facebook’s actions have been largely reactionary, and we should expect many changes and adjustments as we go.

One specific challenge that these new protocols created was related to businesses that sell on a website that they do not own or control. Such businesses would not be able to verify the domain where these transactions occur. As a result, they would not be able to configure these events or optimize for conversions occurring on such a domain.

This would impact many businesses and advertisers, as such a scenario is common. By forcing advertisers to optimize for another action (like link clicks, landing page views, or engagement), it would likely lead to poorer conversion results. It appears that, while a solution may not currently exist, an exception — for Shopify, at the moment — has been developed.

Let’s walk through what you need to know…

Enabling More Domain Verification Use Cases

Within Facebook’s documentation on domain verification for developers, an interesting amendment was added to the bottom.

We will be supporting the Public Suffix List for domain verification and event configuration. This means that merchants using a registered domain on the Public Suffix List will be able to use that domain for verifying and configuring their top 8 events on the domain.

If that doesn’t make sense to you, Facebook provides a use case:

For example, if “myplatform.com” is a registered domain on the Public Suffix List, then Jasper, a merchant with the subdomain “jasper.myplatform.com”, would now qualify as an effective eTLD+1 and would be able to verify “jasper.myplatform.com” and use it to configure their top 8 events in the web events configuration tool.

For fun, let’s replace “myplatform.com” with “myshopify.com.” We can do that since “myshopify.com” is indeed on the Public Suffix List.

For example, if “myshopify.com” is a registered domain on the Public Suffix List, then Jasper, a merchant with the subdomain “jasper.myshopify.com”, would now qualify as an effective eTLD+1 and would be able to verify “jasper.myshopify.com” and use it to configure their top 8 events in the web events configuration tool.

This sounds great. We’ll discuss later if it’s actually possible at this moment. But first, let’s explain the Public Suffix List.

Public Suffix List

The Public Suffix List is a list of all commonly used web address suffixes. I know, that doesn’t mean anything. But examples include .com and .co.uk.

I can’t say I know a whole lot about this list. But what I can tell you is that it’s extensive, and it includes a whole lot more than simple suffixes. Most importantly for the readers of this post, it includes myshopify.com…

If you are a Shopify vendor, you may utilize a myshopify.com subdomain where your shop lives and sales occur.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that you utilize a different subdomain that may be covered under the Public Suffix List. You can view the entire text file here.

But Does it Work?

Of course, this all sounds great. But I wanted to test that you could actually verify a myshopify.com subdomain, configure events, and optimize for conversions happening on that subdomain. So, I decided to test it.

All of my conversions occur on domains that I own and control. But, I set up a Shopify test account to see if this would work. I quickly realized some pretty big problems.

After waiting about an hour and clicking around to send some event data, the subdomain I created appeared on my Event Configurations list.

According to Facebook’s documentation, I should be able to verify jon-loomer-digital.myshopify.com because “myshopify.com” exists on the Public Suffix List. Well, I don’t think I’m able to do that.

When I clicked the “Verify Domain” button, I get the following message…

This error message is essentially saying that I need to verify the myshopify.com domain, which I clearly cannot do. We can assume this message doesn’t account for the Public Suffix exception, and that I should still be able to confirm this subdomain. But, that ignores what’s required of verifying a domain.

To verify a domain, you need access to one of the following:

• Header code to inject a meta-tag (going away)
• Root folder to upload an HTML file
• Domain host to add a DNS TXT file

While the first may be more common, I don’t think this is currently possible for Shopify vendors. Even if it is, Facebook seems to be phasing out that option (you may not have it).

The other two are most common for those who have full control of the domain — which is intentional so that only domain owners can prove that they own the domain.

Likely Building Blocks

Unless I’m missing something, this isn’t an immediate solution for Shopify vendors. But Facebook created this exception for a reason. Shopify added “myshopify.com” to the Public Suffix List for a reason. This is likely something in development — by Facebook, Shopify, or both.

And really, this is something that is likely on the radar of many platforms like Shopify that are surely flooded with requests right now connected to these updates related to iOS 14, domain verification, and conversion optimization.

It’s possible that “myshopify.com” hasn’t yet been verified, and this action would trigger the ability of the subdomains to do the same. Since my Event Configurations page should indicate if a domain is owned by someone else (and it doesn’t say that now), this step doesn’t appear to have happened yet.

It may also make sense that once the “myshopify.com” domain is verified, any advertisers with a single pixel on a subdomain will be able to configure their events, even without verifying the subdomain. Technically, this is how it currently works for domains with a single pixel — Facebook recommends verification, but it isn’t required.

The good news is that Facebook is aware and solutions appear to be on the way. Stay tuned.

Your Turn

Do you sell products on a domain that you don’t own or control? Anything you can add?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Facebook Conversion Optimization and Domain Verification: Shopify appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

If you’re like most Facebook advertisers, you have lots of questions related to iOS 14 and the related changes impacting Facebook ads. You are flooded with information — and misinformation. The margin for error is small. You need to react appropriately.

So, what’s true? What’s not? How does this impact you? How do you need to adjust?

Since the end of 2020, I’ve been hyper-focused on this topic, determined to understand it so that I can help prepare you for it, too.

I am overflowing with resources, but let’s break them down…

iOS 14 FAQ

Needless to say, we get a lot of questions about Facebook ads changes related to iOS 14. I’ve updated the FAQ to reflect many of those questions.

[VIEW THE iOS 14 FAQ HERE]

Here’s a sampling of the questions that can be found there:

• When configuring events, some are displayed as “Hidden.” Why, and how do I get access to them?
• Can Conversions API help replace the data lost from iOS 14 opt-outs?
• What changes should I expect to advertising tools related to mobile app ads as a result of iOS 14?
• I have my own website and configured events, but I sell on a third-party ecommerce platform and can’t configure those events. What do I do?
• I’m trying to configure my events, but I’m getting the message that the domain is owned by another business. What do I do?
• I work for an agency. Should we verify client domains?
• I work for an international busy that utilizes a single domain. How do we manage the 8-event limit?
• I’m in Web Event Configurations, and I’m not seeing my events. Where are they??
• My website uses several subdomains for different business segments and locations. Do I need to verify them, too?
• Does the 8-event limit apply to reporting and website custom audiences, too?
• I don’t understand the 8-event limit related to Aggregated Event Measurement. Is that per pixel? Per ad account?
• How will optimization be impacted by privacy changes related to iOS 14?
• How will targeting be impacted by privacy changes related to iOS 14?
• How do I find out how much the attribution changes that result from iOS 14 may impact me?
• How is attribution changing as a result of iOS 14, and why does it matter?
• I have a very small iOS audience. Why would the privacy changes to iOS 14 impact me?

Like I said, that’s just a sampling! Many of your questions will be answered there.

Blog Posts

Just since the start of 2021, I’ve written 12 posts on the topic. Here they are:

• Facebook Ads and the Impact of iOS 14
• Facebook Advertising Audiences and iOS 14
• Facebook Ads Attribution and iOS 14
• ERROR: “This event hasn’t been set up on any of your domains”
• Problem: Unable to Verify Domain to Configure Web Events
• 8-Event Limit and Domain Verification Scenarios: iOS 14 Challenges
• Don’t Freak Out: How to Approach Facebook Advertising Changes Inspired by iOS 14
• These Ads Suck: Will Users in a Privacy-Altered World Like What They See?
• How to Prepare Facebook Ads Clients for iOS 14
• How to Share Facebook Custom Conversions
• How to Optimize for a Client’s Configured Facebook Events
• Where Are My Client’s Hidden Facebook Events?

Weekly Strategy Sessions

I conduct weekly strategy sessions with my PHC – Elite community to help answer advertisers’ questions and set them up for success (this week we had two!). We conduct these via Facebook Rooms in our private Facebook group and tend to have 5-10 attendees per session. You can stalk or actively engage!

Of course, you’ll need to be a member of my PHC – Elite community to get access to these sessions. The good news is that becoming a member of PHC – Elite gives you access to all of my training, weekly webinars, a private community, big discounts on one-on-one sessions with me, and a whole lot more.

GO HERE TO JOIN MY COMMUNITY.

Questions?

It’s a lot of info, but there’s a lot to know. Is there any other way I can help you prepare for iOS 14?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post iOS 14 Resources for Facebook Advertisers appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

As advertisers configure their Facebook web events in preparation for iOS 14, we’ve been hearing from many experiencing hidden Facebook events. These can’t be seen (obviously), configured, or optimized for.

As you can see in the example above, hidden events are grayed out and won’t allow you to see or configure them.

This typically happens for agencies who are managing ads for a client. The explanation is often quite simple: You don’t have access to all of the events.

Let me explain…

Why this Happens

The “Hidden” message will occur because you do not have access to all of the eight configured events for a given domain. This may be a surprise for an agency that has been given access to a client’s pixel via Business Manager. But, understand that pixel configurations are often complicated.

Maybe your client has only one pixel. Maybe your client only configured standard events with selecting the eight that can be used for optimization.

But, there are two very common reasons why it won’t be that simple, leading to “Hidden” events.

Multiple Pixels

Your client may have multiple pixels on their website. And they may have configured specific events for each pixel.

One point of annoyance with the 8-event limit is that you can’t simply configure eight standard events for a domain and say they apply to all pixels on the domain. This would be ideal for ecommerce sites with dozens, hundreds, or thousands of sellers and pixels on the website. But, that’s not possible.

When configuring events, you have to first select the pixel.

So, technically, you could have eight different purchase events for eight different pixels. You would then have no room to configure any other events.

This may happen for bigger companies that have multiple locations or distinct departments that use their own pixels. And because they all fall under the same domain, they need to be included within the same group of eight configured events.

If this is the case, your client needs to make sure that you have access to all pixels that have events configured for their domain. This is done within their Business Manager.

They need to go to “Pixels” under “Data Sources.”

After selecting a pixel that has been configured with events, click on Partners to see with whom that pixel has already been shared. If no partners are listed, you’ll need to share it!

After clicking “Assign Partners,” enter the partner’s (agency’s) Business ID and determine the level of access they require.

Once you have access to the pixel, you should see its events within Event Configuration. When that’s the case, you’ll also be able to optimize for those events.

Share Custom Conversions

This is a big one. Honestly, it’s somewhat annoying. Custom conversions are not automatically shared with the pixel. So, if custom conversions are used for event configuration, they will be “Hidden” if they haven’t been shared.

As an agency that has access to a client’s pixel, you can create your own custom conversions. But, you do not automatically get access to any custom conversions that the client created. And if there are some that are needed (especially for optimization), you’ll need access.

While you can certainly recreate a custom conversion for reporting purposes, it won’t help you for optimization. Your recreated custom conversion won’t be the original that was configured as one of the domain’s eight events that can be used for optimization.

Custom conversions can also be shared from Business Manager.

Custom conversions exist both on an ad account-level and business-level. If the custom conversions in question don’t appear in this list in Business Manager, they are only currently used at an ad account-level. They’ll need to first be added to Business Manager.

Click the drop-down and select to add a custom conversion.

You will need to enter the custom conversion ID. Then select the ad accounts connected to your Business Manager that need access to the custom conversion.

Finally, determine the level of access that is needed.

For more information on sharing custom conversions, read this post.

Your Turn

This should solve the majority of issues with “Hidden” events. Still having issues?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Where Are My Client’s Hidden Facebook Events? appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

If you want an agency or consultant to have access to your Facebook custom conversions for optimization and reporting — or if you are an agency or consultant who needs access — the individual custom conversions must be shared with a partner.

In the spirit of “no simple concept should ever be simple on Facebook,” this is a much more complicated task than it needs to be. How your custom conversions are set up will determine how you can share them.

Why Share a Custom Conversion?

If your client, partner, or separate ad account created a custom conversion for a domain you are managing ads for, you may want access to that custom conversion for…

Optimization.

Reporting.

And it becomes even more important with iOS 14 and Aggregated Event Measurement. It’s not enough to have access to a client’s pixel. You may see “hidden” configured events because you don’t have access to them. That may be because some of the configured events are custom conversions that have not been shared with you.

Ad Account-Level vs. Business-Level

How you share or get access to custom conversions depends upon how they were created. There are two ways to create a custom conversion…

1. Ad Account-Level: Created from the Custom Conversions page in Events Manager for and by a specific ad account.

Go to Events Manager from your shortcuts menu and then select the Custom Conversions icon on the left.

Any custom conversion created by an ad account from this page cannot be shared with a partner or ad account (at least from this location — we’ll get to that in a minute). If you expand a single custom conversion, you’ll notice that the “Share” button is grayed out.

2. Business-Level: Created from within Business Manager.

You can also create a business-level custom conversion from within Business Manager. This section is found under “Data Sources.”

From there, you can add or create a new custom conversion.

Share an Ad Account-Level Custom Conversion

If you’ve created an ad account-level custom conversion, you will not be able to share it from the Custom Conversions page within Events Manager (the “Share” button will be grayed out, as mentioned above). But, you can still share it by first adding it to Business Manager.

Go to that same Custom Conversions section of Business Manager discussed above…

Instead of creating a custom conversion, select the option for “adding” one.

You will then need to enter the ID for the custom conversion you want to add. This can be found with the custom conversion.

Once you add the custom conversion, refresh the page in Business Manager and it should appear.

You can grant access to individual ad accounts or lines of business already connected to your Business Manager by clicking “Add Assets.”

Or you can share it with a partner and control how the custom conversion can be used by clicking “Assign Partners.”

Partial access for optimization and reporting should be enough in most situations.

If your partner doesn’t know where to find their Business ID, have them click on Business Info at the bottom left of their Business Manager.

Note that even once an ad account-level custom conversion is added to Business Manager, you still won’t be able to share it from the Custom Conversions page within Events Manager. This is the only way to do it.

Share a Business-Level Custom Conversion

If you created a custom conversion from within Business Manager, you will have more freedom to share it.

First, you will be able to share business-level custom conversions from within the Custom Conversions page of Events Manager.

You will be able to share with a partner or ad account.

Sharing with a partner looks just like it does when doing so from Business Manager.

Or you can share with any of the ad accounts connected to your Business Manager.

This can also be done from Business Manager, though it’s likely easier from Events Manager (only since you’re more likely to be in Events Manager). You can assign partners or assets just as we did with “added” custom conversions above.

Recap

It’s REALLY easy to get lost in the weeds and confused about this, so let’s summarize…

An ad account-level custom conversion is created from the Custom Conversions page of Events Manager for a specific ad account. It’s probably how you create your custom conversions. If a client or partner shares a pixel with you, it doesn’t include the custom conversions. If you want access to those custom conversions, they’ll need to first be added to Business Manager and then shared.

A business-level custom conversion is created from within Business Manager and isn’t associated with a specific ad account. It can then be shared with individual assets (ad accounts or lines of business) or partners.

This is likely to become a bigger issue as domain owners begin configuring their events related to Aggregated Event Management and include custom conversions within those events.

Your Turn

Are you still having issues with sharing custom conversions?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post How to Share Facebook Custom Conversions appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

During our PHC – Elite strategy session this week, one of our members presented an issue that many agencies, consultants, and advertisers will be facing: How to prepare clients, who are unaware of the current landscape, for the impact of iOS 14 and a future of less tracking.

Long-time clients will expect results that are not only as good as last year but better.

That, of course, may not be realistic. We don’t know just how much the iOS 14 ATT prompt and the new advertising landscape will impact all businesses, but there are some specific steps we should take to set expectations and help them prepare.

Explain iOS 14 in Simple Terms

Help your client understand what is happening and that it will impact the performance of their ads.

1. All iOS 14 users will be asked whether they want to allow their app to track them across apps and websites.

This is not a prompt that can be hidden or avoided.

2. We expect many or most users to ask not to be tracked. This will have a direct impact on three main things:

– Reporting conversions (some won’t be counted)
– Optimization (it will be more difficult to isolate those most likely to perform your desired action)
– Targeting (those who opt-out won’t be targeted or excluded)

Prepare Them for Direct Impact

If your client’s audience isn’t on iOS devices, the direct impact they’ll face may be limited. But you should verify this first.

You can find this in Facebook Analytics by creating a filter for people who used a particular app or device (select iOS for Device OS).

You can also use Google Analytics by going to Audience > Technology > Browser & OS and then select “Operating System.”

This will give you the potential range that the iOS 14 prompt may directly impact conversion reporting and targeting. If 8-percent of your audience is on an iOS device, you should expect conversions and audience sizes to shrink by up to 8-percent.

Prepare Them for Indirect Impact

Facebook is making global changes to its ad products that will impact all advertising, regardless of iOS 14 exposure.

1. 8-Event Limit

Once the prompt goes live for the Facebook app, your client will be limited to optimizing for eight events per domain. If all events happen on their own domain, they’ll need to limit optimization to eight events or face delays when they make changes.

If they have events that fire on other domains they don’t own, they may no longer be able to optimize for those events — which may lead to poor results.

Take a look at how this client typically optimizes and if anything will need to change or will no longer be possible.

2. Attribution Setting Changed to 7-Day Click

Attribution is how Facebook gives credit to an ad for a conversion after a user clicks on or views an ad without clicking. Prior to mid-January, Facebook used 28-day click and 1-day view as the default. That then changed to 7-day click and 1-day view. Once the prompt goes live, it will move to 7-day click only.

Run a report of historical campaigns for up to 37 months using the Compare Attribution option to get a sense of where your conversions have fallen in the past. Then export it so that you have that information later.

What percentage of conversions tend to happen outside of a 7-day click? How many happen within a 1-day view? These can be eliminated from the default reporting going forward (1-day view will still be available while 28-day click will not be).

This will give your client an expectation for how much conversions will drop from the change in attribution alone.

Understand Facebook Advertising’s Role in Results

How much do you spend in a month? How many clicks to the client’s website do your ads generate? What percentage of your client’s overall conversions can be attributed to ads?

If ads tend to represent close to 100% of a client’s conversions, expect that trend to continue (assuming no change in behavior). If the client’s conversions remain at 100 per month but Facebook’s reporting drops from 100 to 50, you can make an educated assessment that the missing 50 are still coming from your ads (especially if ad spend and clicks to website are unchanged).

Prepare Their Account

Your client needs to have their own Business Manager. They need to have their own pixel. They can share their pixel or ad account with you to manage their ads, but it should start with the client’s Business Manager account.

From there, they need to do the following:

1. Verify their domain.
2. Configure their eight events for optimization.

You may be able to assist them with this, but it needs to happen within the client’s Business Manager.

Prepare Them for an Adjustment Period

Despite all of this preparation, no one truly knows how much this will impact them. Help your client understand that there will undoubtedly be an adjustment period.

What you have always done may no longer work, or work as well. You’ll need to experiment. You’ll need to try new things and get creative. Testing windows will be necessary. In the process, you will fail and find what works.

This is what they pay you for. Their ads can’t be run by a robot. This is where you earn your fee.

This is the Beginning

Help your client know that Facebook is concerned. They expect their ads to perform less effectively. This would be a big hit to their revenue and potentially to your client.

But abandoning Facebook advertising isn’t necessarily the solution. The iOS 14 prompt is one of many shoes to drop and there will be a storm of shoes to come. Tracking will be more difficult, which will lead to difficulties with reporting, optimization, and targeting.

It will likely get worse before it gets easier. You may need to make adjustments in budgets and where they are committed. But figuring all of this out will take time.

Your Turn

How are you preparing your clients for these changes?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post How to Prepare Facebook Ads Clients for iOS 14 appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

If Facebook is right, we’re in the process of entering a very different online world. Privacy as the goal, advertising will suddenly seem very “different” to users. Will they like what they see?

When the iOS 14 ATT prompt rolls out to all users in “early Spring,” they will be given two options: 1) Allow the app to track your activity across apps and websites to provide personalized advertising or 2) Don’t allow tracking. This prompt, most importantly for Facebook advertisers who run ads for mobile web, will be shown for Facebook and Instagram app users.

Of course, this isn’t just about iOS 14. This is a trend. We’re entering a less personalized world.

If ads are less personalized, they will be less relevant. If they are less relevant, they’re less likely to be effective. According to Facebook:

Our studies show, without personalized ads powered by their own data, small businesses could see a cut of over 60% of website sales from ads.

To non-advertisers, this quote means nothing. Why should you care whether advertisers are profitable?

The Future of Privacy-Altered Advertising

We’re entering a world of greater online privacy, where pixels and tracking become less effective. Without tracking, an advertising platform like Facebook knows less about you. They don’t know the websites you visit or the products you buy.

To some, that would be a good thing.

Tracking allows businesses to reach people who have visited their website or expressed interest in specific products. It allows advertisers to show ads to people that they may actually want to see. Ads that solve problems or answer questions they’ve had.

By removing tracking, you can expect to see fewer of these relevant ads.

You Click on Ads

Like it or not, ads are a part of your Facebook news feed experience. At their best, well-targeted ads can add to your experience. At their worst, poorly-targeted ads will take away.

Ideally, ads will show up at just the right time. You were just searching for this solution. Or it features a topic that you’re passionate about. You click, and maybe you don’t even realize that it was an ad.

I know, I know. The claim has always been “I never click on Facebook ads.” You’re a freaking liar.

I click on ads, and it’s not because I’m an advertiser trying to make a point. The reality is that even I’m not completely aware of how often I’m clicking them.

But you can find this information in Recent Ad Activity, which is in the bookmarks sidebar of Facebook’s mobile app and desktop site. Here, you’ll see the ads you’ve engaged with during the past three months.

I’ve engaged with 54 ads during that time. Granted, I didn’t engage to buy in all cases. Sometimes, I was simply curious about the comments. There are a few I simply don’t remember.

But there absolutely are products I bought from ads in that list. Others I was interested in that I wouldn’t have considered without seeing those ads.

You Will Still See Ads

When people complain about ads, they seem to think that an ad-less utopia is a possibility. If you opt-out of tracking, you are still going to see ads.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, more than $27 Billion of Facebook’s total $28 Billion in revenue came from advertising. This is how Facebook makes money. This is why you can use Facebook for “free.”

The ads aren’t going anywhere. In fact, the ads may start becoming more noticeable as they become less relevant and more annoying. You may even swear you’re seeing more.

Instead, it’s just that those ads are more likely to suck.

What Will Users Do?

So, this is where it will get interesting. You may see an ad once every 3-5 posts in your news feed (I just performed a very unscientific experiment and found that to be the case for me). That’s a pretty juicy percentage of your experience.

If those ads are relevant — particularly if they reflect sources you already consume on a regular basis — you may hardly notice them. But if they aren’t relevant, your experience will be negatively impacted.

It’s not that you need ads to improve your experience on Facebook. But you do need good ads that don’t take away from your experience.

Will users notice this change? How will they react? Can we presume that they will act less often on ads? Will they complain more about the ads? Will they make the connection that this is due to a lack of tracking and personalization?

And the primary question: Will they use Facebook less often as a result?

Again, the chunk of content that is actually promoted is not trivial. This contributes significantly to your experience, whether we like it or not.

An Advertiser’s Perspective

It’s really easy to ignore an advertiser’s perspective related to online privacy. I totally understand that.

But, I also think there’s a basic misunderstanding of what an advertiser does and has access to.

If you allow tracking, there’s not some evil advertiser scrolling through a list of people to target who has visited their and other similar websites. They aren’t picking you out by name and looking at your embarrassing browsing habits.

Maybe this is a strawman. But I get the sense that some people think this way (maybe the definition of a strawman). It’s just not that sophisticated.

As a publisher, I have the Facebook pixel code on my website. Facebook is able to anonymously connect visitors to my site to users on Facebook. That way, I can create highly targeted ads based on the pages you visited, things you bought, and other activities.

But, I never see who did any of that. To be honest, I don’t care. I just want to reach the people who are likely to respond to my ads.

As an advertiser, maybe I’ve become numb to it. But, I see the value in targeted ads — not just as an advertiser, but as a user. I want to see ads that are relevant to me. I don’t want to see garbage that has nothing to do with me.

Maybe you don’t trust Facebook, and that truly is understandable. But I hope that users understand what the advertiser’s role actually is in this process.

Jumping in a Time Machine

The future of online advertising may actually look a whole lot like the past. Less relevant. Less personalized. More annoying.

Of course, advertisers will need to adjust to remain profitable. Facebook will need to evolve to maintain their revenue growth. Other companies may see an opportunity to fill a need and develop solutions.

Still, it’s going to be more difficult to create highly relevant ads — or, more accurately, to create ads that we can confidently say will be of interest to our audience.

It’s going to be like 10 years ago. Not the good part of 10 years ago when everyone loved Facebook and it was fresh and awesome and exciting. I’m talking about all of the crappy ads we saw that we wished would go away.

From a user’s perspective, that future is disappointing. From an advertiser’s perspective, it’s a bit scary. It means we can’t keep doing what we’ve always done. Most importantly, we can’t do things like we did 10 years ago.

And that is a topic for another day…

VIDEO

I did something different and recorded a version of this blog post as both a Pubcast episode and a video. Let me know if it’s something you want me to continue!

Your Turn

What are your thoughts on the future of online advertising and how users will react to it? Do they realize what they are inviting?

Let me know in the comments below?

The post These Ads Suck: Will Users in a Privacy-Altered World Like What They See? appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

There’s a lot of chatter in the world of Facebook advertising right now. You’re likely more confused and frustrated about the state of advertising than you’ve been in some time. And more than likely, the primary factor behind that confusion and frustration is iOS 14.

Look, I get it. We’re in a period of unknown right now. As I described it to my PHC – Elite community today, it’s as if we’ve known for months that we were going to get into a car accident, but we don’t know how bad it’s going to be. The anticipation might be the worst of all.

But, let’s take a deep breath. Even if you assume worst-case scenarios once the iOS 14 prompt goes live, advertisers are going to be just fine. We can’t do things as we’ve always done them, of course, but we’re going to make it through this.

Let me explain…

Fear of the Unknown

We often build up the unknown to be more impactful than it ultimately is. That may be the case here.

Until Apple’s ATT privacy prompt goes live — and probably weeks or months thereafter — we really don’t know how much this will impact us. You can bet that many will blame iOS 14 for any bad performance in the meantime. Actually, people have started the blame game already, even though the prompt hasn’t been rolled out yet.

Facebook’s made a lot of changes over the years. So many freakouts from users and marketers alike. So many of those freakouts were overreactions.

I’m not suggesting this isn’t a big deal. But let’s wait until we can evaluate the impact of this before we claim it’s life-changing.

Prepare for Attribution Changes

Part of this is getting an educated feel for what is going to happen instead of reacting on the fly — emotionally — later.

Everyone will see some impact due to the change in attribution from 28-day click and 1-day view to 7-day click once the prompt goes live. That will result in fewer reported conversions. How much of a change should you expect?

You should export historical data with attribution windows of up to 28-day click. Under the “columns” drop-down in Ads Manager, select the option to “Compare Attributions.”

Next, select 1-day click, 7-day click, 28-day click, and 1-day view. This includes all of the attribution windows that were used during the past year (it was changed to 7-day click, 1-day view in January and will change to 7-day click only soon).

Once you generate reports, select a time period going back up to 37 months (the max for exporting) and select to export your data.

Based on Facebook’s Attribution Setting alone, you may see fewer conversions reported, particularly if you’ll typically see conversions outside of 7-day click. But you may even see a drop in 1-day view, particularly from iOS users.

Have a sense of how your numbers compare to the total sales your business generates. It will help you determine if a drop in reporting later is because of trouble or because Facebook simply isn’t reporting all of your sales.

Know the Potential Impact

Everyone will be impacted by this, regardless of whether you have an iOS audience. But, certainly, those with an audience concentrated on iOS devices will feel it the most.

You should also uncover what percentage of your audience is on an iOS device. The impact of opt-outs from tracking will be felt here, resulting in shrinking custom audiences and events reported.

You can find this in Facebook Analytics. Select an Event Source Group that includes at least your pixel (could include any and all assets). Use a wide time range and then create a filter at the top for people who used a particular app or device (select iOS for Device OS).

Then you’ll see the percentage of your total audience using iOS.

You can also use Google Analytics to figure this out, based on website activity. Go to Audience > Technology > Browser & OS and then select “Operating System.” Once again, select a wide time range.

Using both methods, I’ve found iOS users make up about 8-percent of my audience. Assuming half-ish opt-out of tracking, I’d see a 4-percent direct impact to custom audiences. Would I even notice that?

Advertising Isn’t Dying, But We May Be Going Back in Time

Look. Facebook advertising has been a revelation. It’s changed the industry. But iOS 14 is likely the first of many steps back to the way online advertising used to be.

The march towards more perceived privacy and less tracking and micro-targeting is only beginning. Targeting will become more difficult. Optimization won’t be as effective. Ads simply won’t work as well.

That’s not the end of the world. Advertising survived in the past without these things, and it will survive again.

Expect innovation and solutions to be created along the way to help fix some of these problems.

Beware of Fraud and Misinformation

While innovation will be inevitable when there’s a perceived problem, beware of the purported solution that is too-good-to-be-true. You are going to see a lot of products claiming to completely fix and replace the holes that will result from iOS 14. Be skeptical.

Sure, there may be tools that can help. But they can’t magically replace everything Facebook loses while still remaining within privacy rules.

Also, avoid blaming iOS 14 for every poorly performing campaign. Unless you’re a magician, not all of your campaigns work. They won’t always work in the future either. Sometimes, it just didn’t work and you need to try something else.

You’ll Be Needed More Now Than Ever Before

Honestly, advertising agencies should love this. The bar was just raised. Expertise is going to be needed now more than ever before.

What you don’t want is for advertising to be easy. If it were, your client could do it. The truth is, we may have been heading down that path before as advertising systems got smarter and more automated. You were soon to be replaceable.

Now, it’s going to take more work. More creativity. More experimentation. You can’t keep doing what you’ve always done, and your clients need someone who can help them through this time and beyond.

If you’re good at what you do, these challenges will only create more distance between your work and those who are faking it.

Your Turn

How are you handling these pending changes?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Don’t Freak Out: How to Approach Facebook Advertising Changes Inspired by iOS 14 appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

As advertisers prepare for the iOS 14 prompt to go live, the loudest complaints are related to the 8-event limit. Either they are unable to configure their eight events or limiting optimization to eight events is far too restrictive for their business model.

Let’s talk about what the 8-event limit is and how it impacts businesses in the following scenarios:

• Small Business and Single Pixel
• House of Brands Under One Domain
• Agency Management of Multiple Client Domains
• Agency Management of Multiple Clients on Agency-Owned Domain
• Events on an Unowned Domain (Ecomm Platform)

The 8-Event Limit Explained

Facebook is making several changes to their advertising tools, largely in response to Apple’s iOS 14 privacy prompt.

Beginning in early spring 2021, users of many iOS apps (including Facebook and Instagram) will receive a prompt asking if they would like to allow tracking for advertising purposes. This isn’t a buried setting or a situation where people will be opted-in by default. They will need to answer it.

The 8-event limit for web events was created in response. While it is directly responsible for managing how data is handled when people opt-out of that prompt, it will have a wide-reaching impact to all web advertising.

Advertisers will be required to select and rank eight web events (standard events and custom conversions) that can be used for optimization purposes per domain. If an iOS user opts-out of tracking, only the highest-ranking event from a visit will be reported.

But, this limit doesn’t apply only to iOS targeting. Going forward, advertisers will only be able to optimize for one of eight events per domain. Anything beyond those eight won’t be available for optimization.

Domain Verification

If there are multiple pixels on a domain, only the owner of the domain will be able to configure what the eight events (and related pixels) are that can be used for optimization. Domain ownership is proven through a process called Domain Verification.

Domain verification is completed within the Brand Safety area of Business Manager. The domain owner has three (and possibly two) methods at their disposal for proving domain ownership.

Now let’s talk about how different business types may be impacted by this…

Small Business and Single Pixel

Last week, a PHC – Elite member pointed out that not all domain owners technically need to verify their domains in order to configure their eight events. It’s due to a caveat in the rules related to domain ownership.

From Facebook:

Domain verification isn’t required to edit event configurations if you only have one pixel on your domain, or if multiple pixels are set up on your domain but they’re all owned by the same Business Manager account. However, domain verification is still recommended in these cases.

If you own your domain and only have your pixel on your website, you don’t technically need to verify your domain. Or, if you have multiple pixels on your domain that you want to use for event configuration as part of those eight events and they’re all connected to your Business Manager, you also don’t need to verify your domain.

After poking around my Web Event Configurations page, I noticed this was true for one of my domains, which had yet to be verified. I was still able to configure events.

So, the question: If you don’t need to verify your domain in order to configure events, should you still do it?

Yes. You should. There’s no reason not to verify your domain. Not only does it give you more control over who can edit your link previews, but it’s a good way to prove to Facebook that you’re legit.

Given all of the complaints related to banning advertisers, you should do all you can to show Facebook you’re doing things by the book. That includes domain verification and business verification.

These small businesses will often have the easiest time configuring their events. Eight should be plenty in most cases.

House of Brands Under One Domain

Here’s where it gets tricky.

Imagine an international business with separate product lines and offices in different parts of the world. They have separate marketing departments and maybe separate ad agencies managing the various segments.

But they’re all under the same domain.

Maybe they use subdomains like…

• shopping.website.com
• shoes.website.com
• uk.website.com
• de.website.com

Doesn’t matter. these are all part of the same domain. The result? They’ll all share the same eight events.

While those separate segments, marketing departments, and agencies can all report with custom conversions and target with website custom audiences for activity that is relevant to their sections of the website, it would be impossible to use all of their various web events for optimization.

What should they do??

There are a couple of options, and one is much more drastic than the other.

Option 1: Set up separate domains for all of the separate segments. Each product line and location would get their own domain and own 8-event limit for optimization.

Option 2:

1. Use one Business Manager
2. Use one primary pixel for optimization
3. Give those other segments access to the pixel and necessary assets in Business Manager
4. Configure eight broad events (likely standard events) that will apply to everyone
5. Allow the separate segments to add their own pixels to their portion of the website for reporting and website custom audience creation

Option 2 makes a lot more sense. It leverages the global brand and domain authority. The eight events used across the business will also create more volume for optimization, even if it isn’t hyper-relevant due to differing business segments.

Ultimately, I wouldn’t assume that Option 2 will have a negative impact on a business. Option 1 may simply not be worth the effort.

Agency Management of Multiple Client Domains

Some agencies are going to have a rude awakening.

If you’ve been following best practices so far, this shouldn’t be too difficult. This is what you SHOULD be doing:

1. Your client should have their own Business Manager; if they don’t have one, help them create one
2. Your client’s pixel should be used on their website
3. Have the client add you as a partner to their Business Manager and share their pixel and necessary assets (page, audiences, maybe ad account)

And then, related to the 8-event limit…

1. The client will need to verify their domain
2. The client will need to configure their eight events

Surely, they may need some guidance. And if they add you to their Business Manager, depending on the level of access you’re given you may be able to provide more than guidance.

The problem, of course, will be for agencies who don’t set up their clients this way. If you don’t connect to a client’s Business Manager and get access to the client’s pixel, choosing instead to run everything through you and your own pixel, you’re about to hit some snags.

Suddenly, you’re going to need to get those client domains verified, and you won’t be able to (or shouldn’t) do it through your own Business Manager. And if only your pixel is on those domains, you would need the client to choose your pixel for event configuration — which they will eventually regret after they fire you.

Why? Because if your pixel was used exclusively, your pixel is the only thing collecting data for optimization, reporting, and audience creation. Your pixel will need to be removed, and the eight events will need to be reconfigured with a new pixel — a pixel that has had no activity and will likely struggle in the early going.

You won’t be able to continue running everything through you. It will need to start with the client. The client owns their business, their domain, and their pixel. You will need access to them.

Agency Management of Multiple Clients on Agency-Owned Domain

I had a one-on-one with a client last week that presented a unique situation. They have many different clients in the same industry. Small businesses who can’t afford to own and run their own websites. This agency has their own website and creates pages on their domain for each of the individual businesses.

On the surface, this sounds like a potential disaster related to the 8-event limit. But then I started thinking about it more…

These clients do not own their domain. The domain is owned by the agency. And all of the businesses are in a related industry, so all of the traffic that comes through is similar. This is actually a potential benefit to keep it together because these are all small businesses with small budgets.

A representative asked me if they should be setting up separate domains for each client. I don’t think that’s the right solution.

Since the agency owns the domain, they need to verify it. Their pixel should be the primary pixel on that website. The agency should configure eight events that should be relevant to all of their clients, aggregating the activity across all of them.

That said, individual clients could add their own pixel to their pages. It wouldn’t be part of the eight-event configuration, but it could be used for client-specific reporting and website custom audience creation. In fact, it might make sense for the agency to do this.

Events on an Unowned Domain (Ecomm Platform)

Possibly the biggest issue we’ve seen is when an advertiser doesn’t own a domain and won’t be able to configure events. I covered this already in a recent post, so I won’t completely rewrite it. But, let’s summarize…

You may own your domain. You may have the pixel on your domain. You may verify your domain and be able to configure the events for that domain. But, maybe you use a third-party platform for selling your product. You would not be able to configure, or optimize for, that very important Purchase event.

At that point, you’d have one, maybe two, options:

1. Optimize for link clicks, landing page views, or something else when trying to get sales. That’s certainly not ideal, of course. But Purchase won’t be one of your optimization events.

2. Have the third-party website redirect customers to a page on your website post-conversion. Until now, many advertisers may have chosen to simply use their pixel on that third-party domain. But now, if you have the option to redirect, you should. And if that option isn’t available, press that platform’s support to have it created!

Learn More

This is one of many topics I cover in my Facebook Ads and iOS 14 Training. It is a DEEP collection of more than 30 tutorials that guide you through how to prepare for this update. Lessons include:

• Embedded Video
• Downloadable Audio
• Written Summary
• Related Links to Learn More

Your Turn

Are there other scenarios that are creating issues for you related to the 8-event limit or domain verification?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post 8-Event Limit and Domain Verification Scenarios: iOS 14 Challenges appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Before you’re able to configure the eight web events you’ll use for optimizing your Facebook ads, you first need to verify your domain.

There’s plenty to explore here. In this post, we’ll discuss…

• Why you need to verify your domain
• How to verify your domain
• Why you may not be able to verify a domain
• A possible alternative

We’ll walk through how to verify your domain. But a big obstacle that many advertisers are facing is that they do not own the domain. In this case, they can’t verify the domain, can’t configure events, and won’t be able to optimize for those events.

I conducted an experiment and make some guesses about what is happening and what Facebook will or might do about this problem.

Let’s go…

Why You Need to Verify Your Domain

Even before Facebook rolled out Aggregated Event Measurement and the 8-event limit in response to the iOS 14 tracking prompt, it was a good idea to have your domain verified. I even wrote a blog post about how to verify your domain so that you could edit Facebook post link previews.

Not only does verifying your domain allow you to edit link previews to your website, but you can also take control over which Facebook pages and advertisers are allowed to do it. It’s also been long rumored that Facebook would eventually remove the ability to edit link previews for ads unless you first verify the domain.

These are all good reasons to get your domain verified, but now it’s unavoidable. If you try to run a conversions campaign that optimizes for a web event, you’ll first need to get that domain verified — at least once the iOS 14 tracking prompt goes live.

Let’s go through the three methods to do that now.

Three Ways to Verify Your Domain

Either click the button within Web Event Configurations to verify your domain or go to Facebook Business Settings. On the left side, click on “Brand Safety” and then “Domains.”

Click to add a domain.

Enter the domain you want to verify and click “Add Domain.”

There are three different ways that you can claim and verify domain ownership.

1. Add a DNS text record to your domain host.

2. Upload an HTML verification file to your website.

3. Set the meta-tag containing the verification code into the header section of your website’s homepage.

Feel free to send this to your programmer if you have one. If you’re looking for the easiest method, it’s likely either #2 or 3. For the third, there should be multiple ways to get access to the header of your homepage. Unfortunately, every website is different.

If you don’t know of any easy way, you can try the Head, Footer and Post Injections WordPress plugin.

Then, edit your homepage and paste the code Facebook gives you into the box for your header.

Once the page is saved, click the link in your Facebook Business Settings to verify. If you set it up properly, it will work!

The Problem: You Don’t Own the Domain

The approach we’ve covered so far works if you own your domain. You verify your own domain so that you can configure your web events… so that you can select one of eight standard events or custom conversions as your conversion event in the ad set. This allows you to optimize for that event rather than a link click or Landing Page View.

Great! But… What if you don’t own the domain? What if the purchase occurs on a third-party website?

I’m not referring to sites like Amazon that give you no access. I’m talking about third-party sites that allow you to provide your own pixel so that you can optimize for and track conversions that occur on that website, even though you don’t own the domain.

If a domain is owned and verified by another business, it will look like this on your Web Event Configurations page…

You’ll notice that “Edit Events” is grayed out. Hover over the first tooltip…

If you think that the “Get Help” button will be any help at all, think again. At least as of the time of writing this post, it’s only info for those who actually can verify their domain.

It’s not at all clear what Facebook expects the domain owner to do once you contact them. As you’re about to see, a domain owner can’t simply “give” access to the approved events. Other than having the domain owner share their pixel (not a good solution), what are they supposed to do?

Something is missing.

An Experiment

Facebook hasn’t yet provided any guidance for advertisers who are unable to verify a third-party domain. But the hole here is so great, it can’t be ignored.

I decided to create a little experiment. I asked Luke Elliott from my team to provide me a pixel that he owns (that is otherwise inactive) that I can add to a page of my website that uses events. I added it to a landing page that fires a ViewContent event.

Since I verified the domain, what would happen?

Not surprisingly, he isn’t able to configure events since I already did that.

But, would he be able to select it as a conversion event once the iOS 14 tracking prompt goes live? Unfortunately, Luke still gets errors about not being able to configure or use the event.

As of this moment, it currently appears as though anyone selling products while having their pixel on a third-party site will be unable to optimize for a conversion event.

Keep in mind, though, that my assumption is that Luke will still be able to track that event by customizing columns in Ads Manager and adding a column for a custom conversion based on that specific event (he’s not running ads for this, so I can’t confirm with 100% certainty).

It also appears he can create a website custom audience based on the pixel placed on my domain. Luke is even able to create a custom audience based on some of the custom events on my website.

IMPORTANT POINT OF CLARITY: Luke can create a custom conversion or custom audience based on activity on the page where his pixel is on my website ONLY. The only reason these events from my site appear is that they fire on the same page where I added Luke’s pixel.

He will not suddenly get reporting, optimization power, or the ability to target users on any other pages of my website because he doesn’t have access to my pixel.

A Likely Bug or Oversight

Since the iOS 14 prompt is going live in early spring, Facebook still has some time. But for now, it’s going to get a whole bunch of advertisers into a panic.

If a seller has their pixel on a third-party domain, that domain is verified, and the domain owner configured the events, it only makes sense that the seller should be able to select the event that fires on their sales page as a conversion event in their ad set — assuming the domain owner selected that event as one of their eight.

This feels like a bug or oversight. Or maybe it’s something Facebook is working on. But they need to communicate their plans.

My guess is that they haven’t communicated it because they realize this isn’t so simple…

How This Could Work

Once you start thinking about how this would work for a third-party website that hosts thousands of sellers using thousands of Facebook pixels, you quickly realize the potential challenges.

Would such a platform still need to follow the 8-event limit? The workflow now only allows you to rank events by pixel. For example, if your website uses 100 different pixels that utilize the Purchase event, the domain owner wouldn’t be able to rank all 100 (only a max of 8).

Would the domain owner’s customers, who have their pixels on the website, be able to optimize for conversion events? The only way this seems possible is if such businesses could rank standard events independent of pixel ID. And even that could be challenging.

As of this moment, the Event Setup Tool allows you to create 17 distinct standard events. If a website has thousands of businesses selling products and collecting leads, what if more than eight events can or should be used?

While prioritizing eight events is challenging but mostly doable for a single business, consider how difficult it will be for a website hosting thousands of clients — assuming you offer many different templates for lead building and sales. What gets cut out? What is prioritized? What order will they be in? Will this even work?

This could be difficult. But that website would need to communicate it with their sellers so that they know what events they can use for optimization. And, of course, that may be different from client to client.

It gets messy quickly. Would Facebook make an exception for these websites?

The Alternative

While adding your pixel to other websites you don’t own has been a nice option for optimization, tracking, and audience building (before now), there may be another option — as long as these websites allow for it.

Until this gets sorted out, the best alternative is to redirect the conversion to a page that you own on your website. So, it might work like this…

1. User views your product on the third-party website (you don’t own it)
2. User provides payment info and submits
3. Payment is submitted and the user is redirected to a thank-you page on your website (you own and verified it)
4. Thank-you page includes your pixel and purchase event
5. You configure your web events to include this event, possibly as a custom conversion

This may not be an option for everyone, but check to see if it is in the meantime.

Lots of Questions

The main thing to remember right now is that there remains plenty of confusion. Facebook isn’t clear about how much of any of this might work, and it’s possible that even they aren’t sure. So, the result is that we have to make reasonable assumptions and inferences based on what we know.

I could be way off on some of this. Facebook may also change how they do things prior to the iOS 14 tracking prompt going live. Time will tell.

Your Turn

Are transactions on a third-party website a potential issue for you due to the iOS 14 tracking update? How are you addressing it?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Problem: Unable to Verify Domain to Configure Web Events appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Have you recently seen an error like this in Facebook Ads Manager?

This event hasn’t been set up on any of your domains. Once Apple begins enforcing their new iOS 14 requirements, ad sets optimizing for **EVENT NAME** will be paused unless you change your available events in Events Manager.

Here’s an example…

One of Facebook’s reactions to the iOS 14 data tracking prompt is to impose a limit of eight events for optimization. That limit is the source of this error.

You are probably seeing it for one of these two reasons:

• You attempted to optimize for an event that falls outside of your primary eight
• You tried to set up a conversions campaign and have not yet configured your eight events

If none of this makes sense, keep reading. Let’s talk about the 8-event limit and what it is, how to configure your events, and some outstanding questions.

Understanding the 8-Event Limit

Once the iOS 14 tracking prompt goes live, Facebook will execute an 8-event limitation on optimization. This means that you will only be allowed to optimize for one of eight different events per domain.

When I say “optimize,” I’m referring to the conversion event you select within your ad set when optimizing for some type of website event…

Keep in mind that this limitation applies “per domain.” You can have a single pixel on multiple domains and optimize for eight different events on each domain. You can have multiple pixels on the same domain, but you are still limited to the same eight events.

While Facebook hasn’t been entirely clear, it’s assumed that you will be able to continue to include events outside of the primary eight within your reports (when customizing columns) and for custom audience targeting. Of course, reporting will be incomplete for users who opt out of the iOS 14 tracking prompt, though Facebook says they will perform modeling to attempt to fill in the blanks.

Now that you have a better understanding of the 8-event limit, let’s talk about configuring your eight events…

Navigate to Web Event Configurations

Within Events Manager, you will see a tab for Aggregated Event Measurement. Click on that…

Once you click on the “Configure Web Events” button, you’ll be sent to the Web Event Configurations page…

Domain Verification

Web events on this page will be organized by domain. You’ll notice that the second column will include one of three messages.

“Domain Verified”…

“Owned by another business”…

Or “Verify Domain”…

Note that you cannot configure your events until you verify your domain. If you don’t own that domain, you will not be able to verify it — or configure the events on that domain.

If you haven’t yet verified your domain (and you’re able because you own it), click the button to start that process. You will then be redirected to the Domains section of your Business Settings.

You essentially need to add code or a file to the backend settings of your website — settings that only the website owner or admin will be able to access.

You’ll have three options:

• DNS Verification
• HTML File Upload
• Meta-tag Verification

I personally prefer the Meta-tag Verification option since it’s closest to the process for adding a pixel to my website (which I know how to do). Simply add that code to the header of your website’s homepage and then click to verify.

For more info on domain verification, read this blog post.

Configure Your Eight Events

If your domain is verified, expand the entry for that domain in Web Event Configurations to view the events currently assigned to it.

Facebook will attempt to choose and rank your events for you, but you can (and likely should) edit this. Note that the list will start only with the current standard events Facebook finds on your website. You can remove and move events, and you can also add custom conversions.

Click to edit your list. First, you’re going to get a warning…

Prior to the iOS 14 tracking prompt going live, this is no big deal. But it could be a very big deal later. Keep in mind that changes can and will result in your ad sets pausing.

Now, let’s edit your events…

The ranking matters. When a user opts out of iOS 14 tracking, Aggregated Event Measurement will come into play. At that point, Facebook will only receive a user’s highest-ranked event in a given visit.

You can order your events any way you want, but it would certainly make sense to have your Purchase event be the highest rank. It would be nonsensical to want Facebook to receive a ViewContent event but not Purchase, for example. This would happen if you rank ViewContent highest.

An example of how you might order it with standard events:

1. Purchase
2. Add Payment Info
3. Initiate Checkout
4. Add to Cart
5. Lead
6. Complete Registration
7. Search
8. View Content

This is only an example. A registration may be worth more to your business than an add to cart. Also, note that you may not even have all of these events on your website.

Of course, if you want to use Value Optimization, that will take up four events by itself…

It’s possible, though, that you won’t even be able to optimize for value since you may not qualify.

Including Custom Conversions

Maybe you can fill up your events using standard events. Regardless, you may want to include Custom Conversions in your list.

There are a few reasons you may want to include Custom Conversions. Doing so allows you to optimize for…

• Custom Events that you find important
• The purchase of a specific product
• The purchase of a category of product

There are other reasons as well, but standard events are based on very general actions. Custom Conversions give you more granularity.

To include a Custom Conversion, click the first drop-down that otherwise selects your pixel and scroll down to the bottom to select “Custom Conversion.” Then select the specific Custom Conversion in the drop-down to the right.

Here is my final, ranked list of eight events…

My website only makes use of Purchase, View Content, and Complete Registration standard events. However, I use a custom event for tracking quality web traffic by time (and scroll depth, for that matter). So, I included Custom Conversions for 60-second visits so that I can optimize for high-quality visits (typically for blog posts).

I created custom conversions based on categories of product as well, mainly because I had slots available. Since optimizing for specific products will create an issue of needing to edit my list often, these categories will (or should) remain unchanged. That also provides some volume for optimization purposes, rather than optimizing for the purchase of a single product.

Addressing the Error

Let’s return to the original issue of the error you may be seeing…

For now, this isn’t a problem. But once the tracking prompt goes live, the eight events will be enforced. At that point, you will not be able to optimize for an event outside of your primary eight. Any ad sets currently running that are optimized for an event outside of those eight will be turned off. And any change to your primary eight will result in a temporary pause.

This is going to create all sorts of problems and frustration for advertisers. It’s important that you plan ahead while you can. The more evergreen your eight-event configuration, the less likely you are to need to edit it later.

Fewer headaches, happy advertiser!

Many Open Questions

I covered a lot here, but know that the 8-event limit per domain opens up a ton of questions. One of the most common is something along these lines…

“What about using a third-party website to sell products? I provide them my pixel, but I am not able to configure these events because I don’t own — and can’t verify — the domain. So, I can’t optimize for these events. What do I do?”

It’s a question that I haven’t seen Facebook address yet. It’s not clear if they have a solution in mind, but this example does seem to present a big problem.

I’ll address this, and many other, related questions in separate blog posts and within my training.

Your Turn

Have you configured your eight events yet? What issues are you running into?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post ERROR: “This event hasn’t been set up on any of your domains” appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

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?

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

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

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?

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?

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

Let me know in the comments below!

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

Facebook advertisers are scrambling as a result of Apple’s iOS 14 update. This will impact virtually every aspect of our advertising, in some ways that aren’t yet clear. But one of the most important: Negatively impacting Facebook advertising audiences.

Let’s take a closer look at how and why iOS 14 will impact the composition and sizes of your targeting audiences.

If you want to learn more about this topic, I will go into significant additional detail in my new training, Facebook Ads and iOS 14. This will be my biggest and most important training yet (and I’ve done a lot of training!).

The Vague and Not Fully Explained

As I type this, we know that the iOS 14 update will have a negative impact on your remarketing audiences. From Facebook:

As more people opt out of tracking on iOS 14 devices, the size of your app connections, app activity Custom Audiences, and website Custom Audiences may decrease.

Details are limited. My belief is that Facebook isn’t fully clear yet what the full impact will be. There are a couple of things that should contribute to smaller and incomplete remarketing audiences…

Delayed Reporting

We’ve been accustomed to real-time reporting. When a conversion happens, it appears in Ads Manager rather quickly. This will not be the case for many iOS 14 users.

If you are running ads promoting your iOS app, it will rely on the SkAdNetwork. It may take Apple up to three days to send that data.

If a user opts not to share their data when they open the Facebook family of apps, conversion data from mobile web will also be delayed up to three days (and potentially unavailable for targeting audiences — more on that in a second).

When it comes to advertising, this means that remarketing audiences are not fully updated in real-time.

Limited Reporting: Aggregated Event Measurement

When a user opts to not share their data with the Facebook family of apps, this also impacts the volume of reporting. For this segment of users, Aggregated Event Measurement comes into play, resulting in partial event reporting.

Due to Aggregated Event Measurement, only the highest priority event will be reported for a single visit. For example, consider the following website visit:

• Visited a product page (ContentView pixel event)
• Added a product to a customer shopping cart (AddToCart pixel event)
• Completed a purchase (Purchase pixel event)

Normally, this behavior would result in at least three pixel events (even four, if you include the standard PageView event). But, for this segment of users, only the highest priority event will be reported: The Purchase.

The result is fewer events reported. But, it’s possible that this data will only be used for reporting — not for targeting audiences. For now, Facebook isn’t clear.

Other Potential Limitations Inferred

Let’s go back to that original Facebook quote and break it into chunks.

As more people opt out of tracking on iOS 14 devices

This suggests that once someone opts out, they may be excluded from your remarketing audience, even if their activity continues to be reported in some way.

the size of your app connections, app activity Custom Audiences

Again, this is related to when someone opts out. The SkAdNetwork will result in data that is aggregated, restricted, and delayed — and that will impact all users, whether they opt out or not. But while aggregated data may help fill in the gap for reporting, it certainly feels like these people won’t be available for app activity Custom Audiences.

and website Custom Audiences may decrease

Above, I referred to how Facebook will report fewer mobile web conversion events and they will be delayed due to Aggregated Event Measurement. Does this suggest, too, that a user who opts out will not be used in a website custom audience? The “may” qualifier makes it unclear.

Bottom Line: Be Prepared

Facebook tells us that our app activity and website custom audiences should decrease as a result of iOS 14. How much? If any user who opts out is omitted from audiences, that could be a lot — at least if you have a heavy iOS audience.

Why is a delayed, incomplete, and smaller remarketing audience a problem? First, the obvious point that you want to reach everyone who should qualify in an audience. Smaller highly relevant audiences will mean less effective advertising when reaching your most relevant group of people.

But it’s also an exclusion issue. When promoting a product, you’ll want to exclude those who already purchased it. If that data is delayed, you’ll continue targeting a customer for up to three days after purchasing. If they opt out, you may not be able to exclude them at all — at least from website and app activity custom audiences.

The result is waste. Waste is an advertiser’s biggest enemy. No one wants to throw away money. We try to keep our targeting and exclusions tight to avoid it.

If your audience is mainly Android, I project the impact of changes will be focused on attribution, reporting, and optimization. It would seem that audiences would continue to build as normal for non-iOS users.

What to Do?

This is something we are all going to feel out as we go. How much will your audiences decrease? How much of a problem will it create?

Personally, I will continue to use these website custom audiences for targeting and exclusions. However, I will also stick with my long-term strategy of using every possible method at my disposal.

For example, when excluding someone who registered for something, I will exclude them in three ways:

• Facebook Lead Form Custom Audience (if lead ads used)
• Website Custom Audience of thank-you page or event
• Email/Data File Custom Audience

If it makes some of my most heavily used remarketing audiences too small to target, I may need to consider making them slightly broader.

Your Turn

How are you planning for smaller remarketing audiences as a result of iOS 14?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Facebook Advertising Audiences and iOS 14 appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

A month ago, I wrote my first post about the expected impact of iOS 14. There was a lot we didn’t know at the time, and Facebook has also provided more information since.

Today, I want to break down the basics of this update into the simplest terms:

• What the iOS 14 prompt is
• How that prompt directly impacts Facebook ads
• How this impacts advertising beyond iOS users

I will go into significant additional detail to help you understand and prepare for this update in my new training, Facebook Ads and iOS 14.

The iOS 14 Prompt

Within the coming hours or days (or maybe it’s already happened by the time you read this), iOS users will begin seeing a prompt when they open any app for the first time…

Users will see this when they open up any of the Facebook family of apps (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, etc.), but they’ll also see it when they open other apps. How they respond matters.

Mobile Web and app Tracking

In order to receive any app conversion data, Facebook is adopting Apple’s SKAdnetwork API. The result is that any conversion data sent from iOS apps will be…

• Restricted: No defined attribution window; maximum of one ad account, 9 campaigns, and 5 ad sets with the same optimization for app install
• Aggregated: Details from lift measurement and demographic breakdowns will be unavailable
• Delayed: Data delayed up to three days post-install

This will impact marketers promoting an iOS app, typically for installs and in-app conversions. The extent of the frustrations this could cause is unclear, but it certainly appears that iOS app marketers should expect less data, incomplete data, and less flexibility.

The good news is that if users opt to send their data when using Facebook apps, nothing changes related to data sent for mobile web — their data is sent as normal using mobile web tracking. The problem comes for those who opt out of sending their data.

That’s when Aggregated Event Measurement comes into play. Data will be restricted, aggregated, and delayed in this case as well.

Possibly the most notable direct impact will be related to attribution. The delayed, restricted, and incomplete data forces Facebook to update their rules on attribution. A conversion will now be reported based on seven-day click only.

Additionally, when Aggregated Event Measurement is used for a user who opts out, Facebook will only receive the highest ranked event from Apple for a given user’s visit. For example, if a user performs a ViewContent, AddToCart, and Purchase event during a visit, only the Purchase would be reported.

What About Non-iOS Users?

So, the impulse may be to assume that advertisers with a heavy Android audience may not see any impact to these changes. That’s not true. This is mostly due to the global changes that Facebook is applying.

Attribution will change globally. An 8-event limit for optimization will be applied globally. These two things alone could make a big impact.

Overall, we’re looking at a likely negative impact to the following:

• Attribution/Reporting (fewer conversions reported)
• Optimization (fewer events to optimize for, and based on less complete data)
• Targeting (smaller and less complete remarketing audiences)

The result, it’s assumed, will be less effective advertising.

Learn All About the Impact of iOS 14 on Facebook Ads

This is just scratching the surface, of course, but I hope this post helps summarize succinctly the ways this update will impact you. If you’d like a thorough overview of these changes and what you can do in response, make sure to sign up for my Facebook Ads and iOS 14 Training video series.

I’ll cover the following:

1. What the iOS 14 update is. Once users start seeing this prompt, how does it impact the data sent to Facebook?

2. Why this makes an impact on all advertisers, not just those with an iOS audience. The immediate assumption is that this is an isolated issue. It’s not. Facebook is making global changes to prepare for a future where Android and all web browsers take a similar path to Apple.

3. Aggregated Event Management. If users opt out of sending their data, AEM comes into play. What is it? How does it work? How does it impact you as an advertiser?

4. 8-event limit per domain. You will now be required to choose and prioritize eight events that can be used for optimization per domain. If you share a domain, this is going to be a problem. We’ll talk about how to attack this and how various business structures are impacted differently.

5. Value Optimization. This is moved to Events Manager and using it will take up four of your eight events used for optimization. More advertisers should also qualify, so I’ll help you understand whether it’s a good option for you.

6. The impact on attribution and reporting. Facebook will now report fewer conversions, relying on a default 7-day click attribution model. In some cases, Facebook will only report on one event if a user performed multiple. How will this impact your results?

7. The impact on optimization. You can only optimize for eight different events. If you change the events, ad sets may be paused. There will be a three day delay.

8. The impact on targeting audiences. Since less data will be collected, remarketing audiences will be smaller. This impacts both targeting and excluding.

9. The impact on overall effectiveness and what to do now. The combination of all of these things leads, potentially, to poorer results. We’ll walk through a plan of attack.

Your Turn

What do you think about this update? What are you going to do differently?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Facebook Ads and the Impact of iOS 14 appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.