What’s going on:
Apple’s release of iOS 14 now gives users the choice of whether or not they want to be tracked. Facebook is calling foul, accusing Apple of being greedy, and doing this in the name of profits rather than security.
Implications: Anyone running ads on Facebook will suffer in both performance and reporting transparency if you aren’t prepared appropriately for the changes.
Luckily, there are some steps you can take that will mitigate the overall impact to your Facebook Ads Campaigns. Here, we’ll discuss those steps.
- Verify your Domain in Facebook Business Manager
- Setup 8 conversion events to track
- Enable Server Side Tracking
- Utilize UTM’s
- Setup a GA4 Property
Let’s get started.
- Verify your Domain in Facebook Business Manager
Facebook has been asking for businesses to verify their businesses in Business Manager for a while, but recently, they’ve doubled down on the importance of this step as it pertains to the iOS 14 update. This is especially true if the business has multiple business units and multiple domains (Verification must be done at the effective top level domain plus one: eTLD+1).
You can verify your domain in Business manager under Brand Safety, then Domains.
Similar to Domain verification for Google Search Console, you’ll be able to verify via an HTML file upload or a DNS TXT record. Additional documentation on how to complete this step can be found here.
- Setup 8 conversion events to track
Since the iOS 14 Privacy Update roll out, each Facebook Pixel will only be able to “host” 8 conversion events. For some businesses this won’t feel so limiting, while others will need to make some decisions here. These 8 conversion events will be your only options when it comes to account optimization. Now, you’ll still be able to track more web based events from your Pixel, you just won’t be able to configure any more than 8 conversion events. This is how Facebook is able to utilize it’s aggregated event measurement protocol for users that opt out of the iOS data sharing option.
If you don’t delegate the conversion events yourself, Facebook will define them for you based on the ones Facebook thinks are most relevant to your business.
You’ll be able to configure your preferences (i.e. define these events) in the Events Manager. There will be no need to make changes to the pixel or Conversions API Implementation.
If a user opts out of tracking, we would only see purchase (highest priority event) reported in events manager/ads manager. If the user opts-in, we will see all events as we do currently (example: VC > ATC > IC > Purchase)
- Another example - If users opts out and only completes up to the ATC event in the above flow, we will NOT see any events reported back in Ads Manager
Offsite conversion events will be reported based on the time the conversions occur and not the time of ad impressions. AKA - you’ll no longer have delayed attribution. There are also reports that it can take up to 3 days from when a conversion event occurs for it to be passed back to Facebook, as opposed to how it was recorded where data is passed when the event occurs.
Delivery and action breakdowns are not supported for offsite conversion events.
On the measurement front, 28-day click-through, 28-day view-through, and 7-day view-through attribution windows will no longer be supported (historical data for these windows will remain accessible.) Thus, certain attribution windows will immediately have only partial reporting available, and metrics won’t include all events from iOS 14 users.
Instead, 7-day click will be the default attribution window moving forward, with the new attribution settings supported being:
- 1-day click
- 7-day click (default after Apple prompt enforcement)
- 1-day click and 1-day view
- 7-day click and 1-day view (initial default)
Another important change to take into account is that custom audiences are now much smaller. Exclusions will be less accurate (you may have past purchasers in your prospecting campaigns).
The best move is to be proactive. Identify the most important conversion events in your funnel then reduce them down to 8 key conversion events prior to the update.
New Items:
Utilize UTM’s
UTMs (Urchin Tracking Module) are simple code snippets that can be added to the end of your URLs to provide data to Google Analytics. This is significant because you can then see conversion/traffic data specific to certain channels, campaigns, creatives, etc. UTM’s are also very easy to configure, and there are many websites that will automatically make the URL for you.
- Example Basic UTM:
- https://www.example.com/?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=CPC&utm_campaign=Brand
- Example Detailed UTM:
- https://www.example.com/?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=CPC&utm_campaign=Brand&utm_id=XYZ&utm_term=Example&utm_content=Responsive
Now that you have UTMs set up, you can filter your Google Analytics data by the above fields in order to see detailed information about how your campaign performed.
We always recommend using UTMs for an added layer of data analytics. Additionally, if you’re using multiple platforms - odds are your attribution reporting doesn’t match across them all. However, if you’re using UTMs you can look at all the campaigns using the same attribution lens your Google Analytics account utilizes.
Setup a GA4 Property
Google Analytics has released the newest version of analytics called Google Analytics 4. This will become the new standard for Google Analytics, although you can still utilize your UA profiles. Google Analytics is a must have tool that provides detailed reporting on website visits, conversion tracking, and insights that will help you bring your website to the next level.
Google Analytics 4 will bring new insights and data about why users are on your website (or app), and will be able to more accurately attribute actions and data properly.
If you already have analytics set up on your website, Google makes it simple to switch to GA4. Within your ‘Admin’ tab to bring up your settings and underneath the ‘Property’ tab the first option should be Google Analytics 4 Property Setup Assistant. From here, simply follow the steps and Google will create a GA4 version of your analytics.
Full steps on how to add a GA4 Profile to your existing Analytics account: Here
If you don’t have analytics on your site at all; your first step is to create an account. From here, you will be able to enter your websites information and be given options on how to get the Google Analytics tags onto your website.
Full steps on how to create your brand new Analytics account: Here
