An explainer on what's going on with Facebook Ads and iOS 14 updates - and what you need to do to ensure minimum impact on your Facebook advertising.
Facebook Advertising is introducing aggregated event measurement which will require Facebook Advertisers to verify their domain for Facebook Advertising and set up to 8 event optimisations for conversion campaigns.
Why is this change happening?
This change is coming due to updates in iOS 14 that will affect how ads are delivered and how Facebook tracks users on their site.
iOS users (Apple devices) will start to see a prompt when they open any app for the first time:
"<app name> would like to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies. Your data will be used to deliver personalized ads to you."
Users have two options:
- Allow Tracking
OR
- Ask App Not To Track
Aggregated Event Measurement is a workaround for Facebook Advertisers to reach and report on those users who opt out of tracking.
How does this affect my Facebook Ad Campaigns?
Expect an overall negative affect on your Facebook Ad Campaigns.
1. iOS/Android Users
The most important thing to note is that this change not only affects iOS users who you target through Facebook Advertising. Facebook is applying these changes globally so it will affect everyone - even Android users.
2. Event/Conversion Optimisation
There will be an 8-event limit for optimisations. You'll need to think carefully about the types of events or custom conversions that are most important for your business to track.
Facebook organises these 8 events from lowest to highest priority. We recommend thinking about your "funnel" and the actions people take from the top of the funnel to the bottom of the funnel.
- Top of the funnel might be a page view
- Bottom of the funnel might be a purchase or form submission.
- Are there any other actions in the middle you want to track?
3. Attribution and Reporting
Fewer conversions overall will be reported, since Facebook will now only report on the top or highest priority event that a user converts on.
- Let's say a user follows this funnel: PageView -> Download eBook -> Purchase/Checkout
In the above case, with Facebook Ads Reporting you'll only know about the highest priority event: Purchase/Checkout. Thus Facebook may report a smaller number of conversions for events closer to the top of the funnel.
4. Targeting
Less data is going to be collected, so it may be difficult to build retargeting/remarketing audiences for your campaigns.
5. Campaign Interruptions
If you change your event management, ad sets may be paused and there will be a three day delay for reporting.
6. Conversion Campaigns
Conversions campaigns will be the most affected, since we specify a conversion or event to track as the desired outcome of the campaign (i.e. a form submission).
What do I need to do?
Follow the instructions below to get your domain verified and events set up.
- To configure aggregated event measurement, navigate to Facebook Business Manager.
- Go to Events Manager.
- Click the pixel you want to use.
- Under Aggregated event measurement, select Configure Web Events.
- Read through the introduction screens and click Next.
- Find the domain you want to configure events for.
- Click Verify domain. If you've already verified your domain, you can skip to the next step. If you can't edit events because another business owns the domain, contact the domain owner for assistance.
- Click Edit events.
- Select your pixel or custom conversion under Pixel/Custom conversion.
- Choose the event that you want to configure under Event name.
- Repeat steps 9-10 for all the events you want to configure.
- Drag and drop your events from highest priority at the top, to lowest priority at the bottom.
- Click Finish.
- Review your event configurations and any effects on your ads and ad sets. If your changes are correct, click to tick the box next to Yes, I confirm these changes.
- Click Confirm.
Facebook: Configure events to use aggregated event measurement
When do I need to do this by?
We are encouraging Facebook Advertisers to follow the steps above as soon as possible. iOS 14 updates have already rolled out.
What can I do if I need help?
Unfortunately, Facebook has not given agencies like XEN the tools to assist our clients in setting up aggregated event measurement.
Event management must be done by the Business Manager account that owns the domain - you.
In the event that you are having difficulty setting this up and need some help, there are two options:
- Someone from XEN can be added to your Business Manager as an admin for the initial set up.
- We can guide you through the set up on a call.