A Tribute to Facebook Attribution
Official Facebook Marketing Partner Aitarget explains how to use a new tool that offers integrated data on audience actions across websites and social media.
On 18 October, Facebook opened access for all advertisers to a new tool, Facebook Attribution, which they have been testing for over a year.
This free tool gives businesses a more complete picture of their customers’ journey. Facebook says Attribution allows you to understand which of your ads are driving action by measuring performance across the Facebook family of apps and services, and measuring and tracking conversion paths across devices, publishers, and channels. Advertising results will be sorted by campaigns and placements.
This makes advertising conscious. When you compare the results of all active campaigns on different platforms you will see the points of most active user interaction with your business, and what works best for achieving business goals.
In this guide, Aitarget explains how to use Facebook Attribution, and answers some early questions that have popped up around the new tool.
Bringing it all together with Facebook Attribution
Facebook Attribution is able to not only track the sources of website traffic or in an app, but also integrate Facebook and any third-party statistics into reports.
Together with the accumulated Facebook Pixel and SDK data on visits, conversions, and their sources by UTM-parameters, the interface will show the verification of impressions and clicks by any existing tags and ad spend on any platform – all in one place.
Facebook's automatic advanced matching, which also allows you to track the consumer interaction with your site more accurately through people’s behaviour, rather than cookies, now works across different sites and social networks.
What's new in terms of collecting and displaying information?
Facebook has found that 45% of digital touchpoints are missed by traditional measurement technologies. For example, a user sees your ad on a laptop, then on a website from a smartphone or in an app, again on a laptop, then goes to your website and completes the conversion. Each of these interactions with your advertising is part of the user’s path to conversion, but traditionally their conversion was only attributed to the last ad.
Facebook Attribution aggregates the data from your site using Pixel, the data from your app using SDK, and information from offline conversions altogether, so you can follow a user's full track and draw conclusions about what is really driving conversions and purchases.
How to get started
You will need Business Manager, access to an ad account, and a correctly installed Pixel. The Attribution section can be found in the Measure & report column of Business Manager.
First, install Line of business: without this, there will be no access to Attribution.
Add accounts and people, whom Attribution will be available to, to the line. Don’t forget to add all Pixels, SDKs, and offline conversions (the latter must be uploaded in advance): Attribution will use them for generating reports. You can set up Line of business in the Business Settings section.
Next, go to the Attribution section and select the time zone and currency settings you need. This data cannot be changed, as opposed to subsequent settings of conversion events for tracking, tracking time (at the moment available from October 18), and attribution models. They can be alternated at any time for getting versatile information.
When you first start Attribution it may take several hours for all data to be loaded into the statistics. After that, the tool is ready for use.
The information on traffic from all channels will be available on the start page Performance, and the distribution by the devices that customers use in the section Cross-device.
How to connect third-party platforms
If you do not have UTM tags on your third-party platforms, Facebook Attribution will show unallocated traffic without differentiating between advertising campaigns and paid/free activities. For more information, it is recommended to add UTM parameters.
In the Settings section, go to Ad Platforms and add the resources you use outside of Facebook. They will provide the information on all data tracking methods.
The system already has many trackers configured; simply select them from the list. If a required resource is not listed, set up Custom Platform.
Now your first introduction with Facebook Attribution is done. Now you can see the client journey on different devices and platforms, which will allow you to understand how to spend less time on analytics and save on conversions.
To understand more and become an Attribution expert, read this guide from Facebook.