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Facebook Attribution Questions
Facebook Attribution Questions

Everything you need to know (and check) if you don't see all of your conversions in Ads Manager reports

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Written by Escalations
Updated over a week ago

Conversion Events

A Facebook conversion event refers to a specific action that you want users to take on your website or mobile app after clicking on a Facebook ad. These events help advertisers track and measure the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns by monitoring the actions that users take after interacting with an ad.

E.g. View Content, Add to Cart, Initiate Checkout, Purchase, etc.

Limitation of Facebook Attribution Model

1. Cross-Device Tracking Challenges: Attribution models might struggle to accurately track user behavior across multiple devices. For example, if a user sees an ad on their mobile device but completes the conversion on a desktop computer, tracking and attributing that conversion accurately can be challenging.

2. Cookie and Privacy Issues: Like many attribution models, Facebook relies on cookies to track user interactions. With increasing privacy concerns and browser restrictions on cookies, tracking accuracy may be affected, and some users may not be properly tracked.

3. Attribution Window Limitations: Facebook attribution models often rely on predefined attribution windows, which dictate the timeframe during which conversions are credited to specific ad interactions. However, choosing the right attribution window can be subjective and may not always align with the actual customer journey (For the attribution to happen Facebook has to be able to identify the Facebook user who clicked on the Ad or viewed the Ad within the attribution period).

The default attribution window for clicks and views in the ads manager reports is 7-day click and 1-day view. You can look at alternative attribution windows by customizing the ads manager view. You can also change the default attribution settings in your ads manager globally.

4. Offline Conversions: If a significant portion of your conversions occurs offline (e.g., in physical stores), it may be challenging to accurately attribute these conversions to online ad interactions.

5. Data Lag: There might be a delay in the availability of attribution data, especially for complex customer journeys or if there are delays in data processing. This lag could impact the real-time optimization of campaigns.

What are the main reasons for the lack of attribution:

  1. Facebook Ads Reports display conversions based on the attribution event, not the actual conversion (sale) time. This can be confusing with a slightly delayed buying cycle beyond 24 hours, as sales on one day may be reported across several days. If you notice results increasing over time (e.g., higher ROAS when reviewing data for the past week), it suggests some sales are attributed to earlier days.

  2. Facebook cannot identify the buyer as a Facebook user in two cases. First, if the user uses a device, browser, or app suppressing FB pixels (like Ad Blockers, GDPR compliance). Second, when the user doesn't make an immediate purchase but buys later, perhaps through Google or a follow-up email, while not logged into Facebook and from a device that didn't receive cookies during the initial visit.

  3. More sales than you think come from "organic" traffic. Even though it's coming from Facebook, traffic that comes through organic impressions of the ad post is not going to show in the reports. This is particularly likely if you get high comments, likes, and shares on the ad posts.

  4. Facebook may discard events from iOS users if they opt out of tracking (their conversion data may not be captured at all).

  5. Load speed and page performance significantly influence conversion events. Slow load times and poor page performance can harm user experience, resulting in missed conversion opportunities.

    a. Studies have shown that:

    • A one-second delay in page load time can result in a 7% loss in conversions.

    • 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in two seconds or less.

    • 40% of consumers will abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load.

    These statistics highlight the importance of having a fast-loading and high-performing website.

    b. There are several tools available for measuring store performance, including:

    • Google PageSpeed Insights

    • GTmetrix

    • Pingdom

    • WebPageTest

    These tools can provide valuable insights into website performance and help identify areas for improvement.

  6. Users might interact with an ad but not convert immediately. If they later convert through a different channel or device, attribution may be challenging.
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