Facebook Ads Metrics - Fixing Data Accuracy Issues

Overview

Earlier in 2021, Apple released an update to iOS with additional privacy features which would allow users to prevent apps from certain types of tracking. In response, Facebook made changes to how data was collected and reported on within their platform and to API partners, such as hawke.ai.

Note that this generally impacts conversion-based numbers only (such as conversions, purchases, and add to carts), and should not impact spend, impressions, or click-based metrics.

At hawke.ai, we have made a couple of changes to our Facebook Ads metrics to help our users make sure hawke.ai is populating the data that is correct for them. Continue reading below for more details on the issue and how to configure hawke.ai to ensure the data we use is accurate.

An Issue of Attribution

The primary issue stems from blending data points across multiple campaigns (and/or ad sets), all of which can have different attribution models and conversion types.

To illustrate this, see the screenshot below, which notes multiple attribution settings across a set of campaigns, which then prompts a note as to why Facebook (via Ads Manager) cannot sum certain metrics:

Extending upon this, when hovering over the superscript within the Results and Cost per Result data points, there is a note that the metric may not be including data from iOS 14.5 (or higher) users:

Within Facebook Ads Manager, there are a lot of unknowns for as there is no delineation of those with tracking permitted and those without. Additionally, the Facebook Ads API (used by platforms such as hawke.ai) does not provide clear ways to match API-provided data to that shown within Facebook Ads Manager – the good news is that Facebook, via the API, provides a boolean flag to API users with a new “unified” attribution setting, which does include opted-out iOS users.

Managing Unified Attribution in hawke.ai

In Morphio, we have made a few changes to how users can toggle the way these impacted Facebook Ads metrics behave – sometimes unlocking data that is not shown in Facebook Ads Manager. While the defaults often cover the majority of instances, you may need to try a few different settings to find what makes sense (and matches) for you.

You can select the type of attribution you wish to use in the Client Account Settings → Conversion Settings page, under Facebook Ads Attribution. Once selected, you can then select the views and clicks attribution window relevant to your Facebook Ads setup.

Use Unified Attribution Setting. The “unified attribution” setting will help users access data that includes iOS users. This number is higher than “account attribution”.

Use Account Attribution Setting. The “account attribution” setting uses what is currently set within your Facebook Ads account, but due to mismatches, this number is lower than when “unified attribution” is used.

Please note, that due to attribution mismatches across campaigns, it may take some trial-and-error to dial in exactly what works for matching your hawke.ai data to what you use in Facebook Ads Managers and/or other reporting platforms.

We’re Here to Help!

If you need help navigating the complicated space of Facebook Ads metrics, please do not hesitate to contact the hawke.ai team for support.