The IOS 14 and Apple's App Tracking Transparency have been around for more than 2 years.
But marketers are still grappling with it.
There is no doubt about how horrible data absence is for your business. But did you know there is even a worse mix?
Absence + delay + changes to attribution = recipe for disaster.
If these seem new to you, read on to find out the effects and what you can do about them. Because you can't afford to wait any longer.
What is Facebook attribution exactly?
Facebook's explanation is already more complicated than should be. So in this article, complexity is out, simplicity is in.
The short: It's how Facebook finds out which ads your sales came from.
The long: The way it works is Facebook stores every user's action on your ad (click, impression) in a database.
Every time Facebook receives an event with proper extra information (think email, phone) via Pixel or CAPI, it will try to match that event with the person and their action on the ad.
If there is a match, then the count would pop up in the associated ad in your AM report.
If there is no match, then nothing would show up in your AM.
When it comes to the latter, there are tons of reasons. One of them is the pixel data you sent is so poor for Facebook to figure out a link to the user (more on this later).
That, coupled with IOS 14, changes everything.
How IOS 14 policy changes affect you
Let's look at a before-after comparison:
- No reporting delay -> Metrics now can take up to 72hrs to show up.
- The attribution window went from 28-day click, 7-day view to 7-day click, 1-day view.
- Facebook now gives credit to the ad on the day the conversion events occur, not on the day the clicks on the ad occur.
If you're selling high-ticket products, chances are you might be seeing a huge drop in performance. That doesn't necessarily mean your marketing effort is getting worse. It could be that most of your purchases fall out of the 7-day window because it takes more time to turn your browsers into customers.
Would you need a longer attribution window if your products sell fast?
The question here is how would you understand when your customers buy if the only time span you're able to look at is 7 days?
Every so often, marketers have the urge to make some impulse changes to their ads too quickly. When you have spent days knee-deep in the AM without seeing any results, it's reasonable to criticize yourself.
But chances are, you might be hurting your performance instead. Your ads might be performing, just that you don't know they are because of the 3-day lag in reporting.
There are already so many tools such as Triple Whale, Elevar, etc. out there for folks to tackle this.
The problem is they either break the bank if you're a super small business that can't handle $100 per month, or they're too technical.
If you have a thin margin and are time-poor, you definitely need a data-rich solution that prices reasonably.
Enter Omega - Ads Attribution Report
Real-time Reporting: No delay, we promise.
Flexible Attribution Window: defaulted at 14-day click but you can definitely request to stretch it or shorten it.
There is more to it, check out the features other merchants like you are enjoying here.
The good old days have far gone. Optimization, report, and targeting are all affected after IOS 14 updates. There is so much you can't control, but you'll thank yourself later for picking an attribution tool that informs your decision.
