Learning phase Meta might over-report to avoid stop spending Facebook employs this strategy to instruct its algorithm to continue spending. Otherwise, the algorithm might stop spending, thinking that the campaign isn't generating conversions.
Custom conversions
Events Managers > Custom Conversions > Create
Event: Purchase (this depends in custom conversion required by client)
Rules examples for custom conversions:
Each product/SKU purchase event
Custom event for if the customer wants to optimise for certain products.
Let’s say the customer has 4 types of products, 1 t-shirt with id abc, and 3 pants with id’s 123, 456 and 789. If the customer want’s to optimise the sales of their store for the pants he can create a custom conversion.
Event Parameters, content_ids, contains, then the list of variant ids like 123, 456, 789
Total new customer purchase event
Custom event for counting new customers through Meta ad.
Event Parameters, occurrence, contains, first
Total repeat customer purchase event
Custom event for counting repeating customers through Meta ad.
Event Parameters, occurrence, contains, subsequent
Common problems
use this code for each ad in the URL Parameters field: utm_campaign={{campaign.name}}&utm_content={{adset.name}}&utm_term={{ad.name}}
Dropping events in the events manager is expected as we don’t send duplicated events. Meta treats all types of conversions equally. It expects the same parameters to be sent for Purchase, but since we do not have the customer details before they place an order, it is impossible to do so. Therefore, a score of approximately 5 or 6 for Page views, Content Views, Add to Carts, and Initiate Checkout is considered nearly perfect. 8.3 is max achievable for Add to Cart 6.1 is max achievable Page View. However, for Purchase, the score is much higher because we can send all the information that we collect from your customers.
Timezone might be incorrect or ads might be in learning phase.
The Timezone of the Events Manager automatically aligns with the timezone of the user.
we are not doing the attribution, Meta does the attribution.
Meta might attribute base off IP Address or based of country of Profile and not on the country that customer fills in on the store. Customer might have purchased in US but possibly customer profile is in Mexico so when Ads Manager does the attribution, it detected that this customer profile is in Mexico, the ad platform can still attribute the sale to Mexico campaign even if this user had filled in details for US address.
The idea here is that, if your profile was set to this country and you move out from another country. Due to the first hand fact that your profile has been on this first country for too long, you are still being targetted by the Ad on that country.
Despite of you moving out on different place and placing an order on difference country. The Ad platform might still think that you are on the first country because your profile that has information with first country.
Overtracking
Undertracking
Go to the client’s Shopify, head over to Marketing. This page will show the break down of the sales on each ad platform.
To check for each campaign if attribution is correct, go to Customize columns, add Campaign ID and check in our reporting if they correspond.
Event Setup Tool
If the Pixel receives events from the Browser, as seen in Events Manager, it can be receiving data from Facebook & Instagram app, or it could be that there are events set up the in Event Setup Tool. This is how to find out if there are events in there:
Custom tracking
Sometimes, the client wants to track a custom conversion, for example a Lead conversion when a client signs up for their newsletter. The client then has to add the tracking code for this. First, the client should have the Meta Ads script in their head section of the site, with the corresponding Pixel ID.
<script> !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)}; if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0'; n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script', 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', 'PIXELID'); fbq('track', 'PageView'); ← OPTIONAL! </script>
Then, on submit of the Signup form, the client should add this code: fbq('track', 'Lead');
Meta’s new Health and wellness regulations
Why?
Meta wants to protect it’s business against regulations and lawsuits.
Why Health and wellness?
This category causes the most risk for customers. Products include supplements, skin care products etc.
What is affected?
Depends on your block. For some customers, the whole Ad Manager is blocked, for others it’s not possible to optimise ads for Purchase events. For others it’s only possible to optimise for Page View/View Content.
What’s the solution?
Custom conversions still seem to be the solution for now. However, it’s important to be vague when naming them. Facebook has, of course, built tools to flag labels like Health, Medical, Wellness etc. When creating a Custom Conversion, avoid naming it 'CustomPurchase', 'Pur_Health', 'Medical_conversion', 'CustomAddToCart'. Instead, use names that have nothing to do with Health and that only you know the meaning of. If necessary, create a conversion table in a notes document to keep track of which label corresponds to which conversion.
Other important requirements (we already do this as wetracked.io):
Will they patch Custom Parameters?
No, they use it in their own platforms extensively.
How do we inform the clients?
Do not market it as a solution from wetracked.io. We do not want to be known as a solution that hacks it’s way around Meta regulations.
More info & links
Explains how to create custom conversions. Starts with woocommerce setup, we don’t need that as we already send all the data to Meta Ads.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWozitdarSA
Interesting article about the situation, who it affects and how to counter it.
https://aimerce.beehiiv.com/p/meta-s-health-data-restrictions-what-works-from-someone-who-s-actually-fixing-this
Video explains thoroughly why customers in Health and Wellness are affected and to what scale.
https://x.com/nicktheriot_/status/1861846647115768077