Top 3 Ways To Improve Your Facebook Ad Tracking

As marketers, we must generate ROI from our ad campaigns. But without proper ad tracking and attribution, we're left blind about the actual campaign performance.

What's more, having inaccurate campaign metrics reports may cause us to turn profitable campaigns off and scale unprofitable ones. 

However, with the right set of tools and analytics, you can identify which ads convert the most leads and generate the most revenue to get better ROI from your campaigns.

In this blog post, we'll detail three tips to enhance how you track Facebook ads performance so you can reliably use data to improve your results. Keep reading to learn more!

What Are the Best Facebook Ad Tracking Methods?

In this post, we've outlined three tiers of Facebook ad campaign tracking. The first two are completely free, and the last one is premium.  

The levels are:

1. Essentials are the Facebook Pixel, Conversion Events, and Conversion API. Native Facebook ad tracking can accurately track platform metrics - impressions, clicks, etc. But these aren't very accurate in tracking on-site metrics like add to carts, purchases, etc.
2. In the second tier of campaign tracking, there are Google Analytics and URL parameters – allowing you to tag each separate campaign with a UTM parameter. This allows accurate conversion tracking but is limited to the single-tagged campaign. I.e. doesn't integrate all traffic sources throughout the lifecycle of a customer.
3. And at the third-highest level of tracking, you've got dedicated third-party ad-tracking software solutions. These software solutions support much more detailed analysis to uncover trends and opportunities. 

Each business's needs evolve as it grows from start-up to enterprise, so it's essential to understand how each level of ad tracking works and how each stage requires different approaches to measure success.

Set Up Your Facebook (Meta) Pixel Code, Conversion Events & Conversion API

Facebook (Meta) Pixel is a Facebook ads manager feature that tracks user behavior on your website. This helps measure Facebook Ad performance and algorithm target future ads to the right people - people who are most likely to become a lead or purchase a product. 

Conversion events indicate when people take specific actions on your website or sales funnel. These are pre-defined actions valuable to your business - visiting a page on your website, clicking on a button, adding a product to your cart, purchasing a product, etc.

The Facebook Conversion API makes it easier for advertisers to track conversions from mobile devices and enables automatic campaign optimization based on your campaign objectives. 

It creates a direct link between your website's server and Facebook (Meta) ad manager server. This helps bypass the adverse effects of ad-blockers and iOS update restrictions. 

Implementing the Conversion API decreases customer acquisition costs which helps increase campaign profitability. 

Although the system works well in most cases, some limitations could lead to improper tracking of conversions - attributing to higher reported results. 

Set Up Google Analytics with URL Parameters

UTM URL parameters (also known as query strings or keys) are components of a link that allow accurate tracking and reporting data in Google Analytics. 

Setting up analytics with UTM URL parameters allows you to track each separate campaign - whether paid ads, emails or organic posts.

This enables greater insight into how your website performs and what actions your users take when they visit your site. 

This extra layer of detail allows you to segment, analyze, and optimize user interactions while navigating your site – such as which page they began their journey on and where they clicked next. 

As the tracking is done through permanently written URLs that are read by Google Analytics source code, it also provides more accurate website conversion tracking data than other sources, such as the Facebook pixel.

Logging website events via code are subject to change if elements of the website's code structure alter over time - which can be incredibly difficult to detect. 

As URL parameters don't need any coding changes going forward, no further setup is required once implemented. 

With this type of structured logging in place, businesses can gain accurate and invaluable insights into customer behavior patterns helping them optimize their campaign performance and customer experience to the highest standard.

Invest in a 3rd Party ad Tracking & Attribution Software

A dedicated third-party ad tracking software can provide invaluable insights for your data-driven business.

As many of these tools can track users throughout their entire customer life cycle, not just during a specific campaign like it is with the UTM parameters & Google analytics. 

Integrating into all traffic sources and ad platforms, such as your Facebook ads manager, Google ads, TikTok Ads, email marketing software, and many more will help marketers scale profitable campaigns by capturing insights about consumer behavior and usage patterns. 

Additionally, it allows for better insights into return on ad spend (ROAS) and customer lifetime value (CLTV) to optimize campaigns based on long-term profitability. 

Why it matters? It matters because many direct customer acquisition campaigns aren't always profitable on the initial purchase, especially in businesses where it takes a long time to convert a lead into a customer. 

So by having all your data tied into a single platform that automatically calculates and provides you with the customer lifetime value data, you can scale campaigns without worrying you're losing money on the front end.

What's more, tools such as Hyros (full Hyros review here) can track a single user after their first session even if they change their browser (ex. Chrome to Safari and back), devices (ex. desktop to phone and vice versa), and even their IP address, so you can be confident in your actual customer acquisition costs and customer lifecycle length. 

What is Facebook Ad tracking?

Having accurate and reliable Facebook ad tracking is a key element to running successful Facebook ad campaigns. 

Facebook tracks user interactions and behavior with advertisements across many platforms and websites, allowing advertisers to analyze campaign performance, optimize their targeting, and measure ROI.

Facebook categorizes this data into fields like impressions, clicks, website visitors, conversions, conversion value, and cost, so marketers have an in-depth look at how their campaign performs in real time. 

Accurate and reliable ad tracking provides valuable insights into Facebook advertising campaign effectiveness, which increases the success rate for each company's individual goals.

How Can Accurate Facebook Ad Tracking Benefit You

The continuous iOS updates, data protection regulation (GDPR), and ad blockers have caused an immeasurable impact on how digital advertising data is collected and reported to advertisers. 

It has become increasingly difficult to accurately track data to measure ad campaign performance. 

On top of this, inaccurate and unreliable tracking methods fail to provide you with insights that can guide your decision-making. 

That's why investing in an accurate and reliable ad-tracking method should be a top priority for any advertiser looking to scale ad spending confidently.

By leveraging accurate ad tracking and performance reporting, you unlock greater visibility into customer acquisition costs and optimal strategies for generating more ROI from every dollar spent on digital advertising. 

Conclusion/Wrapping Up

If you want to successfully scale your advertising campaigns, it's imperative to set up reliable and accurate Facebook ads reporting. 

The three main tiers of ad tracking are:

1. Setting up the Facebook pixel, conversion events, and Conversion API; 
2. Setting up Google Analytics with UTM URL parameters; 
3. And investing in a 3rd party ad tracking software.

By implementing these methods, you'll be able to gain insights into your campaign performance and make necessary adjustments to optimize your ads.