Facebook Attribution: What You Need to Know

by Syrup | Nov 27, 2018

Facebook recently announced the release of Facebook Attribution, “a new measurement tool designed to give marketers a more holistic view of the customer journey, both on and off Facebook.” This release is a long time coming, as they laid the groundwork for these developments back in 2017. Facebook recognized the need for digital marketers to bridge the gap between platforms when it comes to reporting and they delivered a solution.

What does Facebook Attribution mean for marketers?

The Attribution feature uses data from the Facebook pixel to paint a picture of how users get to the site and convert from both paid and organic channels. It combines data across pixels, apps, and offline events for a holistic reporting view. For starters, the main dashboard gives you an overview of all conversions broken down by channel, so you can see a quick snapshot of how paid media plays a role in overall web conversions.

The dashboard continues to show you the top sources from all channels, allowing you to see not only which sources led to the most conversions, but also which sources are driving the most traffic. In addition to identifying top converting sources, this report also highlights the lowest converting sources and lowest traffic driving sources, which are just as important to understand.

The reporting doesn’t stop there. You can connect other ad platforms to Facebook Attribution (one of the capabilities I’m most excited about) to see how paid platforms come together as a whole. Some ad platform connections require manual configuration, but Google Ads (Search and Display) both have preconfigured setups to quickly begin importing data.

Aside from cross-platform reporting, Facebook Attribution also includes cross-device reporting in order for marketers to better understand the customer journey. This report is one of my personal favorites, as it highlights the interconnectedness of our devices and how we use them in our conversion path. If you look at an analytics report that shows you 75% of customers convert on desktop, you might be inclined to believe that desktops are the most important device for your business and discredit the value of a mobile optimized site. But in reality, it could be that while 75% of customers convert on desktop, 70% of those happened after people interacted on mobile. This report takes the guesswork out of user behavior and lets you see how each device plays a role in the end result.  

Facebook Attribution has even more features than we can cover in one blog post, so we encourage you to check it out for yourself to start seeing the value it can add (plus, reporting only starts from the day you set it up; there’s no reporting time travel, unfortunately, so set it up sooner rather than later!). We’re excited to see where Facebook takes Attribution reporting in the future to continue to provide a more complete view of how users interact and convert on digital platforms. Need some help navigating tools like this for your business? Reach out to us here.