Top 5 Tools to Achieve Accurate Conversion Tracking on Facebook

Intro

Are you a marketer looking for ways to maximize your Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS)? If so, having an accurate tracking of conversions is a necessity.

By understanding which campaigns—and which ads within those campaigns—are driving the most conversions, you'll be able to make data-backed decisions about how best to direct your budget and optimize for results.

But the only way to get these insights is by implementing reliable conversion tracking methods and tools that can provide precise and reliable results that are fast and easy to interpret.

In this article, we’ll explore the five most comprehensive tools available right now that make it easier for marketers like yourself to achieve top-notch accuracy when measuring & evaluating campaign performance and ROAS.

What Is Conversion Tracking on Facebook?

When learning how to run ad campaigns on Facebook, conversion tracking is key to managing a successful ad campaign.

After all, Facebook is one of the highest ROI paid acquisition channels. And for marketers, ROI is the name of the game.

But what exactly is conversion tracking?

To put it in simple terms, conversion tracking measures and shows how many people finish a desired action (ex., becoming a lead or purchasing a product) after seeing your ad on the social media platform.

Why is Facebook Conversion Tracking Essential to Run Successful Campaigns?

Facebook ads are a form of PPC advertising - technically, Facebook charges based on a CPM model - cost per thousand impressions.

Different audiences have different costs to reach them. So ad costs can vary significantly from one audience to another.

But no matter the costs, advertisers are looking to generate a positive ROI from their ad spending, and tracking conversions is an integrative part of managing campaign performance and achieving target KPIs.

Here are a few benefits you'll see when you set up the tools outlined in this blog post:

• You'll be able to run Facebook ad campaigns for specific goals - like signing up for your email list, purchasing a product, downloading a lead magnet, etc.
• You'll know the exact return on ad spend - for each campaign, ad set, and even down to the specific ad;
• Facebook will know who your customers are and will show ads to people who are more likely to become a lead or a customer.
• You'll be able to create custom audiences and run remarketing campaigns to website visitors, people who added products to their cart but didn't checkout, and specific pageviews (by setting up custom conversions);
• You'll be able to exclude recent purchasers, leads, or website visitors from your ad campaigns.

Now, these are some juicy benefits if you ask me, and as a fellow marketer, you probably see some exciting opportunities as well.

Top 5 Tools to Achieve Accurate Conversion Tracking on Facebook

The following list of tools is ordered in descending order, starting from the most important ones like the Facebook pixel, conversion events, and Conversion API.

Next, we have a free tool - Google Analytics which adds another layer and improves upon Facebook's native tracking.

And finally, we have third-party ad-tracking tools for improved and more comprehensive features.

With each stage of your business growth and campaign spending, you'll want to invest in better and more accurate tools.

Is it necessary to invest in the fanciest tools from day one? Well, it depends - mostly on your budget and needs. But for most marketers and situations - free tools will be sufficient.

Facebook Pixel

(Source: Facebook Events Manager)

Facebook Pixel Code allows website owners to measure, optimize and build audiences for online advertising campaigns. It’s essentially a tool that bridges the gap between what’s happening on your website and the Facebook ads manager platform.

With the help of this little piece of code, business owners can better monitor the success or failure of their Facebook advertising campaigns, helping them make smarter decisions based on actual customer interactions.

Facebook Conversion Events

(Source: Facebook Events Manager)

These events work in conjunction with the Facebook conversion tracking pixel. Without setting them up, you won't be able to run conversion and sales campaigns.

By setting up conversion events, Facebook can track conversions and various customer behaviors to optimize campaigns based on your campaign objective.

These events come in two forms:

1. Custom conversions;
2. Standard events.

A Custom conversion event allows you to set up your goals, such as visiting a specific page or clicking a button.

A Standard event is commonly used by many websites - add to cart, initiate checkout, purchase events, and many more.

You can use a free and easy-to-use tool - the Facebook pixel helper to set up the events you want to track without coding knowledge. You can find it in the events manager of the Facebook business manager. You have to be logged in to access the page.

Facebook Conversion API

(Source: Facebook events manager)

The Facebook Conversion API is a tool from the social media behemoth that allows marketers to accurately measure advertising performance in a post-iOS 14.5 world.

With Apple’s new tracking policies, users have to explicitly opt-in to share their data with advertisers to receive personalized ads. As you may imagine, most iPhone users are reluctant to share this data.

On top of that, desktop Ad blocker usage has been growing steadily over the years.

These both factors have posed a challenge for marketers as they prevent Facebook's Pixel from tracking user behavior on your website platform and sending this data to Facebook, thus bypassing any relevant ad targeting.

However, the Conversion API counteracts this by providing an additional bridge directly from your website's server to the Facebook ads manager platform.

Ultimately, the Conversion API opens up a slew of possibilities for marketers who strive to provide effective ads without being constrained by user privacy protocols.

Set Up Google Analytics With UTM URL Parameters

(Source: Campaign URL Builder)

Even before the iOS 14.5 update in 2021, Facebook's native conversion reporting wasn't highly reliable or accurate. Most of the accounts I worked on reported inflated conversion data.

But after the update, the ads manager platform displays aggregated conversion estimates rather than specific numbers.

This creates a nightmare situation when trying to optimize or scale campaigns. After all, as marketers, we have to rely on accurate metrics to evaluate campaign performance.

The good news is that setting up Google Analytics with UTM URL parameters shows us accurate website session and conversion data. Campaign by campaign, ad by ad.

It's also worth mentioning that, by default, each platform uses different attribution settings, which can be somewhat confounding.

Facebook uses a 7-day click or 1-day view window, while Google Analytics attributes conversions to the last click.

So if you lean more on the conservative side when it comes to ad performance reporting, rely more on the google analytics campaign performance data.

Third Party Ad Tracking, Attribution, and Analytics Software

Investing in a third-party ad-tracking tool can be quite advantageous if you work with serious budgets and want to increase your campaign ROI

These tools offer insights that Facebook's conversion tracking and Google Analytics won't.

One of the many benefits is cross-device tracking. As a dedicated ad-tracking service, these platforms can match one person from the initial visit throughout the customer journey - whether the person switches browsers (chrome to firefox), devices (phone to laptop), and even IP addresses.

If you're able to track each visit and user behavior - you can accurately track the lifetime value of each customer.

By knowing the accurate lifetime value of a customer, you can scale ad spending on your best-performing campaigns with great confidence.

This helps save unnecessary spending on underperforming campaigns and significantly improves your ROAS.

Conclusion

No matter what stage your business is in, tracking user acquisition and conversion data is crucial to help understand how potential customers interact with your brand, where they come from, and when they become paying customers.

This will help you determine which marketing channels are most effective at driving tangible and measurable business results.

Facebook's native tools and Google Analytics are great for businesses of all sizes - small businesses can get started quickly and at no cost. While large, established companies can benefit from the robust features these platforms offer.

When it comes time to scale your ad spending and customer acquisition efforts, third-party software solutions provide accurate tracking that can help you make sound business decisions as you grow.

What data do you track to measure the success of your marketing campaigns?