Boost Your Conversion Tracking With Facebook’s Expanded Automatic Advanced Matching

Conversion tracking... it’s one of those things that seems like it should be simple, but it’s not always so straightforward.

Take, for example, a Facebook ad campaign: you run a conversion campaign, hoping to drive users to a particular goal (say, purchases or newsletter signups). As a marketer, you want to know which customers that reach that goal did so as a result of your Facebook campaign.

But as any experienced marketer will tell you, these things aren’t always a simple 1:1—that is, it’s not always as simple as “see the ad, click the button, achieve the desired result.”

That’s where Facebook’s Advanced Matching comes in, making it that much easier to accurately (and even automatically) match each “conversion” with a user tied to your Facebook ad campaign.

And now, thanks to a recently-announced expansion of Facebook’s Automatic Advanced Matching, keeping an accurate count of your conversion attributions may just be even easier… and it all has to do with third-party integrations.

Why Worry About Conversion Tracking?

When it comes to measuring just how effective your lead generation campaigns are performing, conversion tracking really sets the gold standard.

When properly implemented, conversion tracking can tell you exactly when your Facebook ads drive a user to take your desired action—whether it’s a purchase, a newsletter signup, a form submission, or otherwise.

But the key here is “properly set up”... and if you’re only running with the most basic level of Facebook conversion tracking, you may actually be missing out on valuable insights as to where your conversion campaigns are (or aren’t) effective.

While there are plenty of ways to integrate your optimal conversion flow into your Facebook reporting—including using Offline Event Sets to measure acquisitions through channels like phone calls and in-person leads—Facebook is actually making it a little easier to accurately capture conversion success with a handy tool: Automatic Advanced Matching.

What Exactly Is “Automatic Advanced Matching?”

Long gone are the days where last-touch attribution ruled Facebook Ads reporting.

Now, we have more nuanced ways of connecting “target audience” with “recorded conversions”—and Facebook’s Automatic Advanced Matching has played a pretty big role in doing just that.

To put things simply, Automatic Advanced Matching allows Facebook to connect things it already knows about your target audience (names, email, phone number, etc.) with information it picks up on your website, usually using cookies.

Here’s How It Works… Usually

Say, for example, a Facebook user in your target audience sees an ad in your conversion ad campaign and clicks through, but does not complete a conversion action as a direct result of that click.

Now, say that user (after some consideration), that user returns to your website and intends to take that conversion action—only this time, they’re not entering through your Facebook conversion ad.

You might be thinking, “Great, I got the conversion! But too bad it won’t count toward my Facebook campaign’s success…”

NOPE. Automatic Advanced Matching might just have you covered. If that newly-converted user entered their name or email into the form field on your website, that Facebook cookie may just be able to connect the dots… meaning your Facebook conversion campaign will get that credit. As long as it’s all in your conversion attribution window (set up when you created the campaign), you should be in the clear.

OK So… What’s Different Now?

If you’re tuned into the latest news and updates from Facebook, an email from just before last Thanksgiving might have caught your eye. It had a lot to say about changes to Automatic Advanced Matching:

"On December 5th, Facebook will update how Automatic Advanced Matching works to recognize your chosen customer identifiers, such as phone numbers or emails. In the past, this tool used your website’s pixel to find form fields that contain customer identifiers. Starting on December 5th, pixels will look for the same customer identifiers in other places on your website where this information may be found in addition to form fields. For example, a pixel running on a website with an existing partner integration may find customer identifiers from sources specifically available through that integration.

You are receiving this email because you have already enabled Automatic Advanced Matching for your pixel.

This update may improve your pixel’s ability to attribute more conversions and reach more people. As a result, you may be able to create more effective custom audiences from your pixel and further improve conversion reporting on your ads."

Did you catch that?

Let’s break it down in plain English:

• You don’t need to rely exclusively on your website’s form field (or Facebook’s cookies) to catch conversion data on your site
• Third-Party integrations that already use these identifiers (like, say, Shopify) will now provide that data directly to Facebook
• This info will get fed to your pixel automatically, and help make your conversion tracking more accurate

If you’re running Facebook conversions ads and looking for a way to pull in all of your conversion data, this is a pretty big deal. Facebook is basically leveraging its sway with third-party integrations to make data collection that much easier… and that might bring some serious benefits for your conversion reporting.

Don’t Let Good Conversions Go Unnoticed

If you’re looking to improve your conversion tracking in the future—or if you’re just worried you may be missing out on the success of your ad campaigns—Automatic Advanced Matching may be the tool you’ve been waiting for.

Not sure where to get started with implementing Automatic Advanced Matching for your Pixel? Not a problem: we can help get you to where you need to be. Give us a ring and we’ll help make sure you’re capturing those key moments in your customers’ journeys with confidence.