Question

Is Facebook Pixel Tracking Fake News? I noticed that my ERP system and Google Analytics are pretty much in agreement about the revenue that FB ads generate. But the Ads Manager claims that my FB ads are generating 10x the revenue that Google Analytics claims. I have a suspect - I think they are playing with the definition of a "click". My first thought is that the 28 day click attribution model will credit anyone who clicked on the outbound link to the advertisers website within 28 days of the order. But I suspect that FB is playing a trick on us advertisers. I think they are claiming credit for anyone who has clicked anywhere on the ad - whether to read comments or see more text - and then claiming credit for any order generated 28 days later even if the customer never clicked on the link in the facebook ad. So just by reading a comment FB is claiming credit, even if FB never was the means that led customers to the ecommerce site. Is anyone else seeing these kind of discrepencies?  

Answer 1

In theory views should not be counted if the attribution model is set to 28 day click and not the default 28 day click 1 day view. But I'm not so sure I trust them.  

Answer 2

Are you factoring in the view-through conversions?  

Comments

No I turned that off a long time ago

Answer 3

I’ve gone back to using custom conversions for objectives.  

Answer 4

You should be doing custom conversions and track it with a second system - GA or your own datalayer push. It do the attribution side by side. "So just by reading a comment FB is claiming credit, even if FB never was the means that led customers to the ecommerce site. Is anyone else seeing these kind of discrepencies? " This is the problem with attribution. Who takes the credit? If I am on my phone, see an ad. Then a day later, without clicking on an ad but going to a link directly on my desktop, some systems will count that original phone view as the source attribution. Because it knows my user profile already. Doesnt matter if I am on a phone or desktop, both devices are linked to that user. So if I clicked on a Google Search, FB will also try to claim credit.  

Answer 5

Yeah even a reaction counts as a click for FB's post click attribution model. This is one of the most hidden secrets of the platform :)