In August, Meta – the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger – announced changes to its advertising algorithm. If you advertise with Meta, this is something to pay attention to, as your conversion campaigns might look like they’re performing worse, at least temporarily, according to reporting in Adweek. Advertising with Meta can be complex, so we’re breaking down some definitions, and what you need to know about the algorithm going forward.
Definition of Terms
Conversion campaigns are marketing campaigns that aim to convert traffic from a website or social media channel into sales by encouraging users to take a desired action (e.g., fill out a form, purchase a product) after interacting with an ad.
When choosing between Meta Ads attribution options, you can consider whether you want to count every action someone takes on your website after clicking your ad, or just the first action:
“All conversions” counts every action, such as buying something or signing up for a list. This option can show you every measurable conversion that happens after an ad click or view.
“First conversions” only counts the initial action someone takes on your website after clicking your ad. This option can give you a better idea of how many new customers you’re getting and can help you optimize campaigns for long-term success. First conversion results will be lower than for all conversions.
Why This Matters
According to Adweek, Meta is giving more weight to one-day conversion windows, like the first day of a campaign. This is because, with longer conversion windows, a user is more likely to purchase for reasons outside of the ad.
What You Should Do
First, don’t panic if you see a drop in conversion campaign performance with your Meta ad campaigns. Because Meta’s algorithm previously potentially counted multiple actions by the same user, this could have resulted in skewed customer acquisition costs, according to Search Engine Land. The good news going forward is that your performance metrics should be more accurate.
Second, consider choosing to use all conversions and first conversions to get a fuller picture of user actions and provide additional context to your reporting. Here at MFDigi, we’re auditing our client’s Meta campaigns to account for these changes, including choosing to use all conversions so we have more data & insight into how each ad is performing, including different conversion types (which vary based on the client).
Third, you should consider third-party measurement tools. These can give brands a clearer picture of how their ads are performing. However, if you’re a digitally native brand that has spent years building up first-party data, this can be done without outside help. Even on the Meta side, they have already started using some preliminary third-party data from early tests with advertisers to change its overall ads algorithm, says AdWeek.
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