No matter how much experience you have as a meta advertiser, you will hopefully learn something new that will surprise you and even question many things you once believed. Put meta-click attribution into this category.
I created this website in 2011. Since 2012, I’ve been writing about and educating others on the topic of Facebook (and then Meta) advertising. It is my responsibility to understand every nuance of the subject and what one can reasonably expect to know. Yet, here we are.
Meta-click attribution (how Meta attributes conversions after clicking on an ad) doesn’t work exactly the way I’ve assumed for the past decade. If this is true for me, it might be a surprise for you too.
Meta’s documentation on click attribution is vague. It’s easy to make assumptions based on what it does and doesn’t say. It wasn’t clear to me what it actually meant until I tested it.
I’m sure I’m one of the most people who misunderstands click attribution. Chaos is important. This is undoubtedly the source of many reporting complaints from advertisers.
In this article I will cover the following:
- Click attribution and how I think it works
- Meta’s documentation lacks clarity
- Confirmation test
- why this is important
let’s go…
Click attribution and how I think it works
Attribution is Meta’s way of giving credit for ads. By default, Meta reports a conversion if it occurs within 7 days of a click or within 1 day of viewing the ad but not clicking.
View-through conversions are the most controversial source. In this case, Meta can provide ad credits for the conversion even if the user never clicked – assuming they converted within a day of the ad being shown.
Clicking through feels a little more direct. These people clicked on your ad and visited your website. They may not transform immediately, but the transformation occurs within 7 days. Your ad clearly contributed to this conversion.
View-through conversions are a reporting black hole. Only Meta knows if someone has been shown your ad, didn’t click, and then converted within a day. It is very difficult to prove or disprove.
Click-through conversions reported in Ads Manager don’t always match third-party reporting, but they should usually be close. You can use UTM parameters to help reporting tools gain more insight into whether customers came from your ads. You can also use 1-day click attribution, which should help limit cross-device and multi-session access.
Click attribution is more reliable and easier to back up with other reports because It takes a click from your ad to your website (Or so I thought). Any differences in reports can usually be explained by the complex journey that may have occurred during the seven-day period.
Meta’s documentation lacks clarity
Click-through attribution first came into my focus about a month ago when an astute reader asked me whether click-through attribution requires outbound clicks from your ads to your website. I reflexively said yes.
But I wanted to quote official documentation so it doesn’t look like I’m making it up. The problem is that I can’t find any such clarity.
I went through page after page of Meta’s attribution documentation. There is no clear indication that click attribution requires clicking on an outbound link on the ad. It also doesn’t say it can be any click – a click on an image, a video, a reaction, a comment, or something else. This is completely ambiguous.
Because of this ambiguity, I am not prepared to ignore the facts that I believe based on more than a decade of experience on the subject. But I also don’t want to continue to blindly believe it.
Confirmation test
This situation is meant to be a test. Meta may not know what click attribution means, but strategically run tests can prove it.
Does click attribution include all clicks that lead to a conversion, regardless of whether someone clicked an outbound click on my ad? To determine this, we need to eliminate the outbound click option.
I created a campaign with the engagement goal and the following conversion location settings:
- Conversion location: on your ad
- Participation type: After participating
- Performance goals: Maximize daily unique reach
The targeting isn’t particularly relevant, but I want to make sure I’m reaching a highly engaged audience who will be excited to participate in my experiment. So, I used the original audience and the targeted people who had engaged with my email list within the past month.
For the sake of simplicity, I only used the Facebook feed location. I don’t want to worry about versioning and placement quirks.
This is my ad:
The main text does not contain the URL. I made it clear that I was conducting an experiment and asked people to follow the instructions in the image.
They are asked to do the following:
- Click on the picture
- Open browser tab
- Visit jonloomer.com/experiment
- Please follow all instructions on this page
I require clicks to make click attribution possible. I’m not including the URL in the text so the link itself cannot be clicked.
When they enter the page, people are asked to click a button.
When the button is clicked, a confirmation page loads and a custom event specific to that experiment is triggered (the custom event is called an “experiment”).
Test results
If click attribution works the way I originally assumed, the only conversions Meta can report will be view-through conversions. If someone views my ad, doesn’t click on the outbound link on my ad, and then converts within a day, that meets my preconceived definition of a view.
However, if click attribution does not require clicks on outbound links, we will know this immediately by comparing attribution settings. Even reporting 1 conversion using 1 day click clearly indicates that outbound clicks are not required.
It didn’t take long to get confirmation.
Meta attributed 33 conversions using the “Experiment” custom event. All 33 are click varieties.
This is compelling evidence, if not proof, that click attribution does not require clicks on outbound links.
why this is important
I won’t lie. This shocked me.
For years I have been a firm believer that click attribution requires clicks on outbound links. why not? If someone converts without clicking an outbound link, we already have a category: View-through conversion.
We know that view-through conversions are a reporting black hole. If there are huge reporting differences between Ads Manager and GA4 or other third-party reporting software, this is usually where the problems start.
But now I understand that many of the conversions I long thought were view-throughs actually fall within the definition of click attribution. Although view-through conversions are limited to a one-day time frame, these conversions may occur within 7 days.
Your 7-day click conversions consist of users who clicked on links in your ads. But they may also include people who have made other clicks on your images, videos, comments, reactions, etc. If they convert within 7 days, they will be counted.
Counting these conversions isn’t necessarily the problem. The problem is that you can’t separate click conversions that occur when you click on an outbound link (the most valuable conversion) from click conversions that occur when you click on other content.
This is most important when remarketing. Someone on your email list will receive an ad impression. They may “like” it just to show appreciation. They will receive an email and take action within 7 days. Ads that are “clicked” will receive conversion points.
I would generally say to mostly ignore view-through conversions when remarketing. They’re not nearly as valuable as attracting a cold audience—one that needs to take steps to find your product again in order to convert.
But this tells me that it’s impossible to completely ignore views and other conversions that don’t require clicking a link. Your numbers may be inflated.
This is also important for those who want to confirm their results. UTM parameters will not help you confirm such click attribution. As with browsing, you need to take Meta’s word for it.
This can lead to reporting discrepancies and frustration.
How common is it?
A question I have that is difficult to answer is how often this type of conversion occurs. In most cases, we’re likely dealing with a very small number of reported conversions. In fact, this is a big reason why I ignored these conversions in the first place.
But there are several factors involved…
1. Is there a link?
Typical static link ads offer few click options and do not result in users clicking on your website. This includes carousels. If you click anywhere in the creative area of the ad, you will be redirected to the website.
Of course, there are other clicks. However, you need a scenario where someone from an indifferent audience “likes” your ad and then later searches for you on Google. Of course, I previously considered this a view-through conversion, but it shouldn’t be a large percentage of click-through conversions.
2. Do you run remarketing campaigns?
If you’re not careful, your remarketing results may have been inflated. Whether you’re ignoring view-through conversions or using 1-day or 7-day click attribution in your ad sets, there are ways to add context so you’re not misled by inflated numbers.
But now I’m finding that controlling those inflated numbers is harder than I thought. You can ignore view-through conversions. However, if your target audience is people who receive your emails, visit your website regularly, or simply convert without seeing your ad, you’re likely to attract people who click through but don’t click through to visit you users of the website.
When this happens, you might think they clicked. But it’s impossible to know for sure. Meta’s optimization will target more of these people to give you the results you want.
what yuan must do
First, Meta needs to clarify their attribution documentation. Can’t be vague. The definition of click attribution should specify that it includes all clicks, not just clicks on outbound links. Don’t let anything be assumed or it will appear deceptive.
But this is not enough. We need clearer reporting. Meta offers engagement view attribution for this purpose. It tells us that although the conversion didn’t result from a click, the user watched your video for at least 10 seconds before converting.
We need similar click attribution. Otherwise, it would be impossible to differentiate between those who actually clicked and those who didn’t. This not only leads to misleading reporting, but also contaminates Meta’s optimization.
How should you deal with this problem
As advertisers, there is nothing we can do about this information. But it can provide important context we can use to better understand the mess of results.
Your results are never matched to third-party data. You can use UTM parameters and various tools that claim to fill in the gaps, but there will always be unexplained discrepancies.
Learn why these differences exist. Be aware that this is due to view-through conversions, cross-device conversion journeys, and tracking limitations. But also know that even if you isolate click attribution, you may still have conversions that were not a result of clicks on ads on your site.
We just have to accept that and communicate that uncertainty to our customers.
now you
What are your thoughts on how click-through attribution works?
Let me know in the comments below!
