After Apple announced tracking restrictions in iOS, Facebook reacted fairly quickly and also introduced tracking restrictions. The motivation for this is not to get different tracking information from different operating systems, but to continue to have a uniform standard. Facebook's tracking restrictions have been active since the end of January 2021 and are similar to those announced by Apple, the details below.
Changes to the attribution window
First of all, there are similar restrictions as with Apple’s PCM for the attribution window. The previous values of 28-day click-through and 7-day view-through attribution windows are no longer supported. Instead, the following limitations apply to the attribution window:
- 7 days for Ad-Clicks
- 1 day for Ad-Views
This means that the conversion must take place a maximum of 7 days after an ad click or 1 day after an ad impression, otherwise it will not be tracked.
Find more information here: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/460276478298895
Event Limits
Facebook has also set limits on the conversion events, based on Apple's “Private Click Measurement” (PCM). Facebook names its own solution Aggregated Event Measurement (AEM).
A maximum of 8 different conversion events can be configured (per domain).
A prioritization can be made here.
This is necessary due to the iOS restrictions and comes into effect when an iOS user denied tracking. In this case only one conversion event can be measured there. Facebook then selects the one that is highest in the prioritization list.
Depending on the website type, the purchase event should be at the top, followed by InitiateCheckout and/or AddToCart, then ViewContent etc.
After changes to the prioritization, it may take a few days for tracking to start again.
Another note when using Value Optimization - this seems to prove 4 of the possible 8 conversion events.
Here is a help article from Facebook for configuring the events:
https://www.facebook.com/business/help/422408905612648
Further Notes
- All the restrictions mentioned also apply to Facebook’s Conversion API, so they cannot be solved by server-side tracking.
- You should do a domain verification.
- If you use several Facebook pixels, this can be problematic due to Apple’s tracking restrictions - you have to worry about this.
- There are also delays in conversion tracking due to Apple’s tracking restrictions.
- Within the Facebook app itself, everything should stay the same.
Overall, after the release of Apple’s tracking restrictions, the data will become more inaccurate, since only one event can still be tracked on iOS devices if consent is denied. This is why prioritization is important. Facebook then wants to extrapolate this tracking loss with the help of an algorithm so that no decrease can be seen in the reports. However, the calculated data is marked in the reports.