Check Your Events
A quick update for FB Ad nerds.
Hey nerds!
Wanted to put together a quick update on a tweet I sent out that garnered some traction. Telling me, that it would be vital information for everyone here 🤓
I’m encouraging everyone to check their Events Manager on Facebook.
We’ve recently noticed that pixel events are not sending back the full 100% of hashed customer information that is vital to Lookalike audiences.
Before I tap into that, this is not on every account and is just a reminder to check. The sky is not falling but this may help some of you out.
What’s happening?
On average, 63% of geography, name, phone, email, etc., are not being received on key events such as View Content, Add to Cart, Initiate Checkout, and Purchase. This means that the majority of your pixel-based LALs are predominantly using currency and value (or ID). Which is no bueno.
So, what are you checking? Hop into your Events Manager and click to expand each event - in this case, we’re looking at Add to Cart:
Once you click to expand an event, you’ll now be able to see the % of hashed customer information being passed back to your account:
Here we can see that only 7% is making it back for Add to Cart. Now, if this account was using a pixel-based Lookalike off of 30-day Add to Cart(s), you can see how this would be a problem…
Furthermore, you can check the event match quality on your Purchase events, there’s a new expandable score (on a scale of 1-10). Click that score and you’ll be greeted with a pop-up that shows more information AND suggestions on how you can improve. Thus far, this is only on Purchase Events.
Now, what’s the solution if your %’s are low?
I recommend immediately interjecting Klaviyo based audiences into your account to start building Lookalikes. Or, the largest, most data-rich lists that you can import.
The majority of you already have Klaviyo integrated, but most don’t have standard Lookalikes built from it. Ie. Purchases or Add to Carts.
Do that, asap!
So far, list-based only Lookalikes are out-performing pixel-based (on a 14-day window).
The other thing that you can do is keep your pixel-based LALs, and just incorporate the list-based LALs into that audience to supplement the missing data. A 1% PUR LAL with pixel (or value) and a 1% PUR LAL from Klaviyo.
Get creative with your lists as well!
You can do all kinds of impactful audiences, like customers that order 2+ items, High LTV customers, customers that engage with emails, etc. Include those into the mix with your standard ones.
Alongside this, now is the perfect time to check your location data.
If you are running international accounts, start looking into what Country is performing best. US costs are significantly increased right now (understandably - yes, will go down). So, ask yourself… can you turn the US spend down, or even off, and let your other Countries pick up that volume?
If you see that Canada has a 2-3% higher conversion rate and 6% cheaper CPA, weigh that decision into your strategy for the account.
Something to at least look at. Right?
Again, these are just suggestions based on what I’m seeing across our portfolio.
Please do your own due diligence.
It’s easy to get lost in audiences and creatives, but remember that you need to look at the ENTIRE ACCOUNT. So, for some, you haven’t looked at Events Manager in ages… do that. For others, you’re not looking at Country breakdowns... do that.
That’s it for now.
Until next time.
Cheers,
Jake the Ad Nerd 🤙
PS. THANK YOU to everyone that shared the last newsletter on Horizontal Scaling… It’s received over 3,800 views! Keep sharing and keep looking out for one another.