IOS Updates & Facebook's CAPI Explained

IOS 14.5 updates : what has changed ?

The iOS updates caused a lot of back and forth discussions on what can be done to mitigate the losses in data tracking accuracy. As many as 90% of iPhone users are choosing to opt out of tracking. Needless to say, this update did have quite devastating effect on Ad performance.

Identifier for advertisers is no longer active by default IDFA :

Companies track mobile users by assigning them a random ID called IDFA (identifier for advertisers). Starting from iOS 14, advertisers can’t track users with IDFA by default, which was the case before.

Platforms like Facebook require explicit consent from users for tracking since this update.

Event tracking is now limited to 8 events :

As a countermeasure to the IOS updates, Facebook released “Aggregated Event Measurement”. Basically, advertisers are now limited to 8 events per domain in case the user opts-out of tracking. Any optimization done with more than this imposed limit will be automatically paused by Facebook.

Impact of IOS updates on Ad performance:

For App owners:

App owners will definitely need to start considering other options other than. Considering the diminishing effectiveness of retargeting outside the Facebook ecosystem, if your revenue mode is 100% based on advertising, it might be a good time to start reconsidering this revenue model.

For advertisers:

Advertiser can’t rely on partners network anymore for accurate targeting. Since most users are opting out of tracking, the pool of data you get has significantly diminished. Nevertheless, nothing have changed within the Meta ecosystem.

Since they are not concerned with the IOS updates, you can use Facebook’s built-in functionalities for accurate targeting across the meta ecosystem. Using the Facebook pixel might not be the best option when it comes to data tracking either. Reporting via Google Analytics (or other analytics platform) is the next best option.

UTMs can help you send all kinds of data to Google Analytics, such as campaign name, source, medium, etc.

As data restriction regulations increase from players like Apple, GDPR, etc. The need to find more respectful user-privacy solutions seems like the best option. Server-side tracking is definitely one of the best alternatives.

Reporting Ad performance using UTMS:

What are UTMs ? Why use them ?

UTMs are variables added to your URL, giving you more context on the incoming traffic to your website. The recent IOS updates proved how fragile relying on third party reporting can be.

Instead, you can use UTMs to send the data straight to your Analytics account. UTMs are variables added to your URL, giving you more context on the incoming traffic to your website.

The obvious upside to this approach is that you have complete data ownership. Second, you can use as many events as you want in Google Analytics, so your reporting and optimization won’t be hindered by Facebook’s 8 events limit.

How to use UTMs for Facebook Ads tracking in Google Analytics:

UTM parameters are basically additional everything after the question mark in a URL are UTM parameters. Second, there are 5 UTMs that most people use, 3 of which are required by Google Analytics:

UTM Parameter	Required?	Description	Example
utm_campaing	Yes	The name you choose for the campaign	holiday-sales
utm_source	Yes	The source of the traffic : Is it a search engine ? Google, being, etc. A social media platform ? Twitter, Facebook, Instagram…	social-ads
utm_medium	Yes	What kind of traffic is getting into your website ? Users who clicked from email (a newsletter?) A sponsored post (CPC traffic) ?	newsletter
utm_content	Optional	What kind of content drove the user to your website ? Was it some sort of banner? A video perhaps?	20-off-banner
utm_term	Optional	What keyword led the user to your website?	red_watches

Using Facebook's UTM builder :

Since Facebook has its own UTM generator, you don’t have to do all the manual work of populating each UTM value.

Ad ID:

This UTM parameter will autopopulate the Ad ID.

Ad name:

This UTM parameter will autopopulate the Ad name.

Campaign ID:

This UTM parameter will autopopulate the campaign ID.

Ad set name:

This UTM parameter will autopopulate the Ad set name.

Campaign name:

This UTM parameter will autopopulate the campaign name.

Placement:

This UTM parameter will autopopulate the ad’s placement.

Site source name:

This UTM parameter will autopopulate the source of the visitor: Instagram, Facebook, Email, etc.

Dynamic parameters are great time savers. One useful tip from John Loomer is to assign {{placement}} to the utm_medium field, this will ensure you get the exact location of the click and the format as well (feed, right column…).

Another tip is to use {{site_source_name}} as return value for the utm_cmpaign. This will return the name of the platform (FB for Facebook, IG for Instagram…), as a value for the utm_campaing parameter.

Common mistakes using Facebook UTMs:

Using “cpc” in medium for Facebook ads campaigns

A lot of marketers do this, but it simply categorizes their traffic from social media as paid search, it just doesn’t make sense…

Spaces between each word

Computers have a hard time understanding spaces in a URL. You will notice that even after adding them, they get converted into “+” or “20%” which can be hard to read. Use a hyphen instead.

Using different cases

UTMs are case-sensitive. If you find that the data from the same channel, let’s say Facebook, is being reported in google Analytics in separate lines.

Special characters within a UTM

For instance, adding a question mark at the end of the utm_campaign value:

utm_campaing=summer-sale?

The question mark is used to separate the actual URL from the UTMs . Here is another example:

https://anydomain.com/landing-page?utm_source=fb&utm_meduim=right-column-banner&utm_campaign=test_campaign

The same goes for “&” because it separates UTM parameters. On the other hand, you can use a dash if you want to separate between values (”utm_campaign=summer_sale”), although it’s better to reserve it to dates “30_06_2019”, since they can a date can be considered as single string, so it’s easier to read.

Naming convention: best practices

The ability to understand the data you send to analytics will make or break your reporting:

Campaign name: you should keep the same name if you are running the same marketing effort across multiple channels. If you are launching a new product, utm_campaign could be “product_launch” whether the channel is email or Facebook. Finding your data and analyzing it will be much easier.

Ad set name: Since it’s at this level where you define your audience, it’s a good idea to put the name of your audience that each Ad set targets.

Ad name: here, the goal is to describe the actual content of your ad and the call to action. Example: blue_nike_shoes-20off-buy_now.

Server-side Tracking using Google Tag Manager (SSGTM): how to set up Facebook conversion API (CAPI):

What is server-side tracking?

If you never heard of SSGTM, there is an excellent post by Simo Ahava (or this post for a shorter version). To put it succinctly, Server-side tracking is an alternative to running Google Tag Manager (GTM) on your own browser. Instead, you will host your data in Google servers. The data will only be accessed by you. Google won’t use it for advertising purposes.

Among the rising concerns about data privacy, SSGTM should be considered as a very practical solution for managing PII (personal identifiable information). Although this will depend on how many instances you will need, the cost can range anywhere from 30-$50 per month as a minimum.

What is Facebook conversion API (CAPI)?

Tracking on Facebook is done through a pixel, the pixel saves data via a cookie and send it to Facebook. This is called third party tracking (data is sent to a third party, Facebook).

This tracking model has raised a lot of concerns regarding data privacy. European authorities and Apple’s IOS changes, and later in 2024 from Google’s moving away from cookie based tracking model seem to indicate we are going to see fundamentals shifts in the advertising landscape. So what’s the alternative?

The conversion API will allow businesses to connect their website data to Facebook via a server using solutions like SSGTM. The upside to this is that your data is 100% yours, provided that you are transparent to your audience on what kind of data you collect.

Using Facebook’s advertising options :

Since tracking outside Facebook is not optimal for data collection and optimization, more and more advertisers will gravitate towards Facebook’s native advertising options. Look alike audience that rely on the data from your website (e.g., visitors who did x thing on your website) might not be as useful for you now. Instead, relying on native look like audiences, like people who interacted with your page, might be your best option.

A great tip from Optimize Smart, is combining your regular look alike audience data from your website with Facebook’s look alike audience, this will enlarge your targeting list and drive the cost down.

In general, your custom audiences will be smaller as the pixel tracking model is losing its effectiveness. First party data sources is the best we can do at this point, Facebook’s conversion API (CAPI) seems to be the way to go from now on.