Tracking for Facebook Ads
This guide will show you how to set up tracking for the following Facebook metrics in Northbeam:
- Spend, impressions, visits and all conversion-based metrics attributed to Facebook Ads
- Creative metrics imported from Facebook Ads’ in-platform reporting
This involves 2 simple steps:
Step 1: Connect Your Facebook Ad Account (required)
Step 2: Insert Northbeam UTM Parameters (required)
| Input | Output | If Input is missing... |
|---|---|---|
| Facebook Integration (required) | The following data is pulled into your dashboard: - Campaign, Adset, Ad Names - Ad Spend - Impressions - Facebook-reported metrics | Campaign, Adset, Ad Names will be missing, along with Spend, Impressions, and Facebook-reported metrics. |
| UTM Parameters (required) | Revenue, Transactions, and Visit attribution to your Campaigns, Adsets, and Ads. | If your ads are using Standard UTMs (ex. utm_source, medium, campaign), we'll track click-based conversions. Spend will not be pulled in, so not possible to see cost-based metrics (ex. ROAS, CAC). |
Step 1: Connect Your Facebook Ad Account
What does the connection do?
Northbeam natively integrates with the Facebook Ads API. By doing so, we pull all your current and historical Campaigns, Adsets, and Ads from your account, along with a list of useful metrics. Notably, we pull impressions, which fuel our view model and unlock our Clicks and Views attribution model. We also pull ad spend and list of in-platform conversion & creative metrics to help you with decision making.
How to connect your Ad Account
For a visual walkthrough of connecting your Ad Account, reference the video below.
Connecting in Onboarding Flow
If you're in the Onboarding Flow, please go to Integrations.
Connecting in Dashboard
If your dashboard is activated, please go to Settings > Connections.
Note: The credentials used must have admin access to the Ad Account.
Step 2: Insert Northbeam UTM Parameters
Please add the following UTM parameters in the URL Parameters field for all new and existing Facebook Ads:
nbt=nb%3Afb%3A{{site_source_name}}%3A{{campaign.id}}%3A{{adset.id}}%3A{{ad.id}}&nb_placement={{placement}}
Step-By-Step Guide:
For a visual walkthrough of setting up UTM parameters, reference the video below.
Legacy UTMs for Facebook Ads
These are UTMs required by other similar solutions. If your ads are using any of these UTMs, we'll be able to track without the needing NB UTMs. Therefore, you wouldn't need to send your ads back to learning.
Please Note: It's very important that the Keys and Values exactly match -- including case sensitivity.
| Solution Name | Legacy UTMs |
|---|---|
| Triple Whale | One (1) of the following source parameters + values is required: tw_source={{site_source_name}} tw_source=facebook utm_source=facebook utm_source={{site_source_name}} One (1) of the following adid parameters + values is required: tw_adid={{ad.id}} fbadid={{ad.id}} Examples UTMs that are acceptable: - tw_source=facebook&tw_adid={{ad.id}} - tw_source={{site_source_name}}&fbadid={{ad.id}} - utm_source={{site_source_name}}&tw_adid={{ad.id}} - utm_source = facebook&fbadid={{ad.id}} |
| Hyros | fbc_id={{adset.id}}&h_ad_id={{ad.id}} |
| Rockerbox | fb_campaignid={{campaign.id}}&fb_adsetid={{adset.id}}&fb_adid={{ad.id}} |
| Wicked Reports | WickedSource=Facebook&WickedID={{ad.id}} |
Have existing UTM parameters?
If you have existing parameters, add ours to the end and use an ampersand (&) to connect your existing parameters to our parameters.
For example:
utm_source=paid&utm_medium=facebook&nbt=nb%3Afb%3A{{site_source_name}}%3A{{campaign.id}}%3A{{adset.id}}%3A{{ad.id}}&nb_placement={{placement}}
UTM Auto-Appending
To ensure optimal tracking, Northbeam will attempt to place UTM parameters on all newly created Facebook ads from any ad accounts connected to your dashboard. We ask to please also manually append our UTMs.
If you prefer the UTM Auto-Append functionality disabled on your account, please reach out to our Support team.
Facebook Ads FAQ
1. How do I connect an extra account or remove an account?
Reference our step-by-step guide below:
2. Will my Facebook Ads be reset to the learning phase?
Making any edits to active ads, including editing UTMs, will reset the ad to the learning phase and could impact performance. However, we recommend ‘ripping off the bandaid’ and updating all Facebook Ads at once – this way, you can start using our data immediately.
However, it’s completely up to you. You could wait for a low-traffic period to make changes or wait until the next creative refresh, for example. Just please be aware that we won’t be fully tracking any ads missing our UTM parameters.
3. Can you track conversions from Meta Shops?
For Shopify:
No action needed here! We've got you covered when it comes to tracking conversions from Meta Shops. By utilizing Shopify's data, we meticulously identify and record all completed orders through Meta Shop.
For All Other Platforms:
It's important for us to understand which order(s) were placed via Meta Shops.
Step 1: Within the Orders API, please insert a unique Order Tag ("order_tags" in API Docs) and resend the orders.
Step 2: Please notify our team and let us know the name of the tag associated with Meta Shops
Step 3: Our team will notify you when we're good to go!
How to see Meta Shops credit
Your Attributed Revenue and Transactions will seamlessly incorporate this credit, whether you're using the Clicks Only attribution model or the Clicks + Views attribution model.
Note:
The Northbeam Pixel doesn't fire on Meta Shops, so we don't track Visits. Consequently, the Visits count won't be recorded, and CPCs (Cost Per Clicks) may appear inflated for any Campaigns, Ad Sets, or Ads running Meta Shops.
4. Why do I see a data discrepancy?
Discrepancies in Revenue and Orders are expected. The reason for this lies in the differences between Northbeam's attribution model and the corresponding platform's attribution model. Each attribution model has a unique method of allocating credit.
For example, Northbeam's Clicks-Only model divides credit across all touchpoints and tries to push credit to your upper funnel channels. Let's say your in-platform model uses Last Click, which gives credit to the last touchpoint in the journey. This is going to cause a discrepancy.
To take it one step further, let's say both Northbeam and in-platform are using Last Click. Northbeam is unique in that we recognize all touchpoints from every single channel. Whereas most platforms only recognize touchpoints from that same platform.
In addition, there's often a difference in the attribution window. By default, Northbeam leverages a 1-Day window, which is different than many other platforms' default.
To get the most apples to apples comparison, be sure to compare data using same Attribution Model and Attribution Window. But keep in mind, it will never be exact.
Attribution Models and Windows
Facebook:
- Attribution Model: Last Click
- Attribution Window: 7-Day Click/1-Day View
Northbeam:
- Attribution Model: Varies (default is Clicks-Only)
- Attribution Window: 1-Day (default, can extend to an infinite lifetime value)
For more details on discrepancies, review the articles below:
What are the differences between Facebook & Northbeam’s Reporting?
Why are my Meta-reported platform metrics different on Northbeam?
5. Suspect a Tracking Issue?
Please reference our 5 Tracking Principles.
- Connection: Make sure your Ad Account is still connected. Go to Settings > Connections and check for any errors. Connections could break for a variety of reasons, but most commonly, the User losing access to the Ad Account.
- UTMs: Ensure all your TikTok Ads contain Northbeam UTMs, listed above under Step 2.
- Northbeam Pixel: Ensure the Northbeam Pixel is firing on your landing page. Note that some site themes may not automatically transfer to landing pages on certain third-party apps, necessitating manual pixel placement.
- Purchase Pixel: Confirm that the Purchase Pixel is firing on your checkout page.
- A-Record Setup: Verify that the A-Record is correctly configured in your DNS Settings.
Updated 6 days ago