Meta has rolled out an update to its Ads platform, allowing advertisers to edit attribution settings to show differences in conversion count. This new feature addresses a common frustration among advertisers: the misalignment between Meta ad data and backend numbers.
Historically, Meta has counted all conversions a user makes after clicking or viewing an ad. This means if a new customer makes a purchase and then buys again two days later, Meta would take credit for both orders. This inflates the apparent performance of ads and skews metrics like Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC).
The new attribution options help solve this issue:
- All Conversions: Shows every conversion that happened after an ad view or click.
- First Conversion: Shows only the first conversion that happened after an ad view or click.
In a real-world example, Maurice found that Meta was counting approximately 25% of non-first purchases towards new customers. This significant difference explains why many advertisers see inflated numbers in their Meta Ads reporting compared to their backend data.
To access this new feature, advertisers can navigate to Ads Manager, change the Attribution settings, select the attribution window, and choose to show 'All conversions', 'First conversions', or 'Both'.
For advertisers seeking even more precise data, some agencies have developed methods to achieve 100% new customer only conversions in their reporting. This level of accuracy can provide invaluable insights for businesses looking to optimize their advertising spend and understand their true customer acquisition costs.
This update represents Meta's ongoing efforts to provide more transparent and accurate reporting tools for advertisers, helping them make more informed decisions about their ad campaigns and bridging the gap between ad platform data and real business results.
