If you want to avoid getting stung by retargeting ads, you should understand the recent changes and use some of our top tips and hints.
For what seems like an eternity, retargeting ads have been the key to marketing success for many businesses. Being able to target those who have interacted with your company was seen as a sure-fire way to drive conversions.
Due to the recent iOS 14 update, those incredibly useful retargeting ads have just become much more difficult.
What’s happened?
You may be thinking, why? Well, to keep it as simple as possible iOS users now need to opt-in to tracking for applications. If your potential customers have chosen to hide their activity, you don’t and won’t know if they’ve been on your website. You won’t know who to show your adverts to or any relevant information about your audience.
So, how do we get around this? Well, we don’t. But, what we can do is be savvier.
In this blog, we are explaining how you can start to think outside the box to ensure your adverts continue to perform.
So, let’s go along the journey together, and fight back against iOS 14.
How significant is the update?
It’s tough to assess just how significant the iOS update will be to businesses globally. However, from the first few months of data, it’s fair to say this update has substantially affected many businesses’ marketing efforts. The one light, we suppose you could call it that, is if your business relies mainly on desktop traffic, you could be ok, as the update currently only affects mobile traffic.
The significance of the update is down to how many people opt-out of tracking, and initially, that’s been reasonably substantial. We know what you’re thinking; what can you do to avoid this troubling update? Well, let’s get into our helpful tips.
Verify your domain
If you are active on Facebook ads, you will have noticed that the platform has been suggesting domain verification for quite some time. If you haven’t got around to it yet, get it done as soon as possible!
The reason they have been so pushy with this is because once you have verified your domain, you can configure your conversion events through the Facebook ads platform.
Having conversions optimised means that you can track the success of your campaigns on a far more micro level; we couldn’t advise this enough. Get it done, utilise it for your retargeting ads and let’s move on.
Prioritise your conversion events
Once you’ve chosen your conversion events, it’s time to prioritise their value to your business. By activating this feature, Facebook understands each conversion and their worth. Meaning, if one of your leads activates a number of your conversion events, Facebook only counts the highest value event.
For example, if you have conversion events that are ‘added to cart’ and ‘purchase’, Facebook will only count the purchase as a conversion. To access your conversion events, you need to enter Business Manager and then select Event Manager. Have a play around with the feature so you fully understand how it works and how you can optimise the options to your business’s benefit.
A bit lost? Get in touch and we can have our marketing team take a look for you. They can set up your campaigns for you too, leave it to them.
It will benefit you to know that if a user refuses tracking on the iOS update, the conversion event with the highest value will be counted.
Learn auto advanced matching
One of the lesser-used features of Facebook Ads is probably one of the most useful. Advanced matching collates emails from the conversion forms you use within your adverts. It then uses those emails within Facebook Ads automatic correspondence.
Advanced matching asks your Facebook pixel to search for recognisable data capture features within your website. For example, name, address, email, etc. The pixel grabs this information along with whatever conversion action took place and uses it to create an advanced matching template.
For example, if a user leaves their email address and adds an item to their cart but doesn’t complete the purchase, your pixel tracks this conversion and offers opportunities to retarget.
Install conversion API
Similarly to advanced matching, the conversion API grabs information from your website and sends it directly to Facebook. You are then able to collect the data from your website server through to Facebook Business Manager; this is highly beneficial in the long run.
Although the end goal is virtually the same as advanced matching, the way the conversion API works allows you to bypass the new rules somewhat. Are you feeling like a hacker yet?
If a Facebook partner runs your website, for example, WordPress or Shopify, you are in luck because it’s straightforward to install. If not, you’re going to need the help of Facebook and a pretty savvy support team unless you are a Zapier user, in which case you can run the conversion API through there.
Keep at it
The truth of the matter is that the re-targeting process just got a lot more difficult for digital marketers. As we find new ways to structure our adverts, we discover useful approaches which we didn’t know previously. If the iOS update has taught us anything, it’s that we need to be on our toes in the marketing sector because those who make the major decisions can put our previously reliable formulas under immense pressure.
At Create8, we pride ourselves on breaking the mould of traditional approaches as we continually aim to move forwards and build brilliantly bespoke packages for our clients. As a team of forward-thinking individuals powered by youthful excitement and sector knowledge, we are always looking for the next challenging project.
So, if you have something huge up your sleeve or if you need minor tweaks making to your current marketing or branding efforts, reach out to us today! Follow the link below, give us a call or pop in for socially distanced tea and biscuits. We can’t wait to hear from you.
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