Aggregated Event Measurement (AEM) allows Facebook to track Events for iOS 14 users, who opted out while respecting their privacy options. Essentially it means that advertisers are limited to tracking a maximum of 8 conversions per domain and ranking them in order of importance. This is the platforms attempt at minimising the fallout from the iOS update.
Facebook will continue to support app and web-based conversion events by restricting the transfer of sensitive data while still supporting specific advertising use-cases. AEM will be an essential step for all businesses looking to run conversion-based campaigns and tracking them correctly. Many of our clients are asking how to set this up and we are pleased to offer the following steps, which may look a little off-putting, but make sense as you take each step at a time.
1 - Facebook Business manager- you must be using this to be able to setup AEM and be in an admin role in the designated business manager account. Facebooks Business help center can help you set this up.
2 - Your business manager will need to have your Ad account, domain, pixel, and Facebook page all within the one manager.
3 - You will need to have verified your domain where the conversion events will be triggered from. If you have multiple domains, you must verify each one of them separately. Find out how is our other blog: How to verify your domain with Facebook
1 - Within your business manager go to the Events Manager.
2 - Click on the pixel you want to use from the left-hand menu.
3 - Click the Aggregated Event Measurement tab, which is below the overview graph.
4 - Click Configure Web Events.
5 - Read through the introduction screens and click Next.
6 - Find the domain you want to configure events for, if you have multiple domains ensure to select the correct one. Make a quick check that in the top right hand corner to ensure that you are still in the correct ad account, as this can sometimes rest itself.
7 - Click Verify Domain. If you have already verified your domain, you can skip to the next step.
8 - Click Add Event. Keep in mind that you can configure up to 8 conversion per domain. Turning on Value Optimization uses some of your 8 conversion events (on average 4 of the 8). You can see the number of Event slots filled at the top of the screen as you edit your configuration.
9 - Select your pixel or custom conversion under Pixel / Custom Conversion.
10 - Choose the event you want to configure under Event Name. The only events that will be listed on this dropdown are the events that have already been fired via your pixel on the selected domain.
11 - If you choose a purchase event, you have the option to toggle Value Optimization on or off.
Note: You must turn on Value Optimization in your configuration if you want to use value optimization in your iOS 14 ad campaigns. To be able to activate this you must have had:
- Recorded 100 purchase events on the domain in the last seven days
- Have had ten distinct values in the last seven days
12 - Select the number of value sets you want to set up under Assigned Events. The Assigned Events column tells you how many event slots each event configuration is using.
13 - Repeat steps 8-11 for all the events you want to configure. You can create Custom Conversions tailor-made to capture any action that is important to your business.
14 - Drag and drop your events from highest priority at the top, to lowest priority at the bottom. This step is very important, once these changes come into effect Facebook is only going to list one conversion event per user, only the highest priority event will be tracked per user.
15 - Click submit.
16 - Review your event configurations and any impacts to your ads and ad sets. If your changes are correct, click to check the box next to I confirm this information is correct.
17 - Click Confirm.
Any of these events can take up to 72 hours to process, before you start to see your results again. This is also the case if you edit or add a new event. While these changes are being activated it will pause your ads that are using the conversion events until the change becomes active so only change them if absolutely necessary as your ads may stop running for up to three days.
Overall, it seems that Facebook Aggregated Event Management will offer less data to users. For example, If someone who has opted-out of iOs clicks an add and completes two conversion events such as signing up for something and purchasing something else, Facebook will only tell you about one of them.
Some pundits are pointing to difficulties which will arise with Facebooks own algorithms as the new system begins. In the long run, the effects cannot yet be measured, but for now Facebook’s Aggregated Event Measurement Protocol is with us and we must rise to the challenge.