iOS14 has officially arrived and has brought some unwanted teething problems with it. We’ve bundled up our first impressions of the new update and how we plan to move forward as we will undoubtedly come across new challenges along the way.
Data Collection and Presentation
We saw a clear lag in data collection and presentation from the typically reliable data connectors such as Supermetrics and Google Data Studio. After ensuring all query conditions were correct, e.g. adjusting the reporting time of action stats to the right conversion action, we saw correct results begin to funnel through.
If you’re like us and you use Supermetrics for all your data collection needs, simply check this by doing the following:
Head to your Supermetrics Sidebar
Check and change your conversion action to the new default, ‘On Conversion Date’:
Run your query and double-check with your ads manager to ensure the correct data is feeding through.
Ads Manager Platform
Interestingly, results don’t seem to have fallen off a cliff as some marketers feared. Instead, we are shown a pop-up notification of the following:
We are definitely seeing slight inflation in the cost per conversion of the lower priority pixel events, however, it will be interesting to see the impact of AEM as we head into the third month of the rollout and have gathered a larger supply of this data.
There are also big changes in how you are currently able to review performance data. Want to break down conversion performance by demographic, placement, or, well, anything? Sorry, we’re all out of luck with this at the moment! Ads Manager’s Breakdown by Delivery or Action function no longer shows any pixel event information, although impression data still shows!
Similarly, the Dynamic Creative Test function doesn’t currently show a breakdown of performance by creative or ad copy. So we’d recommend avoiding this until Facebook finds a fix.
Previously, we were able to change conversion events within an ad set, now we have to dupe out that ad set and change the event in the new version. It adds maybe an extra 30 seconds to the build process but I personally think it keeps relevant learnings in their rightful place.
And finally, it wouldn’t be Facebook Ads Manager without a number of bugs to keep us on our toes! From duplication errors to general publish rejections, we’re definitely seeing a larger wave of back-end issues come to the forefront of day-to-day activity.
Overall, we’re looking forward to having all the kinks ironed out in terms of error messages and platform bugs, as well as gathering more data on the key impactful changes to tracking and how we as a media outlet can continue to deliver valuable output and post-campaign learnings.
How do we manage until then?
- Keep a close eye on shifts in the CPA of your top prioritised AEM events.
- Opt for A/B testing over Dynamic Creative testing (a little more costly but worth it for real learnings).
- Test Android-only audiences.
- Don’t panic when errors occur. If you spot a bug and Facebook isn’t allowing you to do something, give it an hour and come back to it.
- Rely on data query tools such as Supermetrics to do the heavy lifting for you when carrying out analysis, albeit a little more due diligence is required as conversion events switch over. (more manual data checks)
