Meta ads conversion results are central to the job of an advertiser. They are our guiding light for helping us understand whether something is or isn’t working.
But conversion results can be misleading, if not outright lie. That could be because an advertiser is knowingly manipulating the data. It could also be that they aren’t knowledgable enough to understand the nuances.
The purpose of this guide is to help you master those important nuances so that you can evaluate your results accurately.
Let’s get to it…
Conversion Events
Conversion data is pointless if you don’t have the infrastructure in place that allows Meta to attribute conversions. This starts with defining conversion events.
When someone completes a purchase, you need to notify Meta that it happened. This can be done using the website pixel or conversions API (or both). Regardless, it’s up to you to define these actions and make sure that they are sent to Meta.
There are two primary ways that you can define conversion events.
- Standard Events: Conversions that Meta will recognize (Purchase, Lead, Contact, etc.)
- Custom Events: Conversions that fall outside of the definition of Standard Events
You can use standard events, custom events, and custom conversions for both optimization and reporting in Ads Manager. These need to be set up properly to get accurate results.
Defining Attribution
Attribution is how Meta gives credit to an ad for a reported conversion. In order to report a conversion, it must happen within the defined attribution windows after a paid impression.
Two ads cannot get credit for the same conversion. If a user was served different ads within the defined attribution window, credit goes to the ad that received the most recent click.
Click Attribution
Click attribution gives credit for a conversion if it happens within the defined attribution window following a click on your ad. For example:
- January 1 (2pm): User clicks on Ad A
- January 1 (4pm): User completes a purchase
In this example, Ad A is given credit for a conversion because it happened within a day of clicking on it. The attribution window is 7 days by default, but you might also see 1 day or 28 days (for reporting only).
The conversion does not need to happen immediately, as long as it happens within the attribution window. It could happen like this (assuming a 7-day click attribution setting):
- January 1: User clicks your ad
- January 5: User returns to your website and completes a purchase
It does not need to be the same link that they clicked on your original ad. All that matters is that they initially clicked and converted within the attribution window.
Note that the “click” on your ad can be any click. It does not need to be a click on an external link to your website. It could be a click on media, reactions, or something else. (SIDE NOTE: I’m not a fan of Meta defining it this way.)
Also, the reported conversion does not need to be for the item that you were promoting. Consider the following scenario:
- User clicks ad that promotes Product A
- User redirected to Product A landing page
- User navigates to Product B landing page and completes a purchase
- Purchase is reported
If the Results column reflects Purchases, it will include all attributed purchase events — which could be for multiple products, regardless of what was promoted.
View Attribution
View attribution gives credit for a conversion if it happens within the defined attribution window following a view of your ad (but no click). For example:
- January 1 (2pm): User is shown Ad A, but does not click it
- January 1 (4pm): User completes a purchase
In this case, a conversion is reported even though an ad was not clicked. Here is a common scenario for how a view-through conversion happens:
- January 1 (2pm): User shown your ad
- January 1 (4pm): User remembers the ad, Googles your product, and completes a purchase
While no click was made, it is assumed that the ad contributed to that purchasing decision.
Another common scenario can lead to inflated results:
- January 1 (2pm): User is shown Ad A from Company A, but does not click it
- January 1 (4pm): User receives an email from Company A and completes a purchase
While it’s possible that the user saw the ad and it contributed to the decision to make the purchase, it’s also possible that the impression made no impact on them at all. It’s impossible to know for sure.
View-through conversions have less value overall because no click was made to indicate that the ad itself inspired an action. But that doesn’t make them worthless.
Where view-through becomes especially problematic is when advertisers use remarketing strategies and highlight their elevated ROAS and inflated conversion results as evidence of their success. This can be misleading if it’s not made clear that the results came from remarketing.
Attribution Setting
The attribution setting is defined within the ad set when utilizing a Website conversion location and maximizing the number or value of conversions.
The default attribution setting is 7-day click, 1-day view, and 1-day engaged-view.
Engaged-view merely means that, when using video in your ads, Meta will focus on people who watch at least 10 seconds of it before converting — regardless of whether the conversion is attributed from a click or view.
You can change any of these settings…
Here are your options:
- Click Attribution: 7-day or 1-day
- Engaged-View: 1-day or None
- View-Through: 1-day or None
This setting will control two things:
1. How conversions are reported. Conversions will only be reported by default that qualify under your attribution setting. If you define the attribution setting as 1-day click, Meta will not report on conversions that happen beyond one day or via view-through (these other conversions can still be uncovered using the Compare Attribution Settings feature).
2. How ad delivery is optimized. Since Meta prioritizes getting you the results that you want, the attribution setting can impact how your ads are delivered. If you define the attribution setting as 1-day click only, your ads will be shown to people most likely to convert within that window.
Conversion Reporting
When maximizing the number or value of conversions, you will need to select a conversion event.
This event will be what fills the Results column in Ads Manager.
But you can add columns for other conversion events as well. Click to customize columns…
Then add columns for standard events, custom events (if they’ve been used in ads before), or custom conversions.
Even if your conversion event is a Purchase, you can view how many other conversions resulted from your ads.
Note that one person can perform multiple conversions.
Compare Attribution Settings
Conversion results require important context to make sense of them. Otherwise, results can be misleading or cover an important part of the story. This context is found by using the Compare Attribution Settings feature.
This feature is found when clicking the Columns dropdown menu (Compare Attribution Settings is right above Customize Columns).
By default, your conversion results will be based on the attribution setting defined within the ad set. But you can use this feature to see how those results break down — or even uncover conversions that happened beyond your attribution setting.
Select all of the attribution settings that you want. We’ll select them all for the fun of it…
Note that there’s an option for 28-day click, even though that option was phased out from attribution settings after iOS 14+ changes. While your default reporting will never exceed 7-day click now, you can still view conversions that occurred within 28 days of clicking.
Once selected, Meta will create a column for each attribution setting when viewing a type of conversion.
1. Purchases (36): There are 36 total purchases reported based on the attribution setting.
2. 1-Day View (12): 12 conversions happened within a day of viewing your ad (and not clicking).
3. 1-Day Engaged-View (0): A video was not used in the ad, so no engaged-view conversions are reported.
4. 1-Day Click (13): 13 conversions happened within a day of clicking on your ad.
5. 7-day Click (24): 24 conversions happened within 7 days of clicking on your ad.
6. 28-day Click (32): 32 conversions happened within 28 days of clicking on your ad.
Now we need to do a little math to decipher what this means…
1. 36 conversions happened within 7 days of clicking or 1 day of viewing the ad.
2. 12 conversions happened beyond 1 day but within 7 days of clicking the ad (24 minus 12).
3. 8 conversions happened beyond 7 days but within 28 days of clicking the ad (32 minus 24).
4. A total of 44 total conversions can be attributed to your ad (Total Purchases + those that happened beyond 7-day click).
The Compare Attribution Settings feature is a great tool for helping us understand how our results break down to get a better sense of the overall confidence we may have in them. Consider these scenarios:
1. 70% of conversions are 1-day view. With such results, I’d have less confidence that my ads truly contributed to all of these conversions.
2. 20% additional conversions happened beyond 7-day click. These are results that are not reported by default, but indicate that our ads made a greater impact than expected. This could be due to an email sequence post-conversion or a longer buying cycle for a high-priced product.
First Conversion Reporting
There’s another way to add important context to your results using Compare Attribution Settings, and it’s with First Conversion reporting.
When you select attribution settings, you’ll have the following three options…
By default, Meta reports all conversions that happen within the attribution window. For example, someone could make two separate purchases during a seven-day period. If that happens, you could have two attributed purchases within a 7-day click attribution window.
But First Conversion would only count the first attributed conversion of that type. You could have multiple purchases, registrations, and add-to-cart events that fall within the attribution window. When selecting First Conversion, only the first of each would be counted.
Allow me to share an example of how this can be helpful. I am running an ad to promote my Cornerstone Tips lead magnet. Once the form is submitted, the confirmation page includes encouragement to register for other lead magnets.
The result is that one registrant might subscribe for multiple things, which will lead to multiple reported registrations. By using First Conversion reporting, I can break this out…
In this case, we can make a reasonable assumption that about 427 unique people completed 533 registrations. While 533 total registrations is accurate, the 427 number provides more context regarding the true number of people that my ads inspired.
I’ve used First Conversion repeatedly to solve reporting problems just like this one.
Reporting Errors
It’s important to have knowledge of attribution and use the tools available to you to add important context. But there are times when reporting is flat-out wrong.
As much as advertisers want to blame Meta for flawed reporting, it’s almost never Meta’s fault. In some cases, it may require troubleshooting on your part.
1. Inflated results. Complaints of inflated results off come from an inability to match Ads Manager with third-party reporting. Your results can appear inflated due to remarketing or multiple conversions performed by unique customers. These results wouldn’t be inflated, but would require a closer look.
Otherwise, results can be inflated due to a conversion event issue. If Meta is reporting conversions that did not happen, it may be due to one of the following:
- Firing the event on the wrong page or prematurely
- Events from multiple sources are not deduplicated
In these cases, you need to test your events and check logs to pinpoint the problem.
2. Underreported results. Otherwise, you may find that Meta isn’t able to attribute conversions fully. This can be due to privacy/tracking issues, particularly since iOS 14+ (though many of these conversions are modeled now). Meta may also be unable to attribute a conversion because it falls outside of the attribution setting.
Reporting Holes
Even if you are knowledgable of how attribution works and you’re diligent about providing important context, I recommend that you fully embrace the fact that reporting will never be perfect. Ads Manager numbers will almost never match up perfectly with third-party reporting.
That’s not necessarily because Ads Manager is wrong or the third-party reporting is wrong. But there are important quirks that make 100% consistently virtually impossible. Beyond clear errors that lead to over or under-reporting, you should otherwise embrace these likely differences.
There are some very clear reporting holes that often lead advertisers on an endless chase to find answers…
1. View-through conversions. Unless there’s direct integration with Ads Manager, third-party reporting will not have any information about whether a person viewed your ad and did not click prior to converting. This is information that only Meta has and you’ll drive yourself crazy attempting to verify it.
2. Clicks that don’t drive traffic. It took me more than a decade to realize this, but click attribution does not require a click on an external link. While the vast majority of conversions resulting from a click may result from people clicking on the link in your ad, some may not. And that would mean UTM parameters become useless for this segment of click conversions, which are no different than view-through conversions when it comes to being able to verify them.
3. The 7-day purchase decision. The easiest conversions to verify are those that happen immediately: A person clicked your ad, was redirected to your website, and immediately converted. But that’s not always how it works. Some conversions, especially the purchase of higher priced products, can take multiple days following the first click. It can take customers across devices and browsers, potentially negating URL parameters.
And that assumes that the conversion happens within the 7-day attribution window at all. As mentioned above, you can often find hidden conversions that happened using the 28-day click attribution setting. But depending on what you’re promoting, the customer journey may be even longer. This makes attribution and measurement difficult.
Your Turn
If you understand Meta ads conversion results at this level, you’re ahead of most advertisers. Anything else you’d add?
Let me know in the comments below!
