New Facebook Cross-Device Ad Reporting Provides Improved ROI Tracking
Facebook’s simplification of its ad options improved the usability of advertising on Facebook for many businesses. Now, the social media giant has taken another step forward in meeting advertisers’ needs and soliciting further ad revenue with an improved analytics option that can provide more detailed ROI data. Facebook’s cross-device reporting for ads allows businesses to track sales activity across multiple devices all the way through to conversion.
The World Before Cross-Device Reporting
Facebook offered advertisers a good selection of metrics including impressions, clicks, actions and social variations of each of those. Data relating directly to costs and conversions included number of conversions and cost per conversion, click or 1,000 impressions.
User information by device type was added in 2013 as tracking mobile users became more critical for businesses (and for Facebook). This allowed businesses to see how many people were interacting with their ads on different devices to gain better insight into consumer behavior.
A Gap Remained
Seeing activity by device type was a great start but still left a few questions unanswered. Simply because a user viewed an ad on a mobile device and later converted does not mean that the conversion happened on the same device—or even on the same day.
Facebook’s own example is that of a customer standing in line in a bank. While waiting, the person peruses Facebook on her phone, sees an ad and maybe even clicks through. Her turn at the window arrives and she puts her phone away. Once back at her desk, she sits down to her desktop PC, finds the ad again and buys.
It’s common for many sales cycles to start on one device and convert on another. Before cross-device ad reporting, this traffic flow was completely hidden from advertisers.
Unveiling the Sales Cycle
Instead of just showing the number of impressions or conversions of a particular ad on mobile devices versus desktop PCs, Facebook’s cross-device reporting for ads show the entire route travelled by a customer. It can follow people over devices and multiple days.
According to Facebook’s data, more than 32% of people who show interest in an ad on mobile devices convert on desktop devices within the subsequent 28 days. Without a window into this traffic flow (or the flow from desktop to mobile, which also happens), businesses lack critical insight into the behavior of their customers. Cross-device reporting delivers this data in a way that businesses can use to more effectively target their customers and improve the ROI of their Facebook ads.
How Common Is Multi-Device Use?
A whitepaper produced by Altimeter at the commission of Facebook reports that over 60% of adults in the United States use two or more Internet-abled devices per day. In addition to that, over 40% of those people complete some sort of action—including making a purchase—on one device that they initiated on a completely different device.
Think cross-device reporting for ads doesn’t matter? Think again.
How Is It Implemented?
Facebook has worked hard to make its advertising options easier to understand and use. To implement Facebook’s cross-device ad reporting, businesses simply select the “Cross-Device” option from within the “Edit Columns” setting once logged into their accounts.
Granularity of Data Opens New Opportunities
Thanks to the introduction of cross-device reporting for ads by Facebook, businesses will be able to track their marketing spend and tie that more directly to conversions. Better understanding of how consumers navigate the online sales cycle will let companies target their marketing dollars more appropriately to keep increasing ROI.
