If you advertise for clients, you surely need to get approval on ad creative before ads can go live. There are two primary ways to do this.
Back in 2021, the Attribution Setting was born. This new unified setting took the place of the Conversion Window and Attribution Window from the pre-iOS world. This works differently than it did before, and it's important to understand how this...
We know that website custom audiences will shrink due to iOS opt-outs. What we don't know, because Facebook never makes it clear, is to what extent this is the case. Not to mention, they never address specific scenarios that could …
Most advertisers understand the importance of domain verification since the rollout of iOS 14+ changes in 2021. But there is actually another reason to claim ownership of your website beyond the benefits of configuring your web events.
Oh, this was fun. In this episode of The Pubcast, I take a trip down memory lane and remember some of the things that you may have forgotten about Facebook, Facebook marketing, and Facebook ads from as long as a …
If you've spent any time in Events Manager, you've surely received notifications from Facebook related to unrecognized domains sending events from your pixel. You can control this using a setting called Traffic Permissions.
If you've run any video ads at all, you're undoubtedly familiar with auto-play. This can be good and bad, but it ultimately complicates reporting. You're going to get a whole lot of video plays, but you lose some context on …
Advanced Matching is a little thing that can provide incremental improvements to your conversion attribution, optimization, and targeting. Here's what you need to know...
Automatic Events can help you set up those pesky standard events automatically (hence the name) without code. Here's how to turn them on...
Facebook has started rolling out custom formatting for ad reports, and it could be super helpful. Here's how to find out whether you have it, how it might be used, and my one big issue with it.
The ad auction is what determines who sees an ad. How do you win an auction? Your ad needs to have the highest total score, which is based on three different factors. Let's discuss...
On November 10, I published a podcast episode. I had no idea what I was starting. I'd end up going on a streak of publishing a new episode every day for 100 days (and counting). It's kinda crazy. In this …
Some advertisers have seen the Advantage Plus campaign creation method when setting up a conversions campaign in Ads Manager. It's actually been rolling out very slowly for the past several months. Is this a big deal? Does it offer significant...
The big spenders can make the most impact, but that doesn't mean that you can't drive results on a budget. But, with those restrictions, you can't follow the same rules. You should have three priorities for how you spend that …
The Pixel Event Setup Tool is a great concept. Add standard events to your website without the need for code. Unfortunately, it remains as flawed and limited today as the day it was released a few years ago. That doesn't …
One of the primary ways that you can create a website custom audience is based on specific page or website. There are actually several different ways I use this within my advertising strategy.
Custom Conversions have a very specific purpose for Facebook ads reporting and optimization. Here, I provide an explanation of the three primary ways that I use them.
The Facebook Pixel Helper is an extension for the Chrome browser. It's a great, and free, tool for advertisers. Here, I lay out ways that you might use it.
View-through conversions have always been a thing. But changes during the past year have made them problematic. Let me explain what I was doing, what I found, my theory, and what I think Facebook should do related to view-through attribution.
Do you understand how custom conversions are different from standard and custom events and how you might use them? Let's clear up any confusion...
Have you ever run into a situation where Facebook isn't providing metric totals for conversions even though the rows above have data? This isn't a bug, there's a reason for it. Here's the explanation...
Businesses who haven't been able to verify their domains because their pixel was on a third-party website may have a solution due to Partner Level Configurations. This is a big deal!
If you use standard or custom events, you should also be sending parameters that provide more details about an action. Parameters are what provide granularity and power in reporting and targeting. Here's how they work...
Conversion numbers in Ads Manager rarely match up with other sources. One of the many reasons for this is view-through conversions. Here, I talk about what they are, when they might happen, and why they've been controversial.
You can now create custom audiences based on engagement with your product catalog. There are a couple of primary benefits to this over a typical website custom audience that should be useful for ecomm businesses.
Three months ago (on November 6, to be exact), I started an experiment. I wanted to see if I could reach all of my Facebook followers with a single ad. In this episode, I walk through what happened -- including …
If you're only looking at surface-level metrics to measure the success of your ads, you aren't doing your job. You need to dig deeper. Ask these basic questions to help define what success looks like and what your ultimate customer …
If you're using both browser events from your pixel and server events from the API, you are probably sending the same events for each. This way, the API may pick up some events that the browser pixel does not. Of …
While cold, broad targeting is becoming increasingly popular, I still find warm targeting to be incredibly effective and important. This is especially the case for content creators like me, who attract website visitors to engage with free content. I...
Do you use custom web events to track, optimize for, and target actions that fall outside of standard events? I do! Here, I walk through the various events that fire on my website to help represent quality traffic, video engagement, …
Maybe you use your own formulas to determine the performance of your Facebook ads. You can actually use these formulas to create custom metrics that can be added as columns to your reports. Here's how!
Back in November, Facebook announced that they'd be removing some Detailed Targeting options. Now that those options were removed in January, we now know they weren't messing around. They removed a TON of targeting options, including ones that came as...
I've been experimenting with a new Facebook ads strategy that I'm really excited about. It remains unfinished as there are still things I'm trying to polish and fix. But, there's a specific need I'm trying to fill, and I can …
Facebook ads optimization is seriously lacking for content creators -- specifically for bloggers. Optimizing for Link Clicks or Landing Page Views doesn't cut it because Facebook doesn't care about the quality of those actions. Content creators do!...
Facebook is requiring advertisers to indicate that they have read and accepted terms related to non-discrimination, not only in regards to their advertising but on behalf of system users. If you don't, you won't be able to create ads.
Have you ever had results for a traffic campaign that seemed too good to be true? This is certainly possible, due to how optimization works. Here are some steps to take so that you can verify the quality of those …
You may already manage Auction Overlap manually, but you can actually allow Facebook to manage this using Automated Rules. There are three ways that you can do this.
If you've been around me long enough, you've heard me talk about evergreen campaigns. These are campaigns that never go stale. They aren't magical, but it's all due to how they're set up that allows them to work this way.
Automated Rules are a great tool to automate and simplify the ads management process that is otherwise manual. Let's walk through how these are set up and some things to consider.
This isn't your typical advertiser brag about too-good-to-be-true results. It may be the opposite. Consider it a cautionary tale about how you should look beyond surface-level results. About how you should establish expectations based on data and know...
Advertisers have been conditioned to believe that they shouldn't use text in ad images. The truth is that this rule was removed in September of 2020. No 20-percent rule. No scale. No throttling on images with more text. Use text …
If you run Instant Experience ads, make sure that you don't use the default metrics or saved reports. There are metrics specific to Instant Experience that are available if you customize columns. But a question: Why can't you create targeting...
One of the classic ways to target people who have been exposed to you before is with Facebook Page Engagement Custom Audiences. Here, we talk about what they are, issues with them, and ways you might use them.
A useful targeting tool that anyone can use as long as you have the pixel set up on your website is the Time on Website Custom Audience. Here, I discuss what these are, how they work, and things you should …
You may know that I'm a big fan of Reach optimization. It's not magical, but it's a great tool for specific situations. Here, I explain how Reach optimization works, how you might use it, and examples of how I use …
Attribution is how Facebook gives credit for a conversion to an ad. Advertisers are often confused regarding how this works, and it's also connected to why numbers don't line up with Google Analytics. Let's clear up this and other misconceptions.
It's episode 400! In this episode, I discuss the impact of my podcasting test 60 days after it started. Not only is it clear that this method can be applied to other platforms, but I fully plan on doing so …
Facebook says that you will get your best results after exiting the Learning Phase. The problem is that if you make any "significant" edits after that point, your ad set will re-enter the Learning Phase. The great results you were …
One of my favorite features in Ads Manager is Breakdown, and it isn't utilized nearly enough by most advertisers. It easily allows you to segment results without having to segment the ad set targeting or placement itself.
Have you ever tried to create a new ad account but ran into an error that you had reached your Ad Account Creation Maximum? Everyone has a limit, and here I discuss what goes into that limit, how you can …