28 Day Click Attribution Removed, Long Live 7 Day Attribution

Facebook has removed the 28 day Attribution window for reporting. We asked Pilothouse Senior Media Buyer Charley Tichenor to break it down for us. Here are his thoughts on the issue:

“Facebook has limited optimization windows to 7days for years now, so there will be minimal impact on how campaigns operate or optimize.

Events that occur over 7 days from the click or impression, will no longer be able to be assigned to Facebook, within the Facebook UI.

UTM tracking will not be affected.

Users can determine the lift from 1 day click, to 7 day and 28 day to truly measure the impact. To measure this, pull reporting against all 3 windows and then determine the percentage different between the 3.

Likely, this will only have a minimal impact and only on myopic “Facebook only” views of reporting, but should limit double counting of metrics.

As Facebook cannot optimize beyond 7 days, pixel events that occur 28 days after a click have always been hard to justify.

Google can take credit for 30 days beyond the click, and will likely be seen, artificially, as more valuable.

Ultimately, advertisers should have a single source of truth. Understanding the funnel and customer journey is a key to success.

Implementing Facebook’s Conversions API will be a solution to this issue, as it will allow conversions indefinitely beyond the click.

Very Likely Example of Reporting Lift measurement:

1day click shows 100 sales at a 2x ROAS

7day click shows 150 sales at a 3x ROAS

28day click shows 156 sales at a 3.1x ROAS

This shows the lift from 1 to 7 day is 50%, and from 7 day to 28day is less than 2%, and likely very much due to incidental transactions, rather than some strategic effort.

99% of advertisers should see no change in their day to day operation.

If there is a large lift from 7 days to 28 days, this can be defined as a “benchmark multiplier” and all 7 day reporting can be “lifted” by this figure.

ie: if 7 day ROAS is 2x and 28 day ROAS is 2.5x, and this is shown to be constant (month over month, or over the last quarter or year), then the lift is 25%. So, simply increase performance metrics of revenue or sales volume by 25% on fully mature 7 day click data. You can also reduce CPA by 25% to accomplish the same goal.

Ultimately, this is a shake up, but the only people who will truly suffer are those without strong understanding of their data.

Remember, this will in no way, affect the total sales or revenue on any given day, for any brand, and will not in any way reduce the effectiveness of any Facebook campaign... because Facebook couldn’t optimize to those users anyway.

So, all in all, it’s much ado about nothing... if you're honest and prepared :)

So jump on the Conversions API bandwagon, measure your lift overtime... modify your reporting, and sleep soundly.”

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