We had been hearing whispers of these impending changes to website conversion campaigns from members of our community and through our inbox. Now it’s official.
In short, Aggregated Event Measurement is Meta’s protocol for reporting web and app events from people who opted out of tracking from iOS 14.5 and later devices. Meta says that “it will continue to evolve,” but many of the advertiser requirements related to iOS 14.5 changes and Aggregated Measurement are going away.
What this means for the future is unclear, but Meta says that no further action is needed from advertisers for now.
Here’s what’s happening…
Previously, advertisers needed to configure and prioritize eight website conversion events that could be used for Aggregated Event Measurement.
Prioritized events were treated differently than non-prioritized events. When optimizing for a non-prioritized event, you would not reach users on iOS devices who had opted out of tracking. You could reach them when optimizing for prioritized events.
Some limited reporting for iOS users was also available for prioritized events whereas reporting for non-prioritized events would not include users who opted out of tracking.
Prioritization will not be needed going forward. It’s not entirely clear yet what that means for how these things will be handled.
Value Optimization allows advertisers to optimize for higher value purchases.
In order to make use of Value Optimization post-iOS 14.5, advertisers were required to turn on Value Sets within Web Event Configuration.
Doing so took up a minimum of four of the eight event prioritization slots. These steps, of course, are going away.
Within the Events Manager, advertisers had access to a tab for Aggregated Event Measurement.
This was intended to display a reporting of events processed utilizing Aggregated Event Measurement, but most advertisers saw limited and incomplete data, if anything, here. It was also how you accessed Event Configuration.
This tab will go away.
Previously, you could not configure and prioritize your eight web events without first verifying the domain — a process of confirming ownership.
This will no longer be a requirement related to event configuration. This is great news for those who are unable to verify the domain because purchases are completed on a website they do not control.
While domain verification is no longer required for this purpose, it’s still recommended for other benefits related to link ownership control.
Advertisers were previously required to select a conversion domain where their pixel was found when creating an ad.
This will no longer be required.
What we have from Meta right now is only an explanation of what is changing. But there remain some important unanswered questions.
1. Why is this changing?
Yes, it was a hassle for advertisers, but it was a required step to stay in line with iOS requirements. Why is it that Meta felt it was a good time to make this change?
2. How is this possible?
Apple’s own App Tracking Transparency (ATT) protocol isn’t going away. The requirements related to the handling of opt-outs remains. So, how can the event prioritization step be removed?
3. What is changing to Aggregated Event Measurement?
Presumably, Aggregated Event Measurement will continue to exist (and “evolve,” as Meta says), but many of the advertiser responsibilities related to it are going away. What is changing about AEM? Will new steps emerge?
4. How will this impact optimization and attribution?
This, of course, is what we care about most. The steps that were removed had a direct impact on attribution, reporting, and ads optimization. Will we notice a difference with these changes? Will there be positive or negative changes? Presumably, there will either be no noticeable change or it will be positive, otherwise why make the change at all?
I recorded a video about this, too. Check it out below…
What do you think about this update? What are you hearing?
Let me know in the comments below!
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