- iOS 14 and the privacy changes
that are coming along with it
are set to shake up the Facebook advertising world.
And if you aren't prepared for these changes in advance
then you're at risk of your ads actually being paused
and stopping completely when these changes roll out.
And that's going to leave you in a position
where you're scrambling to get prepared and get up to date
in order to get your ads working.
And it looks like that could even take up to three days
to get your ads reactivated or working again,
if you get stuck when these iOS 14 privacy changes roll out
and caught unprepared.
So in this video,
I'm going to show you exactly what you need to do to prepare
for the upcoming iOS 14 privacy changes
so that your business isn't disrupted
when these actually roll out.
Let's do it.
All right, so step number one
is to actually move every web page
where you're tracking conversion events at the moment
over to domains that you own.
Now, you might already be doing this
but if you're not, this is really important.
So the most common situations I see at the moment
where this isn't happening
is when people are using a landing page builder
or webinar software.
And those tools actually give you a sub domain
to run your pages and your conversion events on.
So let's look at, say, ClickFunnels, for example.
If you're using a ClickFunnels account,
by default they give you your own sub domain.
Mine could be, let's say, andrewhubbard.clickfunnels.com.
And if I'm publishing pages to that sub domain,
andrewhubbard.clickfunnels.com,
I don't actually own the domain,
It's a ClickFunnels domain.
And so that's going to be a really important piece
coming up in step two, which we'll talk about,
because we need to actually verify that we own our domains
where our conversion events are occurring.
So what you need to do is make sure
that anywhere where you've got conversion events
is on a domain that you own.
So if it's, let's say, that ClickFunnels example,
you need to move over to using your own custom domain.
And that's possible to do with tools like ClickFunnels,
same with a webinar software.
So we use EasyWebinar or WebinarJam a lot for our webinars
and they give you a free sub domain to use.
And that's been fine up until now.
So just to reiterate,
if you aren't on your own custom domains
and you don't own every domain
where you're tracking conversion events,
it's going to mean that you won't be able to run
conversion ads to those pages,
to those domains once the iOS 14 changes roll out.
So it's a really, really big deal.
So make sure you go ahead and do that.
All right, so that leads into step number two.
But before we dive into step number two
all I ask is if you're enjoying this video,
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Now, something else I want to mention here is,
I've created a quick checklist, cheat sheet,
that has all of these steps on it
for you to follow through really quickly and easily.
If you want to download that,
there's a link below in the description
to grab that as well.
It's just going to help you through this entire process.
Step number two is actually verifying all of your domains.
So once you've moved your domains onto custom domains
as per step one, step number two is to verify with Facebook
that you actually own the domains
where your conversion events are occurring.
So wherever you've got a conversion event happening
you need to verify that domain.
So let's say I have andrewhubbard.co,
I need to go into the Facebook Business Manager,
go into Settings and from there I can go to Domains
and inside of that I can verify each of my domains.
Now if you're not sure how to do this,
you can actually click above About now,
there'll be a link there.
And I'll also pop the link in the description for you.
I've got a detailed video
that shows you how to verify your domains.
But I've found the easiest way to do it
is by using the meta tag method.
So you can go in,
grab the specific meta tag for your domain,
copy and paste that into the head section of your website
and do it across the entire website.
And then simply come back here, click Verify.
And that is the easiest way to verify your domains.
But as I said, go find that detailed video on my channel,
link in the description if you need to verify your domain.
So what I recommend here is;
don't go through and do these now,
wait till you get to the end of the video
and then realize which steps you haven't completed
and need to do and then go through,
click the links in the description
and that will take you to each thing
that you need to get sorted out,
so you can do it after watching this video.
Right, moving on to step number three.
So at this point, you've got all of your domains verified,
now you need to set up aggregated event measurement.
Aggregated event measurement
is going to be a necessity with iOS 14,
because Facebook is only going to report
one conversion event per user per attribution window.
So let's say your attribution window is seven days.
If somebody comes through, they click your ad,
they become a lead
and they trigger the lead conversion event.
And then they initiate checkout,
so they trigger the initiate checkout event.
And then five minutes later, they complete a purchase,
meaning they trigger the purchase event.
Facebook is only going to show you one
of those three conversion events that they triggered.
So right now Facebook would show us all three.
We can see we've got one lead,
one initiate checkout, and one purchase.
But after the iOS 14 privacy changes roll out,
it's only going to show us one.
So you're probably thinking,
which one is Facebook going to show us?
No, it's not going to just choose a random one and go,
here you go, look at this conversion.
What's going to happen is
you'll be able to prioritize your conversion events.
And Facebook is going to show you the conversion
that you had as the highest priority.
So that's where aggregated event measurement comes in.
This is where you set the priorities
of your conversion events.
So what you're going to do is go into the Events Manager,
click Aggregated Event Management,
click Configure Web Events.
Then from there, you simply select your domain.
And then once you've selected your domain,
you click Manage Events and you can prioritize your events.
And what I like to do with these
is simply do it from the bottom of funnel and work down.
So I put purchase at the top,
initiate checkout below that
and then we might have a lead below that
and then a view content below that.
It all depends on how your specific funnel is set up
and how your events get triggered.
So an e-commerce store model be different
to a webinar funnel, et cetera, et cetera.
So that's going to vary depending on your business.
But it's really important that you come in here,
set up those priorities and save it.
Because what's going to happen
is if you want I want to change these priorities
after iOS 14 rolls out,
or if you haven't set them when iOS 14 changes roll out
and then you need to come in and do it,
it's going to actually pause your ads for three days, okay?
So changing these or updating these
once the iOS 14 changes roll out is a big deal.
You need to set this now so that you're prepared
for when the changes roll out
and you don't get stuck with a three day wait
after you change them or set them.
All right, that moves us on to step number four.
Now, step number four is to go into each of your ads,
and you're going to notice now at the ad level
we actually need to select a domain at the very bottom.
So if you go down to the bottom,
Facebook will already have done this,
and what you're doing is selecting a domain
where you expect your conversion events to occur.
So you're telling Facebook,
hey, with this ad,
I expect the conversion events to occur on this domain.
And Facebook is, at the moment,
going in and automatically selecting that domain for us.
So you need to go through and check all of these
and make sure that the domain is correct.
And if you've just gone and changed to a custom domain
as per step one, then this might have changed.
So make sure these are correct
because if they're not, iOS 14 rolls out,
you're going to have to come in and change these,
it's going to reset all of the learning on your ads
and probably mess things up quite a bit for you.
So, go through, do that as step number five,
make sure that the correct domain is selected
for each of your ads at the ad level.
All right, step number five, hopefully you're still with me.
This one's a super important one as well.
And that is to set up the Facebook conversion API.
Now, what this allows you to do
is this allows you to send your conversion data to Facebook
with that using the Facebook pixel.
So when somebody completes a conversion event
on your website or anywhere else,
instead of relying on the pixel to tell Facebook,
hey, this user just completed this specific event,
we can send it directly via server to the Facebook API
without needing the pixel at all.
Now this is important, because one,
it means we're going to get more data
going back to Facebook,
which means Facebook will have more data available to it.
And that is a good thing
because then it can better optimize your ads.
The other reason why this is a really good thing
is not because it necessarily gets around
the iOS 14 privacy changes,
because it certainly does not do that,
this is not a magic bullet to fix or get around
the iOS 14 privacy changes, unfortunately.
But the other reason this is important
is because we know that browsers, including Google Chrome,
later this year are making changes
to the way they handle cookies as well.
And Chrome is phasing out third-party cookies,
other browsers have already done this.
Plus, people actually use ad blockers
pretty frequently now as well
which blocks the Facebook pixel as well.
And so, basically what we're seeing
is an eventual death of the pixel.
So, by doing this, by setting up the conversions API now,
you're actually preparing for this
and future-proofing yourself against this.
It's a really, really good idea
to basically get that data to Facebook now,
giving Facebook more data
and also future-proofing for when Facebook pixel
becomes much, much less effective.
And it's going to degrade over time as well,
so it's really worth doing now.
Now there are two ways that I like to do this.
One is using a free Facebook plugin called PixelYourSite.
That's a really simple plugin
that allows you to install a pixel.
And it's as simple as checking a box,
adding a API key that you get from Facebook into there
and then basically what that's going to do
is just automatically set up the conversions API.
So if you're on WordPress, PixelYourSite, great tool.
Another great plugin that works is called Pixel Caffeine.
So that's sort of a similar thing.
Free plugin, sets up the pixel.
You tick a box,
it allows you to enable conversions API as well.
If you want to see how I do that,
there's a video here that shows you how to set up
the Pixel Caffeine plugin.
That or PixelYourSite, both pretty similar.
All right, now the next way that I like to do it
if you're not using WordPress is using Zapier.
So you can actually use Zapier,
set up a couple of zaps or one zap really
to use the conversion API.
So, basically what it does is it says,
whenever somebody comes into your email service provider,
meaning as a lead or maybe they get a tag added
when they buy something, you can have that trigger
and send off to the conversions API as well.
So I've got a video on that as well
that I'll pop a link to now and in the description
that you can check out for the detailed setup of that.
I don't want to make this video super long,
so I'm just sort of referencing
where I've got detailed videos that dive into these topics
if you need to do that as part of this step.
So definitely go ahead and set up
the Facebook conversions API
after you watch this video as well
if you haven't done it, really important step.
All right, now on to number six.
And as I said, there's a checklist for this as well.
So if you haven't already got it,
there's a link in the description,
you can download that sort of checklist
and have a quick reference guide
to implement all of these steps as well.
So go ahead and grab that.
Now, step number six is to actually set up
another form of tracking.
Now I'm not talking about these sort of tools
that you can use to track conversions and things.
There's a bunch of these third party tools out there
that allow you to track the performance
of your ad campaigns.
While they're good,
they don't really fix the problem of iOS 14.
So I wouldn't recommend you go ahead and do that
just for this privacy change that's coming.
What I would recommend you do have
is set up Google Analytics.
Have a good robust Google Analytics set up
so that you can track your conversions
outside of the Facebook platform as well.
So you're not relying just on Facebook
in order to see how many sales
and how many conversions and leads and everything
are coming in from that platform.
So go ahead and set up Google Analytics
if you haven't already.
But more importantly,
set up goal tracking within Google Analytics.
Because that is the equivalent
to Facebook conversion tracking on Google side of things.
And if you set up Google UTM parameters
and do that for your Facebook ads as well,
video here on that and also in the description
to set up UTM parameters,
that's going to allow you
to not only see your conversions in Google analytics,
but by setting up the custom UTM parameters,
it will actually allow you to see which ad things came from,
which campaign which ads set
and give you a lot of granular detail
inside Google Analytics as well.
So, actually having that extra reporting tool
is really, really helpful.
And it's something that is just a best practice anyway.
So if you're not doing it already,
go ahead and set up Google Analytics,
set up UTM parameters for Facebook ads.
And it's going to give you another way
to view your conversion data as well.
It's just a general best practice and a really good idea.
All right, so that wraps us up
for the iOS 14 privacy changes.
Go through each of these steps now
and make sure you've implemented all of them
as soon as possible, depending on when you're watching this.
If you're watching it relatively soon after I release it,
meaning in March, then do it now before the changes hit
because they are coming any day now.
If you're watching it after the changes have been released,
then hopefully this helps you just go ahead and get set up
so that you can minimize the impact
and get back up and running as soon as possible.
All right, if you enjoy this video, again,
please just tap that like button.
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Thank you so much for watching.
I really appreciate your time
and hopefully I will see you soon.
Bye.
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