hey there benjamin from loves data here
in this video i'm going to show you how
to track conversions from your facebook
ads i'll show you the steps to configure
a custom conversion in facebook based on
your existing pixel how to send events
to facebook using google tag manager and
how to track conversions from your
facebook ads into google analytics 4 ga4
by tracking conversions into both
facebook and google analytics you'll be
able to optimize your ads and compare
the performance against your other
marketing campaigns let's jump in and
get started
[Music]
before we get started i want to give a
shout out to watergraph for sponsoring
this video photograph lets you quickly
and easily create visual reports that
you can use for yourself or your clients
you can use it to create single screen
dashboards and multi-page reports and
you can find a link to my video that
walks through how to create a kpi
dashboard using water graph in the
description below this video
we're going to start by looking at how
to set up custom conversions based on a
thank you page people view on our
website then i'm going to show you how
to send an event to facebook using
google tag manager you can use either of
these options to understand how your ads
are performing inside facebook if you'd
like to jump to a particular topic in
this video then i've included links in
the description below okay now it's time
to head to facebook
i've already logged into facebook and
i've opened my demo account inside ads
manager
now let's select all tools on the top
left corner this is the icon with three
vertical lines
now let's select events manager
in my demo account we can see there is
already a facebook pixel
if you are just getting started and
don't have a pixel yet then you can
select connect data sources
and then choose web
since i already have a pixel and
facebook only lets you create one pixel
for each account we can see this option
isn't available for my demo account
let's close this
we can also see that although there is
already a pixel it hasn't received any
data yet so i'm going to show you how to
add the pixel to your website using
google tag manager
if you've already completed this step
then you can skip ahead using the links
in the description below this video
okay so let's click continue pixel setup
and let's choose the option to install
the code manually
we're now given the facebook pixel code
let's copy this
and let's head to google tag manager
we need to create a new tag
let's name the tag facebook pixel
and let's select custom html as the tag
type
now we need to add a trigger to fire the
tag on all of the pages of our website
so let's select triggering
and let's choose the all pages trigger
this will add the facebook pixel base
code to all of the pages of our website
now let's save the tag
we're going to come back to google tag
manager later but if you only want to
install this pixel on your website then
don't forget to publish the changes to
your live website by clicking submit
ok let's head back to facebook
now we're going to create a custom
conversion to do this we can click
create on the top right corner and then
choose create custom conversion
or we can select custom conversions in
the menu on the left let's select this
option
we can see we're prompted to create a
custom conversion
if any have already been created then
you'll see them listed here let's go
ahead and click create custom conversion
today i'm going to create a custom
conversion for people who make it to a
thank you page people are taken to this
page after they've entered their details
into a form so i'm going to name this
conversion lead form
we can then add an optional description
we're going to leave the default options
for the data source and conversion event
if you are sending events to facebook
then you could select all url traffic
and change this to the event you would
like to use
we can also see there is a message
saying that a pageview event hasn't been
detected yet
this is because we only just set up the
pixel in google tag manager and it
hasn't been published yet
once you've published the pixel to your
website and it's collected some data
this message will disappear
it's recommended that you let facebook
select the category for the conversion
you can choose this yourself by clicking
select your own category
you can then define the type of
conversion you are going to be tracking
for my conversion i could select lead
but i'm going to leave facebook's
recommendation
now we need to create a rule to match
the conversion page on our website by
default we can see that our conversion
will match if a url contains the value
we enter you'll also have the option of
selecting doesn't contain or equals
a good way to check if you're going to
match the urls you expect is to head to
google analytics and use the search
function in the pages report i'm going
to leave the default of contains
and i'm going to enter forward slash
thank dash u
this will mean a conversion will be
counted whenever someone views a page on
my website that contains forward slash
thank you
if you don't already know the url of
your conversion page then you will need
to travel through the steps and make a
note of the url for your website before
setting up your conversion
finally we can enter an optional dollar
value that will be reported for each
conversion this is optional but i
recommend that you try to assign a
dollar value to every conversion that
you configure
this could be an actual value a
calculated value or a symbolic value
now we click create
that's it we've created our first custom
conversion
moving forward facebook will begin to
report on conversions based on the rules
we've just defined and we can see that
in order to use the conversion with our
ads we need to configure aggregated
event management
so let's click go to web configurations
the custom conversion needs to be
assigned to the domain that you will be
advertising using facebook ads
we can see i've already verified my
domains but if you haven't yet then
select manage domains and follow the
steps to verify your own domain
since i can see my domain i'm going to
select it
and then i'm going to choose manage
events
then we click edit
and we click add event on the top right
corner
then we need to select custom conversion
from the drop down
and choose the conversion we created as
the event
and we click apply
now i want to show you how to use the
conversion with your ads so let's select
all tools
and choose ads manager
let's create a new campaign
and i'm going to choose conversions as
the objective
let's click continue
i'm going to leave all of the default
options but you will want to name your
campaign set an appropriate budget and
check the other settings
and i'm going to click next
under conversion we can then see that
website is set as the default conversion
event location
and we can see our facebook pixel
we can then choose the custom conversion
we just created under conversion event
and you can then finish setting up the
ad set and creating your ads i'm not
going to walk through all of those steps
in this video so i'm going to close this
and in terms of reporting once your
campaign is up and running and you're
receiving conversions you can choose
columns
then customize columns
and then search for the name of your
conversion
they will also show up by selecting
custom conversions on the left
so that's how you can create a custom
conversion in facebook how to use it
with your ads and how to use it for
reporting
now that we've covered the steps to
create a custom conversion let's take a
look at how we can send events to
facebook using google tag manager let's
head to facebook's developer
documentation to look at the events we
can send
facebook lets you track standard events
or custom events
standard events provide you with
pre-defined event names and parameters
while custom events let you send any
details you like to facebook
we're going to add one of the standard
events to our website using google tag
manager so let's take a look at the
recommended naming
we can see there are standard events for
actions relating to a range of websites
for example there are a number of events
that could be used on an e-commerce
website
we're going to add a custom event when
someone subscribes to our email list to
do this we're going to be using the
complete registration event
we can see that this event can also
include three optional parameters which
are content name currency and value
let's head back to the previous page
under tracking standard events we can
see some sample code for implementing
events on our website so we're going to
copy this
now let's head back to google tag
manager
since we only want to fire the standard
event when people have subscribed to our
email list we're going to create a
separate tag
if we added the event to the existing
facebook pixel then this would trigger
on every page which we don't want so
let's create a new tag
let's name the tag facebook event
registration
and let's select custom html as the tag
type
now let's paste the sample code we
copied
and let's change the event name to
complete registration with a capital c
and a capital r
and let's add the content name parameter
to the code
and let's enter email subscriber as the
value
now let's select advanced settings
and then tag sequencing
we need to enable the option to fire a
tag before this tag fires
and we need to select facebook pixel as
the setup tag
this ensures that the facebook pixel
base code is fired before our event if
it fired after this event tag then the
event wouldn't be sent to facebook
now we need to add a trigger
and i'm going to select my email
subscription trigger
this is a trigger i've already created
in google tag manager that will fire
tags when people have successfully
subscribed to learn more about creating
triggers in google tag manager i've
included links in the extra resources
below this video
now let's save the tag
i'm happy with the tags and triggers i'm
using for my facebook pixel so i'm going
to go ahead and click submit to publish
them to my live website
if you need to check your tags and
triggers then you can click preview to
open tag assistant and test your tags
are firing as you expect
now let's head back to facebook
ensure you're looking at data sources
choose the aggregated event measurement
tab
and click configure web events
now we need to choose our domain
and click manage events
and click edit
now let's click add event on the top
right corner
select choose a pixel or custom
conversion
and then select your facebook pixel
now let's select choose an event
and let's search for and select complete
registration
you need to search for and select the
name of the event you configured in
google tag manager so if you've
implemented one of the other standard
events then make sure you select the
event you're adding to your website then
click apply
we will now be able to use this as a
conversion event in your campaigns just
like we covered earlier in this video
apart from tracking conversions into
facebook you should also track
conversions coming from facebook into
google analytics this allows to compare
the performance of your facebook ads to
other campaigns you're running there are
two parts to this
first you need to ensure you've
configured conversions in google
analytics let's take a look at the steps
the latest version of google analytics
so ga4 or google analytics 4 if you're
using the older version of google
analytics so universal analytics you can
find extra resources in the description
below this video
we're in my ga4 demo property and we're
going to create a conversion based on
people viewing a thank you page on our
website to do this let's select
configure
in ga4 any of your events can be enabled
as a conversion we can see this in the
column on the very right
since we want our conversion to be based
on a specific page a thank you page we
can't simply enable the pageview event
as a conversion this would mean all of
our page views would be counted as a
conversion so we need to create a new
event to do this let's click create
event
i want to track people viewing my thank
you page as a separate event so i'm
going to name my event generate
underscore lead
and now we need to configure the
conditions for when we want this event
to be triggered let's enter event
underscore name
then equals
and let's enter page underscore view
this ensures that we're only matching
page view events
now let's click add condition
and we're going to enter page underscore
location
then contains
and let's enter thank dash u
this will mean our new event will
trigger every time someone views a page
on our website that has a url containing
thank you
now let's click create
if you've just created the event then
you'll need to wait 12 to 24 hours
before you can see it in your reports
since i created the event earlier we can
see it's already in my demo property so
i can click the option to enable it as a
conversion
now that you're tracking conversions
then the second part is to add campaign
tags to any links in your facebook ads
that send people to your website let's
head to the google analytics campaign
url builder here we can see the url
builder and what we need to do is enter
the landing page we'll be using in our
facebook ad at the top
then we need to define a source and
medium for our campaign i recommend
entering facebook.com as the source this
is where the message is seen
and then i recommend entering social as
the medium this is how the message is
communicated
by using social as the medium it means
our paid traffic from facebook will be
reported separately to our organic or
free traffic this is because organic
traffic from facebook will be reported
as a referral for the medium
at the bottom you can then find the
campaign tagged url to use in your
facebook ad
i also recommend you consider defining a
campaign id if you're going to import
cost data to google analytics and you
can also use the content tag to
distinguish between different ads you're
running on facebook to learn more about
campaign tags i've included links in the
extra resources below this video
so that's how you can configure custom
conversions in facebook and how you can
send events using google tag manager
have you set up conversion tracking for
your facebook ads i'd love to know let
me know in the comments below and if you
found this video helpful then please
like it so i know to make more videos
like this one thank you so much to
watergraph for sponsoring this video you
can find a link to my video that walks
through how to create a kpi dashboard
using water graph in the description
below this video i'll see you in the
next video