Facebook Ads – Troubleshooting
Common issues when connecting and downloading Facebook Ads data
Johannes Andreasson avatar
Written by Johannes Andreasson
Updated over a week ago

I’m having trouble connecting my Facebook source

My Funnel data doesn’t match what’s in Facebook Ads Manager

First, double check your date range, ad account ID and that you’re looking at the same metrics with the same level and breakdowns in Funnel and Facebook Ads Manager.

Data volatility

Funnel downloads data several times a day, but we do not display data in real time. Because of this, recent data may not always match. See this article to learn more.

To preserve quota, we will reduce data refresh frequency for sources where there is currently no activity. You can read more in this article.

Attribution Windows

One common source of mismatches in conversion data is differing attribution windows.

A Facebook Ads data source in Funnel can be connected either using fixed attribution windows or using the attribution setting of the ad set.

Funnel attribution windows are found on the “Data sources” page for sources connected with attribution windows.

Attribution settings for a source in Funnel

Changing campaign names

Changing the name of a Facebook campaign in an account connected to Funnel can cause the appearance of a data mismatch. The reason for this is that rows older than 32 days will still have the old name, so that the same campaign might appear under several different names, each containing subsets of the metric values.

We recommend that you create a new campaign if you’re not happy with the name, rather than rename. If you still rename a campaign for an account connected to Funnel, please let us know so we can reload the data with a backfill.

The same applies to ad sets and ads.

Custom conversions

Custom conversions in Funnel match corresponding metrics in the Ads Manager as Funnel retrieves data from the Ads Insights API. This means that custom conversions in Funnel are not comparable to values for custom conversions found in the “Events manager” (https://business.facebook.com/events_manager/custom-conversion).

To view your custom conversions in the Ads Manager you:

  • Click on "Customize Columns" under "Columns" in the Ads Manager. From there you can:

  • Click on "Custom Conversions" under "Conversions" and then add the ones you are interested in.

If a custom conversion is missing in Funnel, make sure that it has values in Facebook's Ads Manager. The Facebook API does not return custom conversions that do not yet have a value.

Store visits

The "Store Visits" metric is incompatible with some breakdowns. If you selected Country, Region, DMA Region, Impression Device, Platform, Placement, Product ID on connect, you may not see any Store Visits. Try connecting a new source without any of these breakdowns.

Product ID

Product ID is a high cardinality breakdown. This which means that in rare cases, some account wide report requests tend to time out, meaning your data may not update.

Incompatible breakdowns and metrics

When selecting a breakdown, make sure it's compatible with your ad account and the metrics you wish to see. 

Product ID only works with Dynamic Product Ads (DPA). If you select it when connecting an account containing some or all non-DPA:s, you will only see a subset of your data.

The 'by Dynamic Creative Asset' breakdowns only work with Dynamic Ads. If your ad account contains non-dynamic ads, you will only see a subset of your data. In the 'reach and frequency' report, these breakdowns are only compatible with the metrics 'Reach' and 'Frequency'.

Certain conversion metrics are also not available for the 'by Dynamic Creative Asset' breakdowns.

Video metrics (3 second views excepted) are not compatible with breakdowns Region and DMA Region.

Video Average Play Time is not compatible with the following breakdowns: Conversion Device, Post Reaction Type, Destination, Video View Type, Carousel Card.


DMA region breakdown is incompatible with attribution setting when using additional field groups that require an attribution option.

Media type breakdown

This breakdown is available in the delivery category in the Facebook Ads Manager. Unfortunately it is not available from the Facebook API and cannot be found in Funnel.

Preview shareable link is only available for source connected with the "ad creative data" option selected. Furthermore, this field might not be available for boosted posts that originates from an unpublished page. 

Maximum values

We currently have a limit on the size of values we handle. If a metric value for a row is larger than:

  • 9.2 * 10^18 for regular values

  • 9.2 * 10^12 for monetary values

That value is set to 0.

Available data

It is important to note that Funnel will only download data for actual Facebook campaigns. This means that, for example, Likes registered on a regular non-boosted post will not be extracted by the Facebook Ads connector. Each Page Like, Post Share or pixel conversion must be associated with some form of paid advertising on Facebook. 

Several Thumbnail URLs for a Single Ad Creative

The Thumbnail URL to an ad creative will change over time based on how the Facebook API works. Over time, the Facebook API will generate different URLs pointing to the same original ad creative. When data is refreshed in Funnel the values for the newly generated URLs will be fetched and populate rows in the Funnel data explorer. For this reason a single ad creative can have several thumbnail URLs which will correspond with several rows in the Funnel data explorer. Because of this the

thumbnail URL is not useful as a unique identifier.

To identify a specific ad creative you can use creative IDs. Every ad creative has a single unique creative ID, which does not change over time. A creative ID can therefore be used as a unique identifier for an ad creative.

Missing Awareness metric values

If a data source is connected using both Additional field groups 'Awareness' and 'Actions and conversions' and is also configured with 'Use Attribution Windows' under the 'Attribution options', it could result in the impression that metric values are missing. In reality what's happening is that the data is divided over separate rows depending on the selected 'Attribution Window'.

If this is the case, then selecting 'Attribution Window' field in the Data Explorer view should solve this and display values for 'Awareness' metrics.

Another solution for such cases would be to edit the data source configuration to use the 'Use Attribution Setting' under the 'Attribution options' since this only occurs when 'Use Attribution Window' is selected.

Reporting a mismatch 

Please see this article for a detailed breakdown of how to report a Facebook Ads data mismatch

I’m having trouble connecting my Facebook data source

2-factor authentication

Facebook sources with 2-factor authentication (2FA) works in Funnel, but they may need to be reconnected (due to older tokens no longer meeting the new security level of the account).

If 2FA is configured for an entire ad account, ensure the Facebook user used to connect also has 2-factor authentication activated.

I get the following error on my data source: "Error validating access token: The user is enrolled in a blocking, logged-in checkpoint"

This error message indicates that your account has been flagged by Facebook's security algorithms. We will not know specifically why your account was flagged, but some common reasons include:

  • Suspicious account activity

  • Suspected compromised account

  • Username does not seem to be a real name

  • Content has been deemed inappropriate or in violation of copyright

To solve this, you will need to log in to Facebook's Business Manager. Make sure that you have logged out of your current session on Facebook so that a new login is forced. It might be necessary to open a private browser session or use a different browser (with add-ons/extensions disabled) to force the new login. Once you are logged into Facebook Business Manager you should be prompted with a security checkpoint which will allow you take the necessary actions needed in order to unblock and reauthorise your account. Once this is done you will be able to reconnect your data source(s) in Funnel.

Users and browsers

If you get an error or can’t find the ad accounts you expect on connect, try opening https://www.facebook.com/ in a new browser tab and log out your current session.

This will force a new login next time you connect in Funnel, and you can make sure you’re connecting with the correct Facebook user.

If that does not help, try either opening a private browser session, or a different browser (with add-ons/extensions disabled) and connect from there.

What permission do I need to connect a Facebook Ads source in Funnel?

Any asset level permission is sufficient in order to connect a Facebook Ad account in Funnel.  

 

 

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