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Facebook Ads Mismatch

How to figure out why fields from Facebook Ads (by Meta) are not matching their expected values and what to do about it.

Gustav Pettersson avatar
Written by Gustav Pettersson
Updated over a week ago

What you will find in this article:


Mismatching conversions

Why:

If cost, click and impressions are matching but any conversion is not, there can be several causes of the mismatch. The most likely reason is a difference in which attribution windows or settings are being viewed. Viewing data on different levels or with different breakdowns can also cause mismatching values.

Differing values in attribution windows/setting, levels or breakdowns will not affect cost, clicks or impressions.

Starting 27th April 2021, several breakdown and metric combinations will be shown only with the breakdown dimension "Unknown" or "Uncategorized".

Solution:

In order for metrics to match, a data source in Funnel should be connected with the same attribution windows selected as the attribution setting of the Ad, Ad Set or Campaign being compared, or be connected with the option "Use Attribution Setting".

If the attribution setting of a campaign, ad set or ad is "7-day click" in the Ads manager, the matching metric values should be available by adding the dimension "Attribution windows" and filtering on the value "7-day click".

When viewing the data in the Facebook Ads manager and comparing it to the data in Funnel, make sure to view the same breakdown and level in the Ads manager as the data source was connected with.

If the values match when you are viewing the same levels and breakdowns, you can change the breakdown or level in Funnel either by editing the configuration of an existing data source or by connecting a new data source with the wanted configuration.

Missing conversions in sources connected with breakdowns

Why:
The metrics Purchases, Adds to Cart, Checkouts Initiated, Registrations Completed, App Installs and Leads are no longer available from Facebook's API in combination with breakdowns such as placement, platform, age, region and gender.

This is because these metrics include offsite conversions and Facebook has communicated that “Delivery and action breakdowns will not be supported for offsite conversion events.”

Solution:
The Website-version of these conversions are still available together with breakdowns.

Missing SKAdNetwork conversions

Why:
SKAdNetwork conversions are only available when connecting with "Use Attribution setting" following Facebook's changes due to iOS 14. Read more about Attribution Setting here.

Solution:
Edit the configuration of the Facebook Ads data source to the option "Use Attribution Setting" or connect a new Facebook Ads data source with that option.

Seeing 0 values for conversions in sources connected on Campaign level

Why:

Metrics will not be available under the following scenarios:

  • When there is an attempted aggregation across multiple attribution settings

  • When requested with impacted breakdowns like age, gender, etc. (this restriction only applies for off-Facebook & action types).

Solution:

Connect Funnel data source on Adset level.

Missing video metrics or outbound clicks

Why:
Video metrics and outbound clicks may not be available for Facebook Ads data sources connected with Attribution windows.


Solution:
Edit the reconfiguration of the data source and select "Use Attribution Setting" during the configuration.

Data is mismatching for recent dates

Why:

If the data is matching perfectly every day until the current, or a very recent day, this is most likely the cause of the mismatch.

Facebook will update the data in the Ads Manager UI more frequently than Funnel downloads it.

Solution:

We will soon download the recent data again, if the values match more closely after a few hours, the reason for the mismatch is most likely that the data is recent. Editing configuration or reconnecting your data source will not help downloading the data faster.

You can read more on how Funnel downloads data here.

Mismatches caused by changes to historical data

How to identify that this is causing a mismatch

The name of a campaign, ad set or ad is matching the current name for more recent data, but not for all historical data.

Why:
Funnel does not download all historical data every day. This means that for a recent time window, the current name will be correct, but a renamed campaign will not be correct outside a recent time window. You can read more about this topic in this article

Solution:
Reach out to us with the data source id and the first date in time there is data for the Campaign, Ad Set or Ad and we will re-download the data.


Several Thumbnail URLs for the same Ad Creative

Why:

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 useless as a unique identifier.

Solution:

By using the thumbnail URL with the latest date

If you want to display an ad creative 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.

I did not find my solution above

If you have follow all of the steps above in trying to find out what is causing your data to not match what you expect, feel free to reach out to our support.

For us to be able to troubleshoot further we need the following information:

1. The name of the specific field that you are seeing the mismatch in the data for.
2. A Funnel Data Explorer link for the period of time that the field is not matching the values you expect. The shorter this period is, the easier it will be for us to help with finding out what is causing the mismatch.
3. A full screenshot from the Facebook Ads manager for the same time period of time and the same breakdowns as the Funnel data source. If the mismatch is for conversion values, please make sure to include the value for the "Attribution setting" column.











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