Overview
With the Facebook integration, you can see just which Facebook ad your users clicked on their journey to download your app. We’ll perform a postback to your integrated ad network when we first observe a device open the app originating from that ad network.
Facebook is one of our integrations that allows for Event Postbacks—which just means we can send along the event data that corresponds with the ad network to share certain post-install events. We’ll configure these events on the Attributions Settings page. More on that in a moment.
You’ll want to make sure you’ve followed the first steps in setting up your integration. These vary based on if your app is an Android app or an iOS app. Click the corresponding links for more information.
Requirements
You’ll need to be on Localytics iOS SDK 2.17 or higher, and Android 2.7 or higher.
Aside from being on the proper SDK version, you’ll need access to your Facebook App ID.
Setup
The first step is to log into Facebook to get your Facebook App ID for your app. Log into the Facebook Developer site and head to Settings. From there, click Basic and then App Secret. This will give you access to your App ID. Follow this guide or contact Facebook support if you run into any issues.
Copy your Facebook App ID, and head back to Localytics. In the Localytics dashboard, navigate to Attribution Setup. Click Attribution, and then select Settings from the ellipsis on the Attribution dashboard.
Make sure you’ve selected the correct app you’re looking to integrate with (ie Android vs. iOS), by selecting the correct one from the drop-down menu at the top of the page.
Check the box for Facebook Ads, Facebook Audience Network (External), and Instagram. Paste in your Facebook App ID when prompted.
You might be asked to confirm, and when you’re confident in the App ID, click Yes, I am sure this is correct.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and Save your new settings. Then you’re all set with setup!
Attributing Campaigns to Facebook
After setting up the integration in Localytics, you’ll run all of your campaigns through Facebook’s attribution tool. All data will be automatically communicated to Localytics. Be sure to use your Facebook App ID in install ads, and not in the iTunes Store/Google Play Store URL.
Keep in mind, we’ll only be able to start tracking attribution data once the first user is acquired through the campaign. Until that happens, we’ll have no way to track the campaign, and it won’t appear in Localytics.
Facebook-specific Features
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Authentication | Facebook authentication expires after 30 days, so you'll be prompted to authenticate again if you change your Attribution Settings. This doesn't affect your Localytics integration. |
| Facebook vs. Facebook-external ads | Facebook serves ads within two separate environments: (1) ads served in the Facebook app or Facebook Canvas (reported as Facebook installs in Localytics) and (2) ads served by the Facebook Audience Network (reported as Facebook-external installs in Localytics). |
| Event Postbacks | We have a custom integration with Facebook that allows us to communicate to Facebook when selected post-install Events are recorded by Localytics. Per Facebook's specifications, each Event must map to one of fourteen Facebook event names. For more on setup and best practices, see our help article. |
| Remarketing & Lookalike Audiences | Localytics has functionality that enables us to take Audiences you've defined within Localytics and communicate these to Facebook. You can either re-advertise to these users, or create a Lookalike Audience within Facebook. For more, see the Remarketing section. |
| Comparing Localytics to Facebook data | The Facebook Ad Campaign Manager counts pre-install Actions, which include both ad impressions and click-throughs of your mobile ads. Localytics displays a count of post-install behaviors, such as the count of users who both clicked an advertisement and opened your app. In addition, Facebook and Localytics apply some different measurement techniques, see the next section for more information on this topic. |
| Privacy and data retention | For more on this, see our help article. |
Data Discrepancies
If you're running into issues with data discrepancies between Localytics and Facebook, check out the list below for some potential explanations:
INSTALL DATE
- Facebook records new installs on the click/view time
- Localytics records new installs on first session (the first time the app is launched)
ATTRIBUTION WINDOW
- Facebook uses a 28-day click-through and 1-day view-through attribution window
- Localytics uses a 14-day click-through and does not support view-through
LAST CLICK
- Facebook attribution reports installs regardless of other Ad Sources as they do not have insight into a customers non-Facebook advertising campaigns.
- Localytics will attribute the user to the source that drove the last click, which may be some other Ad Source and not Facebook. This means that if a new user clicked on two ads before they started using your app, Localytics will attribute the new user to the more recently-clicked ad.
PRE-DEFINED EVENTS
Facebook automatically tracks several pre-defined events and parameters (similar to our Attributes).