On October 5th, Facebook followed Google’s lead in updating tracking capabilities to include the ability to better track consumers through multiple sites on Safari using first-party cookies. Dig into what this update means and how it might affect your business’ Facebook advertising.
How The Update Affects Your Paid Social Advertising
Advertisers will now be able to continue to target consumers on many browsers and gain more impactful insights through analytics. This update will play a big part with Dynamic Product Ads because advertisers will be able to see which products consumers viewed no matter what browser they are searching on. This will lead to companies having a better understanding of their consumers and the interactions that they are completing on site.
Industry Backstory
Traditionally, Facebook’s pixel has used 3rd party trackers to store consumer’s browsing data to better understand how consumers interact with websites. However, in 2017 Apple released an update to Safari called Intelligent Tracking Prevention which blocked the ability for third-party trackers to capture consumer browsing data used for ad targeting purposes.
To combat the Safari update, Google released a first-party conversion linker cookie last September and Microsoft released a similar version for Bing soon after. Facebook is now releasing a similar update to allow advertisers to better utilize tracking data.
Decide Which Cookie Type To Use With Your Pixel
On October 24th, 2018 Facebook will make the first and third-party cookies option the default for companies. This option is what Facebook recommends if you’re using your pixel for advertising because it uses both first and third party data to better measurement and reporting capabilities. However, if you aren’t interested in using the first-party data, you can opt into only using third-party cookies. The major pro of using the first and third party data is that you’re going to be able to better track consumers across all web browsers due to the first party data. If you choose not to enable the first party data then you may miss out on some consumers when they decide to use the safari browser which blocks third-party tracking.
"We’re going to see cross-site measurement and by proxy, targeting becomes more and more restricted due to privacy concerns. With a slight tweak to our tracking codes, updates like this increase security for all, reduce unwanted ads for users and help advertisers spend efficiently."
- James Corr, Analytics Team Lead
How To Check & Change Your Facebook Pixel
To check the status of your pixel, what kind of data it is using and to change the data it is using, go into measure & report then events manager then pixels. In that tab, you should see the option to upgrade your pixel or to have it stay as is. Reminder, if you don’t specifically select that you want third-party trackers to be your option, then Facebook will automatically choose for your pixel to use first and third party trackers come October 24th.
Interested in learning more about paid social? Learn more about Seer’s Paid Social services and what we can do for you here!
