Since the beginning of 2021, Facebook has continuously educated advertisers to cascade data with AEM and Server to Server API. Many advertisers are not aware of the relevance between AEM and Server to Server and do not know how to set them up properly. Luckily, Tagtoo has up to 80% of clients who are vertical E-businesses, and we have successfully assisted our clients to complete the setting process. Today, Tagtoo has organized the complicated process and will show you the important steps to set up AEM and Server to Server API.
First of all, AEM is the abbreviation of Aggregated Event Measurement. Setting up AEM has two main steps below:
1.Verify domain
Facebook suggests that advertisers with one domain have to apply to one Business Manager.
- Login your Business Manager as Administrator
- Go to “Brand Safety” and click “Domains”
- Click “Add” and enter your domain in the following box
- Embed corresponding code in your domain website then the verification will be completed
2.Set up Web Events
- Go to “Events Manager” and select your pixel
- Click “Aggregated event measurement” and start to configure web events
- Set up the most important eight events
According to the traffic each event brings, Tagtoo suggests setting up the most important event, bringing the least traffic as the highest priority. If you set the event with the least traffic such as “purchase” as the lowest priority, it is possible that the event may not be recorded. The reason is only the highest priority event will be sent whenever a customer takes multiple actions during a conversion window. If you place the top event with the most traffic, for example, “view content”, the following actions and conversion events the customers take, such as “add to cart”, “initiate checkout”, and “purchase” will then not be recorded.
In addition, Tagtoo also suggests turning on the “value optimization” while setting up events. Turning on the “value optimization” will cost you four event spots. However, if you decide not to do so, you may not be able to calculate the ROAS of your campaigns in the future.
Following the steps mentioned above, the setting process of AEM is basically done. Besides AEM, Facebook also educates advertisers to implement Server to Server conversion API. When Apple conducts iOS 14.5 privacy changes, the user side will not send out any data from mobile apps if users disapprove of the privacy policy. This means that iOS 14.5 will block and delete the first-party cookies data actively, and can even turn off the data transmission from Apps at the user’s side.
Server to Server conversion API is the solution for the iOS 14.5 privacy change. If Apple does not update iOS14.5 or if the privacy policy will not restrict first-party cookies, implementing Server to Server API will not be a necessity. However, we can expect Apple to conduct iOS 14.5 privacy change in May 2021. We suggest advertisers can start to implement Server to Server API.
-Information for Conversions API
-Information for iOS 14.5 will block and delete the first-party cookies data
Briefly speaking, third-party cookies and first-party cookies will be restricted by browsers and operating systems shortly. Implementing Server to Server API can avoid the limitation from third-party cookies and the iOS 14.5 privacy policy, and deliver user’s data to advertising platforms through Conversion API. The data delivery process can be referred to on the picture below.
When completing the implementation of Server to Server API, we can see that pixel events will have a new source named “Server” in “Events Manager”.
Businesses that sell products through shopping platforms can check out if the shopping platforms have completed the implementation of Server to Server API or not at the “Events Manager”. The event quality score has to be between four and six to be in the appropriate range for the delivery of the events.
Currently, browser events are not restricted by iOS so that we can see the majority of pixel events are still sent from browsers. The server side will compare the events with the browser side, and automatically delete the duplicated events. Only the unique events that the server received will be added to the total events. According to Tagtoo’s experience, we have received 2% to 6% of unique events from the server. In other words, there are 2% to 6% of events that are already blocked by the browser. It is predictable that when Apple introduces iOS 14.5, the events sent from browsers will decrease significantly. Luckily, if you have implemented Server to Server API, the delivery of the events will not be affected. The server will compensate for the events that are blocked by browsers.
Tagtoo believes that it would be difficult for small and medium businesses to have the technical expertise to integrate Server to Server API between advertising platforms. The good news is that Tagtoo has built a system that can easily assist e-commerce businesses and advertisers in imtegrating Facebook Server to Server API. Since February 2021, Tagtoo has assisted more than 30 e-commerce businesses to complete the implementation.
Currently, the most important thing is to set up Facebook AEM. However, we also suggest advertisers start implementing Conversion API to avoid the decrease in pixel events and eventually affect the ad delivery when iOS 14.5 is introduced.
In our next article, we will discuss the trends of the cookieless digital advertising world.