How to Track Facebook Ads With ShortStack After Apple’s iOS 14 Updates

This content discusses the impact of Apple's privacy update on Facebook ad tracking and provides solutions for marketers.

By Jane Vance ・2 min read

ShortStack Tips & Tricks

Social Media

As an iPhone user, Apple’s announcement last June that they would start requiring apps to ask for permission to track folks across websites and apps was a welcome surprise. The feeling that I could be in control of just a bit of the information that was being collected about me felt good.However, as a marketer, I realized there would be some drawbacks that came along with this update. The biggest issue? How to track Facebook ad conversions when people are on their mobile devices.Facebook relies on the ability to track users across websites and apps to record conversions. By giving people the option to turn off tracking, it’s more difficult for Facebook to see if the ads served on their platform are leading to conversions.Furthemore, it was originally believed that 40% of iOS users would opt in to tracking. However, according to the analytics platform Flurry, it appears that number is much lower -- only 5% of people who have updated to iOS 14 have opted in. What’s a marketer who uses Facebook ads to do?Here’s the good news - Facebook has provided a tool for marketers so they can continue tracking. This tool requires folks to verify that they own the domain they are sending people to. Then, the marketer can choose to track up to eight conversion events per domain. You can learn more about the verification tool in the Facebook Business Help documentation.According to Facebook, to verify a domain, you must do one of the following:

Add a DNS TXT entry to your DNS record to confirm that you own the domain
Upload an HTML file provided by Facebook to your web directory and confirm domain ownership in Business Manager.
Add a meta tag to the <head> section of your domain home page

You can find more information on how to verify a domain in Facebook’s developer help documentation.This isn’t always so simple when working with third-party platforms. However, our team at ShortStack has a couple of solutions for you.

Solution 1: Use a custom domain, then add a DNS TEXT entry

Many third-party platforms, including ShortStack, have platform-specific domains for you to publish to. For example, when you publish your WordPress website, your domain might be [your_subdomain].wordpress.com or when you publish a ShortStack campaign, it might be 1.shortstack.page.

ShortStack allows you to publish to a custom domainWith ShortStack, you can indicate your custom domain is the domain you want to use instead of one of the default options we provide. For example, if your company is Doug’s Lawn Service, you can direct people to www.dougslawnservice.com for a contest you are running.You could also use a subdomain, like contests.dougslanwservice.com or a path like www.dougslawnservice.com/contests. The custom domain option is available on our Pro Plan and higher. Here’s more information on publishing to a custom domain.Once you have published to a custom domain, you can add a DNS TXT entry to your DNS record for your domain to verify it.

Solution 2: Embed your campaign on your website that has a verified domain

Do your clients use a custom domain for their website? It’s likely they do. When publishing your ShortStack campaign, you can embed a campaign to a website. If you choose this option and you want to track your Facebook ad conversion events, then the website you embed to must be verified according to one of the verification methods provided by Facebook. The embed option is available on all ShortStack plans. Learn more about embedding.

ShortStack's embed option is available on all plansIf you have any questions about the above solutions, feel free to reach out to our support team by emailing theteam@shortstacklab.com.

Interested in learning more about what ShortStack can do for your business?

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About the author

By Jane Vance ・2 min read

Jane has over a decade of martech experience, with an emphasis in content marketing, UX, and customer success. Her combined skillset and years of hands-on experience make her a valuable player in the industry. In her free time, Jane loves quiet family dinners at home and a good book.

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