What: The BlueConic Facebook Advertising Connection allows you to enrich Facebook Advertising with data from BlueConic. Export segment or profile data to reach targeted audiences more effectively with digital advertising. This connection supports batch export (server-to-server custom audience sync) and real-time export (via Facebook pixel implementation).
With this connection you can:
- Export profile data in batch runs to Facebook events via the Facebook (Meta) Conversion API.
- Export segments in batch runs to create custom audiences in Facebook Advertising.
- Export profile data in real-time to Facebook Advertising via the Facebook pixel implementation.
About BlueConic: The BlueConic Customer Data Platform harnesses the data required to power the recognition of an individual at each interaction, and then synchronizes their intent across the marketing ecosystem.
Why: By sending segmentation and user profile property data to Facebook, you can more effectively reach targeted audiences with digital ads on Facebook and Instagram. Target any contact in CRM with server-to-server sync, or any known or anonymous user via the pixel. With this capability, you can stop targeting entire segments of visitors who are not a good fit for your advertising campaigns, or create new look-alike audiences based on data from your highest-performing customers or known and anonymous users.
Required Facebook permissions and terms of service
In order to authenticate this connection to Facebook, you need to have a Facebook business manager account or have been given the correct permissions via a business manager account.
Before using the connection, be sure to review Facebook's Custom Audiences Terms of Service. Effectively, this means you should make sure you provide appropriate notice to, and secure any necessary consent from your users. Also, you should offer visitors an option to opt out, so their data will not be uploaded via BlueConic to Facebook.
NOTE: In order to view the Facebook Custom Audiences terms of service, you need to be signed in to Facebook and have an account linked to an Ads Manager account. For example, to access the terms of service for a Facebook advertising account number 12345, you would use the URL https://business.facebook.com/ads/manage/customaudiences/tos/?act=12345.
Adding a Facebook Advertising Connection
- Click Connections in the navigation bar.
- Click Add Connection.
- A pop-up window appears. Check the Show all box. Enter "Facebook" in the Search bar.
Click Facebook Advertising Connection.
- The Facebook Advertising Connection page opens. You can expand or collapse metadata fields (favorite, labels, and description) by clicking the gray chevron at the top of the page.
- In the metadata section you can choose whether to get email notifications when the connection runs or fails to run.
- Save your settings.
Configuring a Facebook Advertising connection
Start by authenticating your connection between BlueConic and Facebook Advertising in the Set up and run page of your Facebook Connection window. Setup instructions differ depending on how you plan to integrate your data using this connection:
- For batch connections, to sync audiences using BlueConic segment data, you use an Authentication link to connect with your Facebook Advertising account.
- For real-time connections you use enter a Facebook Pixel ID, for your Facebook Advertising account.
Authenticating a Facebook Advertising connection
Follow the steps below to authenticate your connection to Facebook.
- Click Set up and run in the Facebook Advertising connection.
- For batch connections, click Connect with Facebook and log in with your Facebook credentials. Select the advertising account that you will be using.
- For real-time connections via pixel, enter the value for your Facebook Pixel ID. You can retrieve or create a Facebook pixel in Facebook via "Events manager > Pixels > Create pixel / retrieve ID".
NOTE: If you have multiple pixel IDs in your Facebook Advertising account, you can create an additional instance of the Facebook Advertising Connection for each pixel ID. - Optional: If you want to restrict the channels or URLs where the real-time export is active, select the channels and URLs. The standard is that the real-time export is active on all pages on all channels. (Required only for real-time export.)
Troubleshooting your connection
If you receive Facebook error messages during the authentication process, your Facebook user account has failed a security checkpoint at Facebook and needs to be reset (also at Facebook). This error occurs outside of BlueConic and you need to resolve your Facebook account authentication errors before proceeding:
- Clear your browser's cache.
- Log into your Facebook account.
- Follow the steps to re-authenticate your account with Facebook.
- Continue setting up your Facebook Advertising connection in BlueConic.
Resolving terms of service errors
If you receive an error message saying "No business manager linked to advertising account," your organization's Facebook Business Account needs to accept the Facebook TOS (terms of service). Make sure that use your Facebook Business Account to accept the TOS; do not use your personal Facebook account for this step.
If you’ve followed these troubleshooting steps and still have an issue running the connection, contact BlueConic Support for assistance.
Exporting profile data to Facebook events
Add a goal to export BlueConic profile data to Facebook events by clicking the Add goal button and selecting Export data to Facebook events. Follow the steps in the goal to configure it.
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Select a BlueConic segment
Select a BlueConic segment. Only profiles in this segment will be exported. -
Link identifiers between BlueConic and Facebook
Link BlueConic profiles to Facebook profiles by mapping the identifiers from both systems. It is recommended to match by unique identifiers such as email address or phone number. You can also match by a combination of profile data, such as city, age, and name. Identifiers with hashed values are also supported.
NOTE: Only use identifiers if they are retrieved with proper consent. -
Export BlueConic Timeline event data to Facebook events
Map BlueConic Timeline event data to Facebook events in the event table. NOTE: Only Timeline events from the last 7 days will be exported.
NOTE: Some Facebook events have required associated properties. Make sure to include all of the correct properties. For example, if "website" is used as a value for "action_source," the property "event_source_url" becomes mandatory to include. You can find a list of all Facebook events and their required properties in the Facebook Meta documentation. -
Run the connection
Save your settings and run the connection.
Creating Facebook Custom Audiences via batch segment export
You can use BlueConic segments to create Facebook Custom Audiences. Using the batch segment export enables you to retarget people on Facebook who have not been to your website recently but whose contact information you have. For example, your CRM system might have contact information because someone made a purchase in your store or called your call center, or because their email address is in your ESP.
To make the most of Facebook Custom Audiences you should create as many identifiable profiles as possible by integrating with your CRM, ESP, and manual or scheduled imports that contain a lot of identifiers. When using custom audience mapping, BlueConic will automatically create a new custom audience in Facebook, and daily push all profiles into that audience that are associated to the mapped segment. Only profiles with an email address known by Facebook will be pushed into the audience. No additional profile data will be pushed to Facebook.
Notes about using the batch export method
The batch export goal uses a server-side batch integration that matches on unique IDs such email address. This method is only for known profiles. An added benefit is that this method is not dependent on a web visit. So if you have segment of customers who previously purchased, you can push that audience to Facebook Ads, even if they haven't been to your site in many months (or ever).
Facebook account permissions
In order to create a custom audience, you must be the owner of the ad account connected to the Meta business manager, or the owner of the ad account must have provided you with admin or advertiser permissions.
Before using this goal, be sure to read Facebook's Custom Audiences Terms of Service.
Setting up the batch export goal
Add a goal to synchronize BlueConic segment information with Facebook's Custom Audiences by clicking the Add goal button and selecting Facebook Custom Audiences (batch export). Follow the steps in the goal to configure it.
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Link identifiers between BlueConic and Facebook
Link identifiers for matching profiles between both systems. Matching by email address is recommended. Identifiers with hashed values are also supported.
Click Add mapping to add more multiple matching options, such as phone number, first name, last name, city, state/province, country, zip/postal code, date of birth, year of birth, month of birth, gender, or mobile advertiser ID. See Facebook's best practices for choosing identifiers for custom audiences.
If you are using the same Facebook Advertising account on all of your channels and you have the visitor's consent to store their Facebook ID in the BlueConic profile, you can click Show advanced identifiers and link another property identifier to the Facebook ID.
The advanced identifier does not have to be a unique identifier (such as email or phone number), but can be any profile property. -
Map BlueConic segments to Facebook custom audiences
Map your BlueConic segments to custom audiences on Facebook. You can add as many mappings as necessary. Select an existing audience or create a new one by typing a new name. After the connection runs for the first time, new audiences will appear as a custom audience created by BlueConic.
NOTE: To prevent connection errors, we recommend removing special characters such as dashes and hyphens from Facebook custom audience names.
For the connection to work, you need to click Accept TOS to accept Facebook's Custom Audience Terms of Service. To view and accept the terms of service, you need to be signed in to Facebook and have an account linked to an Ads Manager account. For example, to access the terms of service for a Facebook advertising account number 12345, you would use the URL https://business.facebook.com/ads/manage/customaudiences/tos/?act=12345. Be sure to use your organization's Business Account to accept the Facebook terms of service (not your personal Facebook account).
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Select whether to create events for each exported profile to be counted toward lifecycle thresholds
If you are using this Facebook Connection goal in a BlueConic Lifecycle, you can choose to have these exports counted toward lifecycle stage thresholds for profiles being exported.
Learn more about stage thresholds in BlueConic lifecycles. -
Run the connection
Save your settings and run the connection.
Retargeting visitors via real-time export with a Facebook pixel
Using real-time export to Facebook with a pixel is useful if you want to retarget people on Facebook who have been to your website in the last few days or weeks. The real-time export also works for visitors who are still anonymous to BlueConic. When using the pixel, BlueConic sends profile data to Facebook whenever the visitor is active on one of your sites. You can then manually create custom audiences in Facebook based on this data. The data can include profile property values but also a list of BlueConic segments the profile is associated with. Only segments that actually exist at the time the visitor is active on the site will be sent to Facebook. This means you can use BlueConic segments in Facebook to create a new custom audience.
There are three different time periods that affect the number of profiles in your real-time export audience:
In period A, the BlueConic script is active and storing data in profile properties. These profiles can be added to a segment even though the segment didn't exist when the person visited the site.
In period B, the Facebook Ads connection is active and sending the associated segments to Facebook through the pixel. Since this connection runs in the browser of the visitor it can only update values when someone decides to visit one of your pages. Since the segment isn't created yet it cannot be sent to Facebook as part of the associated segments.
In period C, the segment is created and sent to Facebook for all Facebook users visiting your website.
The BlueConic segment contains all profiles from periods A, B, and C.
The Facebook pixel has audience data for periods B and C.
The Facebook audience that uses the BlueConic segment contains only profiles from period C.
Notes on using the pixel-based method
- BlueConic can build rich, first-party customer segments to pass to Facebook based on data collected or imported, such as products viewed, last purchase date, propensity to buy, etc. to help you determine which individuals should be included or excluded from paid media.
- The pixel-based approach works for both known and unknown profiles, but it is dependent on a web visit. BlueConic can push customer data in real time while visitors are on your website.
Setting a real-time export goal
To add a new real-time export goal, clicking Add goal and select Export via a pixel to Facebook (real-time). Follow these steps to configure your new goal:
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Select a BlueConic segment to export profile data from.
In the top right-hand corner, the number of profiles available for the export appears.
This number shows how many profiles meet the conditions for the selected segment (for example, they have an email address and gave required consent for ad targeting) and therefore are available for the export. BlueConic tries to export only the profiles that have changed since the last export. This number of profiles exported may be lower than the number displayed here.
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Map BlueConic data to Facebook Advertising.
Select the BlueConic data you want to export to Facebook Advertising and add names for any custom variables.
NOTE: To prevent connection errors, we recommend removing special characters such as dashes and hyphens from Facebook custom audience names.
Click the BlueConic icon to open a drop-down menu where you can switch between the type of information you want to export.
Pick one of:- Profile property: The value of a specific profile property.
- BlueConic profile identifier: The unique identifier for a profile.
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Associated segments: All segments, or a selection of one or more specific segments that the profile is associated with. Click the name to select all segments or only a selection for BlueConic to send to Facebook. By default, BlueConic will use the exact segment name to send, but you can optionally enter a replacement name for BlueConic to send.
Note that to be able to export interactions viewed and segment membership, both "External analytics" checkboxes should be checked at the BlueConic Settings > Privacy tab; however, this makes this data available in the browser.
- Associated lifecycles: All lifecycles this profile is associated with. Learn more about Lifecycles.
- All viewed interactions: The interactions the profile has seen.
- Permission level: The permission level set in the profile.
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Text value: Enter any static text.
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Settings to push data to Facebook Advertising.
Select a push frequency to determine how often information should be exported to Facebook: upon each page view, only when variables change, once per visit, or only when permission levels change.
Optional: Select a BlueConic trigger event that should also trigger an export, in addition to the configured push frequency.
Event name allows you to set the name of the events that BlueConic pushes to Facebook. This will allow you to recognize the events in Facebook.
Events and custom data variables passed to Facebook can be found within Facebook's audience creation tool by selecting "Custom Combination" under "Website Traffic":
Using Facebook Advertising real-time goals with BlueConic Lifecycles
You can add Facebook Advertising real-time connection goals as touchpoints in BlueConic Lifecycles. Here are some key points to keep in mind:
- Exporting Lifecycle stage information to Facebook Advertising: When a Facebook Advertising real-time goal has been added to a Lifecycle, you can use that export goal to send a list of profiles that attain a certain lifecycle stage along their customer journeys and use this information for ad targeting.
- Setting Lifecycle stage restrictions: You can restrict a real-time goal to export only the profiles that are currently part of a certain lifecycle stage.
- Setting thresholds on marketing touchpoints: You can use lifecycle stage thresholds to limit campaign pressure on customer profiles in a certain lifecycle stage. For example, you can make sure a customer is exposed to only 3 marketing touchpoints per week, per month, or per quarter during a particular stage on their customer journey.
Learn more about using BlueConic connections in Lifecycles.
Running the Facebook Advertising connection
Tip: Make sure you have added an export goal or goals before running the connection and saved your configuration.
- Turn the Facebook Advertising connection on and click the Save button to save your settings.
- Go to the Set up and run page. Scroll down to the Run history section.
- To start the export manually, click the Run now button.
- To schedule the export for a future date, click the Settings icon
. Select a scheduling option from the drop-down list:
- Number of times per day
- Days of the week
- Day of the month
- Weekday of the month
Set a time for the export.
Click OK.
Connection Status
Once you've set up and saved your connection, the icon at the top will reflect the status of the connection.
There is an arrow going from BlueConic to Facebook, showing that data is being exported from BlueConic to Facebook. When the arrow is green, the connection is ready to be used.
Data exchange shows you the total number of unique profiles that have been exported via the connection. Note that this shows the number of unique profiles available for export. However, based on limitations set by the Facebook advertising platform, some profiles may not be exported. Also, if the same profile is exported multiple times, it is counted as 1.
Note that the Run history for this connection shows the number of profiles exported via batch exports. For real-time data exports, the number of profiles does not appear in the connection's Run history.
Privacy management
Connections can be added to Objectives, allowing for privacy management of the information that is being picked up. A connection will only process the profiles of visitors who have consented to at least one of the objectives that the connection is linked to.