Meta is inviting more advertisers to implement a GA4 integration with their Meta Events Manager. This allows you to map GA4 events to your Meta events.
But the question is why should we do it in the first place?
Let’s investigate…
Meta’s Own Words
Meta’s only current page of documentation is a step-by-step guide. But there’s no explicit mention of benefits.
You may have seen a notification that invites you to apply this integration.
It starts:
Connect Google Analytics to get early access to updates that can help improve campaign performance…
Did you see that? The implementation doesn’t necessarily change performance. It’s the potential early access to updates.
It continues:
Advertisers who maintain a high-quality connection will get early access to new ad system updates that provided an additional 5% average increase in conversions driven by Meta in their analytics tools.
Wait. So, does this improve attribution in Ads Manager? Or in the other analytics tools, like GA4? It certainly reads like this is for other analytics tools.
No Evidence in Events Manager
While advertisers have assumed this improves attribution in Ads Manager, I’m not sure it does. Not only does Meta’s documentation not support this claim, but there is nothing in Events Manager after setting it up that would make this evident.
Once you’ve set up Conversions API, the benefits of its implementation are highlighted repeatedly across Events Manager. You see the events that came in from it.
Meta will tell you the additional conversions that were attributed because you set it up.
But nothing like this exists for the GA4 integration. Whatever is happening is invisible to the advertiser.
My Interpretation
Since there isn’t record of new events coming into Events Manager, it feels safe to assume that the integration itself will not improve attribution in Ads Manager. Maybe we’ll get access to new updates that will somehow help, but any potential updates are a complete mystery.
My guess is that this integration is intended to help GA4 attribute conversions to Meta. We know that this is otherwise an issue currently, which lowers advertiser confidence in Meta advertising. If Meta can improve that picture with third-party tools like GA4, advertisers may spend more.
It sure would be helpful if Meta spelled out the benefits and risks involved. Make sure to read my blog post where I discuss this and more about the GA4 integration.
