What are view tags/impression tags?

This feature provides the ability to track impressions using third-party view tags which come in a form of a valid URL provided by your tracking partner. View tags reside on the ad level of Facebook campaign structure. Facebook has its own view tag program that specifically enables measurement across publishers in addition to its own conversion measurement.

Note: Advertiser has to be whitelisted by Facebook to use view tags when creating campaigns in Facebook Ads Manager or in the Smartly.io tool.

View tags enable you to track conversions taking place on your website after a user has seen your ad on Facebook, but has not necessarily clicked the ad. View tags will drop a cookie on the user's computer when the ad is shown and if the same user later visits the page on your website where the tracking script has been installed from your view tag provider, the conversion is then attributed to that particular view tag and ad.

Check if you're whitelisted

On Facebook you can check whether you are whitelisted (if you are not sure) by going to Ads Manager to the ad creation section:

If you are not whitelisted, you will get an error:

"Permissions error: Not Allowed To Use View Tags: Only some partners are allowed to use view tags. Please verify that you are using an approved account and application."

Setting up view tags in Smartly.io - Automatically

If you are using the DoubleClick integration, you can just follow the steps in the DoubleClick article and the view tags will be automatically populated for new creatives.

Setting up view tags in Smartly.io - Manually

Campaign wide

In Smartly.io you can add view tags in the Tracking section of the campaign wizard by pasting them into a corresponding form field.

These view tags would be applied to every ad in the campaign. You can use Smartly.io Macros to customize you tags for precise tracking. 

For every creative

You can use creative specific view tags if you want to track impressions with different tags for each creative. Smartly.io Macros are supported.

Mind: view tags in creative will override campaign wide view tags and are not going to be updated even when campaign wide view tags are updated. They can only be edited inside of corresponding creative. Use them wisely. Campaign wide view tags with Smartly.io Macros usually provide enough flexibility for most tracking setups and is a preferable way to go.

Verifying view tags setup

To verify view tags were applied to your ads go to Ad Preview and ensure correct view tags are displayed.

Smartly.io Macros in view tags

You can use Smartly.io Macros to enhance your tracking precision.

Facebook validates the view tags in campaign creation.

If the view tag is invalid, you will get an error:

"Invalid parameter: Invalid View Tags: The view tags are invalid."

Example of a valid view tag URL

https://ad.doubleclick.net/ddm/trackimp/N2424.234224.FACEBOOK/B43234324.2343243243;dc_trk_aid=234234324;dc_trk_cid=2342343243;ord=43543535;dc_lat=;dc_rdid=;tag_for_child_directed_treatment=?

Important considerations

• Only certain view tag vendors are approved by Facebook. If you are not sure whether your view tag vendor is whitelisted by Facebook, ask for confirmation to the vendor or to Facebook (your Smartly.io Account Manager can also ask on your behalf).
• View tags cannot be used in campaigns that are targeting custom audiences.
• The view tags are always valid URLs. HTML is not possible.
• Please make sure your View tag url remains within the same domain as in the Link URL used.
• Facebook servers should be able to establish a connection with the tag server.
• The final destination URL of the tag is a 1x1 pixel.
• The final destination URL of the tag contains a valid SSL/TLS certificate.
• The tag does not drop more than one cookie.
• The size of the cookie is less than 1024 characters (1 kb).
• Facebook servers receive a response from the tag server in less than one second.
• The tag does not redirect, except as necessary to pull down the 1x1 image and then only from the same domain as the tag.
• If your view tag vendor allows you to have unique parameters for each page load, Facebook’s system places a timestamp or random number into the url when the following string of characters are found in either the click or view tag: INSERT_TIMESTAMP_HERE [timestamp] [time] [CACHEBUSTER] %time% INSERT_RANDOM_NUMBER [RANDOM] [RANDNUM]
• View tags only work on desktop based apps
• View tags are not eligible to run on Mobile