Small audience size shown on Facebook despite large audiences in Adobe Experience Platform
This article discusses the issue of the Facebook audience appearing significantly smaller than the large audience sizes within Adobe when transferring audience segments from the Adobe Experience Platform to Facebook. Explore the reasons behind this issue and what steps to take to ensure audience sizes are accurately represented across both platforms.
Description description
Environment
- Adobe Experience Platform
- Audience activation
Issue/Symptoms
When sending audiences from the Adobe Experience Platform to Facebook, the audience size appears significantly smaller on Facebook (under 1000) compared to the large audience sizes within Adobe. This discrepancy occurs despite using email addresses for segmentation.
Resolution resolution
To address this issue and ensure larger audience sizes are reflected correctly on Facebook:
Check Dataflow Activity
Ensure that dataflows between Adobe Experience Platform and Facebook are active and running as expected.
If no dataflow runs have occurred recently, reactivate the segments to trigger new dataflows.
Adjust Identity Mapping
Verify that identity mappings align with recommended practices (see Supported Identities).
- source:
email or sha256(email). If your source field contains unhashed attributes, check the Apply transformation option to have platform automatically hash the data on activation* - destination:
identityMap.email_lc_sha256
This ensures proper hashing of email addresses before they are sent to Facebook.
Include Additional Identifiers
Consider adding phone numbers along with email addresses when setting up your audiences in Adobe Experience Platform. Including multiple identifiers can improve match rates on platforms like Facebook.
Monitor Population Changes
After making adjustments, monitor the population changes on both Adobe Experience Platform and Facebook.
Check if there is an increase in audience size on Facebook after reactivating segments or adjusting mappings.
Backfill Activated Segments
Perform a backfill for all activated segments to ensure all relevant data is pushed through to the destination.
Review Match Rates
Compare match rates between Adobe’s reported audience size and what is displayed on Facebook.
A lower-than-expected match rate may indicate issues with how identities are being matched or ingested into either platform.
Also, a population under 1000 on Facebook is usually deemed not enough for marketing campaigns as the reach is too small. With that in mind, you may want to test further using a larger size audience from AEP to activate on Facebook.
By following these steps, you should be able to resolve discrepancies between audience sizes seen within the Adobe Experience Platform versus those observed on external platforms such as Facebook, ensuring more accurate targeting capabilities across your marketing efforts.