Meta started rolling out First Conversion reporting recently, and I’ve had fun discovering some helpful ways to use it.

In this post and video, I’m going to give you a specific example of how it helped me solve a problem.

The Setup

I’m running an ad promoting my Cornerstone Advertising Tips lead magnet. The ad sends people to a unique landing page and form that are only used for this ad. And once they register using this form, they get a special tag.

Because of that, reporting in Ads Manager should never be higher than the total number of people who get that tag. The only reason these two numbers would be different is if Ads Manager didn’t report them.

As we know, Ads Manager underreporting is always possible due to someone sharing the ad or other tracking issues. When Ads Manager appears to be over reporting, there is almost always a reason — and First Conversion reporting might help you find it.

The Problem and Solution

In my situation, Ads Manager was reporting 32 registrations…

Meanwhile, my CRM showed only 29.

How is this possible?

Using the Compare Attributions feature and selecting both First Conversion and All Conversions, I was presented with the following results…

• All Conversions: 32
• First Conversion: 29

This matches what I have in the CRM. While this isn’t 100% proof that the First Conversion reporting consists entirely of the 29 people in my CRM, it’s certainly possible. And I can come up with a scenario why the three extra conversions would happen.

The likely explanation is that three of these people registered for a second lead magnet after the first one, resulting in the inflated reporting. When using First Conversion, those three were removed.