MI: Using the Measurement Pixel

Factual's Measurement Intelligence solution enables you to measure the impact of your campaign by having Factual receive your campaign’s ad exposures and then tie them to post-ad-exposure store visits for attribution.

Factual's Measurement Pixel is one way you can send your campaign's ad exposures to Factual for processing. It is a snippet of code that triggers a call to a Factual URL for the purpose of recording an ad event that will be used for attribution.

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Note

If you have set aside your own control group for Factual to conduct a conversion lift study, you must designate a placement or placements for the control group and provide the corresponding placement ID(s) of those control group placements to Factual. Factual will then be able to do the conversion lift study in the course of generating the Measurement Report.

If you do not set aside your own control group, but want Factual to conduct a conversion lift study, Factual will to generate a control group for a conversion lift study.

Pixel URL Structure

The main element of Factual's Measurement Pixel is a URL that triggers a request to Factual when the ad is served.

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Measurement Pixel URL Structure

https://p.factual.com/m?platform={Factual-provided-identifier-for-the-adtech-partner-platform}
&buyer={Factual-provided-identifier-for-the-buyer}
&design_id={Factual-provided-identifier-for-this-instantiation-of-the-pixel}
&id={mobile-advertising-ID-of-the-user}
&idfa={mobile-advertising-ID-for-iPhones}
&adid={mobile-advertising-ID-for-Android-phones}
&campaign={campaign-identifier-provided-by-adtech-partner-platform}
&placement={placement-identifier-provided-by-adtech-partner-platform}
&creative={creative-identifier-provided-by-adtech-partner-platform}
&ext1={optional-custom-parameter}
&ext2={optional-custom-parameter}
&ext3={optional-custom-parameter}
&ext4={optional-custom-parameter}
&ext5={optional-custom-parameter}
&cache={random-number-for-cache-busting}

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On Device ID Macros

The preferred implementation of the Factual pixel is to use the id={your_macro} which captures MAIDs for all mobile device types. Some platforms have different macros for iPhones and Android phones. In this case, use &idfa={your_macro}&adid={your_macro}.

Do not use: both id= and idfa=&adid=.

The pixel URL contains key-value parameters described in the table below.

ParameterDescriptionHow the parameter value is provided
platformRequired. Identifier for the partner platform serving the adFactual populates this value when configuring the pixel for your campaign.
buyerRequired. Identifier for the party buying the Measurement Report from FactualFactual populates this value when configuring the pixel for your campaign.
design_idRequired. Identifier for this instantiation of the pixelFactual populates this value when configuring the pixel for your campaign.
campaignRequired. Campaign IdentifierYou must populate this with your platform's appropriate substitution macro for "campaign ID". That macro should automatically get substituted with the actual campaign ID when the ad is served.
idDevice Identifier.You must populate this with your platform's appropriate substitution macro for "mobile advertising ID" (MAID). That macro should automatically get substituted with the actual MAID when the ad is served.
idfaiPhone Device Identifier.You must populate this with your platform's appropriate substitution macro for specifically for iPhones. That macro should automatically get substituted with the actual MAID when the ad is served. Do not use this in conjunction with the id= macro.
adidAndroid Device Identifier.You must populate this with your platform's appropriate substitution macro for specifically for iPhones. That macro should automatically get substituted with the actual MAID when the ad is served. Do not use this in conjunction with the id= macro.
placementPlacement IdentifierYou should populate this with your platform's appropriate substitution macro for "placement ID". That macro should automatically get substituted with the actual placement ID when the ad is served.
creativeCreative Identifier/Ad IdentifierYou should populate this with your platform's appropriate substitution macro for "creative ID". That macro should automatically get substituted with the actual creative ID when the ad is served.
ext1 - ext5Optional custom parametersYou should populate this with any optional parameters you wish to provide.
cacheRequired. Random number/timestamp for cache busting purposeYou should populate this with your platform's appropriate substitution macro for any random number value.

Implementing the Pixel

Many ad serving platforms and DSPs have comprehensive tools for managing both creative elements and tracking pixels. These tools allow users to directly paste the URL for any pixel into a defined field within the creative setup form. This field is called something like “3rd Party Impression Trackers”. Adding the Factual pixel to this screen should cause our pixel to fire when the ad is served.

Alternatively, if your media partners do not have a defined field for adding 3rd party pixels, the Factual pixel URL can be embedded directly in your ad tag as a 1x1 image tag with the appropriate <img> code. The pixel code is typically added to the ad tag after the closing </ins> tag. This whole HTML block is then trafficked in the media platform or adserver.