Why You’re Missing Comments on Your Ad Campaigns: Our Investigation into Third Party Platforms

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT and SOURCES:

It’s one of the most common Facebook ad types. And there’s a very good chance you are not seeing any comments on it. Today, our investigation into why most third-party social media tools can’t see these comments, and why most aren’t telling you.

It’s Monday, January 11th, 2021.

I’m Tod Maffin from engageQ digital. And here is what you missed, today in digital marketing.

PCO

Buckle in, friends, this first story is going to need some explaining. But — if you manage your brand or client’s social media channels, trust me when I say this is critically important.

As you know, Facebook — like most platforms — has an API. An API is some code that lets third-party tools get access to data. That way, you can use the tool you like, instead of having to do everything on Facebook.

And that’s great, because if your job includes monitoring and replying to comments on your brand’s page, trying to do it on Facebook is a mess. Third party tools can organize those comments better, let you escalate internally, set priorities, and a bunch of other stuff.

But it’s not always that simple.

Not everything that’s on Facebook’s platform is in their API. Take Instagram direct messages, for instance. Not in the API. So third-party tools can’t see them at all. Some post types like Offers and Checkins aren’t in the API either, so no tool can publish those.

And one of the big gaps has been comments on ads that have been created using Dynamic Creative. That the one where you give Facebook like 6 images and 6 headlines and it creates 36 different ads out of those combinations. For whatever reason, comments on ads set up like THAT are ALSO NOT in the API. So if you’ve used that format for your ad post, and somebody comments on it, you will NOT see it in any third-party tool.

Well, add one more type to the mix — one that in OUR investigation, even most of the third-party tools THEMSELVES don’t know whether they support it.

Here at our agency, we ran an ad campaign for one of our clients — a very well known international candy brand. And we set it up using Placement Asset Customization. 

What is that? This is that part in Facebook’s ad campaign setup where it says “Oh hey, that’s a horizontal image you’ve used for that news feed ad. Did you want to also give us a square image for Instagram, and a vertical one for Stories?”

To be clear, this is NOT Dynamic Creative that I’m talking about. These images you give Facebook in Placement Asset Customization do NOT get rotated, like they would in Dynamic Creative. All you’re doing is saying — “Look, use the right format and dimensions for each placement.”

And this PAC ad setup is something that a LOT of brands and agencies use. A LOT.

I’ll venture to say most don’t realize they’re not seeing comments on those.

We certainly didn’t. We ran that campaign using PAC. And found out to our horror that OUR Third Party tool, Sprout Social, wasn’t pulling comments on that ad in.

So we reached out to them to ask why not.

And this is where things get confusing. Sprout Social took a week to get us a final answer — and that answer wasn’t clear. They pointed us to a support page that talked mostly about Dynamic Creative and mentions PAC,  but it’s not clear at all that they don’t pull those comments in. They do have another support document that lists what comment and post types they DON’T support — Dynamic Creative is there… Instagram DMs is there… but Placement Asset Customization is noticeably absent. Even though they say they don’t support it.

Worse, the manager of customer support there wouldn’t commit to adding that lack-of-support to the document. She just said she’d “share your feedback with our Help Center team.”

That was last week. That document STILL doesn’t list PAC as one of the types they can’t see.

I’m not dumping on Sprout. We like Sprout here. This is happening almost everywhere.

Knowing what your third-party tool does and does not support is crucial. If you didn’t know that Instagram DMs aren’t supported, you might be thinking nobody’s messaging your brand. Meanwhile, people ARE and are just being ignored.

So, in our story meeting last week, we wondered: How do the OTHER third-party tools disclose this apparent API omission.

We asked nine of the top social media platforms last week whether they support seeing comments on ads created using PAC. Remember: PAC is very commonly used.

And the results were disappointing to say the least.

Hootsuite didn’t even bother to reply to our inquiry. But hey, maybe they didn’t even see our tweet. After all, they probably use Hootsuite. Neither did SocialOomph or Post Planner.

Sendible offered a vague answer saying you could only manage comments on a page timeline. When we asked for clarification, they said it while it “looks possible from the API to see those comments,” they weren’t really sure if they’d implemented that, and told us if we wanted to know the answer, we would need to sign up as a customer and try it out for ourselves.

Sprout Social, as I mentioned, says they DON’T support PAC, but doesn’t list that lack of support on the document which is designed for that very purpose.

The enterprise tool Sprinklr responded by saying “Well, you can see those comments for metrics,” which didn’t make a lot of sense. When we asked “Yeah, but can you see the comments in the inbox so people can reply to them,” they stopped answering. Their VP eventually told us, yes, they do support it. But when we asked for a document showing what they do and do not support, we got a screenshot of a document that said they can fetch organic, boosted, and sponsored posts. Nothing about Dynamic Creative or Instagram DMs or any of the others.

Only they and one other tool said definitely they DO support PAC. 

Zoho Social wasn’t one of those. Turns out they can’t handle ANY ad comments.

Social Pilot was also a no, saying “you wouldn’t be able to manage comments you get on those ads.”

The other one? Agorapulse. And after they spent a weekend trying to figure out it, they were eventually  clear about it. “Facebook ads that appear on Facebook feed set up using Placement Asset Customization are indeed retrieved on Agorapulse and will appear under "Ads comments" filter.” Their Inbox Product Manager told us today: “I've done some digging and could not find any documented API limitations related to PAC.” 

But — even THEIR document of what comment types they support and what they do not, show only a single checkmark beside Ad Comments. Nothing to indicate that Dynamic Creative isn’t supported.

That’s nine platforms. Only two eventually said with certainty they support seeing comments on Placement Asset Customization. Which means the API *MUST* support it. Otherwise they wouldn’t be able to see it.

REMEMBER — This is critically important information for a social media manager to know. If your ad team places an ad that uses this very common feature, then it’s likely you won’t see those comments at all. Unless, apparently, you use Agorapulse. 

So what’s going on here? Luke Elliot, a senior Facebook ads consultant who is in our Slack group thinks he knows what’s happening. Apparently he went through a lengthy back and forth with Facebook a year ago about whether using Placement Asset Customization essentially turns off comments for that ad.

Quoting Luke: “Their official response at the time was this - that you couldn’t access the comments for Dynamic Creative or Placement Asset Customization posts (but honestly the internal dev teams seemed pretty confused by this and it was more like a “Huh I guess you can’t get these. Sorry”). 

“However, I have found that you CAN successfully access them, provided that you have the correct link for the specific post associated with where the comments appear (normally accessible by going through the Ad Preview option to grab the specific post link). I’ve been able to use the Graph API Explorer as the proof of concept method to make sure these are actually accessible via the API. 

The big thing to note is that you have to use an App Access token, and not a User Access Token, in order to successfully implement the extract. Otherwise it throws permissions errors.

I just tested today, and was able to access using this method.”

Which brings us back to the original question. If, indeed, comments on PAC ads **ARE** in the API after all, why do so many third party platforms either not support them, or — worse — aren’t even SURE if they support it or not. We asked all of these tools for a document that showed which post types they support and do not. Most ignored that question, but of the ones that DID have a document, none of them were accurate — at least in terms of this and the Dynamic Creative issues.

So. Three takeaways.

First — and this is a message to those of you **AT** these third-party tools, and I know a lot of YOU listen. There is no excuse for failing to tell your customers what you do and do not support. To their credit, Sprout Social’s list of unsupported post types is very comprehensive and clear. It’s probably the best of the bunch. But it’s missing this BIG one. Even a week after we pointed it out, their inability to see comments on PAC post types is STILL not on there. Sharing our feedback with your documentation team is not good enough. If you don’t support it, say so.

Second, now that we know it’s in the API after all, support the damned thing. People who place ads on Facebook and get prompted by that “Hey you should pop a square and vertical image too” probably have NO IDEA that by doing that, they’re turning off the ability to see comments in their tool of choice. Since I’d venture to bet a LOT of people use that, this should be a top priority. NOT supporting those kinds of ad types is a glaring omission.

And third, if you use a third-party tool to see the comments on your brand’s Facebook ads — unless you use Agorapulse or Sprinklr, tell whoever is creating your ads to stop using Placement Asset Customization. Because you will not see those comments.

What Is Not Supported

Before we move on to the other news of the day, I do want to read a bit from that Sprout Social list. Most, if not all, of these post types can’t surface comments because they’re not supported in the API.

And while you might know of the big omissions, like Instagram DMs, you might be surprised about what other post types you’re not seeing comments on.

So besides Instagram DMs, there’s another black hole on Instagram, and that’s comments on IGTV posts.

On Facebook, comments on Facebook Lives and comments on Facebook Events aren’t supported by Sprout and likely others. Facebook Mentions, Offers, and Checkins also can’t be posted.

On Twitter, you also won’t see @mentions about your brand if that mention came from a private account. The exception to this is if you follow each other, just like on the native platform.

And on LinkedIn: Mentions aren’t surfaced, and neither are Comments on Video posts. That I didn’t realize either.

Again, this is a list of what Sprout Social doesn’t support. It’s probably the case that no other platforms can pick these up too, but you’ll want to check your own tool, and — while you’re at it — ask them for a complete list of what post types they do NOT support, lest you find yourself at the uncomfortable end of a conversation with your client or boss about why you didn’t see the comments.

Snapchat Events

Snapchat seems on the verge of launching a new service that will help people gather for in-person events.

Quoting SocialMediaToday.com: “Back in 2019, reverse engineering expert Jane Wong uncovered a new feature within the Snapchat app code for 'Events', which would enable users to add event details into a sticker that they could then add to their Snaps, and invite their friends to join.

This week, Patent Drop has reported that Snapchat has indeed filed a new patent for its coming Events feature.

Snapchat events would be activated via a sticker, which would include all of the relevant event information. The sticker could then be displayed in Snaps, while the details would also be listed on the Snap Map of those who are attending, along with the avatars of attendees.”

Patent Drop has given some thought to the digital marketing opportunities here: 

"Snap could create interesting partnerships with local merchants who want to offer deals for groups to come to their location. For example, imagine a Snap partnership with Starbucks where if users select the ‘who wants to meet me for a coffee?’ filter, users are recommended the nearest Starbucks as a location." That could open up a new local marketing option, where businesses look to promote their location as a meet-up spot within the 'Place' selection drop-down, maybe by sharing a discount offer as part of the promotion. That could also be further facilitated by Snap's recent acquisition of location data company Street Cred.

Snapchat has not given a release date for it.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/snapchats-working-on-a-new-events-option-to-facilitate-irl-meet-ups/593175/?utm_campaign=TodayInDigital.com 

Google Ads Verification

There is other news of course today. 

Google Ads is starting to ramp up its verification program. They told us about this back in March, but now some digital marketers are reporting they’re getting emails that are a little more, well, threatening.

Someone posted on Twitter an email THEY got saying “You must start verification by February 06, 2021. Your ads will continue to serve while we review your information. If you don't complete verification, your account will be paused."

So if you get that request from Google, you probably should jump on that.

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ads-identity-verification-30734.html?utm_campaign=TodayInDigital.com

Google Index Coverage

Google Search Console’s Index Coverage report is getting some TLC in the form of four updates. These changes should keep brand managers more up to speed on indexing issues.

Those updates are:

1. Removal of the generic "crawl anomaly" issue type - all crawls errors should now be mapped to an issue with a finer resolution.
2. Pages that were submitted but blocked by robots.txt and got indexed are now reported as "indexed but blocked" (warning) instead of "submitted but blocked" (error)
3. Addition of a new issue: "indexed without content" (warning)
4. Soft 404 reporting is now more accurate

Those changes should be live now, and may be responsible for small changes in the number of issues listed.

https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2021/01/index-coverage-data-improvements?utm_campaign=TodayInDigital.com 

FB Political Ads

And finally, lots of turmoil in America around the election. 

From the digital marketing side of things, the only effect it may have on your work is that Facebook today announced that “In addition to the indefinite suspension of President Trump’s account that we announced on January 7, we’re keeping our pause in place on all ads in the US about politics or elections. This means that we aren’t allowing any ads from politicians, including President Trump.”

So, if you’re running marketing for a political candidate or group, you’re still on hold.

Facebook also today said they’ve started removing content referencing the phrase “stop the steal” on its platform. I know, it made for a catchy line in your sunglasses sale, but — you know, better avoid that one for now.

B-Young from the U.S. reviewed this podcast on iTunes saying it’s “A must for any digital content creators!”

Thank you for that. 

We work really hard trying to give you information about digital marketing that you’re not getting elsewhere. Today’s investigation on platforms not supporting certain post types is an example.

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Today in Digital Marketing is hosted by Tod Maffin (https://TodMaffin.com) and produced by engageQ digital (https://engageQ.com). Subscribe at https://TodayInDigital.com or wherever you get your podcasts.