After months of testing, Facebook has launched its new Attribution dashboard, which will enable advertisers to get more in-depth insight into how each element of their Facebook presence is performing, including data on contribution to sales and comparative measurement.

Called simply 'Facebook Attribution', the new tool aims to provide more data to help inform your approach - as explained by Facebook.

"Traditional marketing attribution tools that rely solely on cookies and last-click attribution may not be giving you a complete picture of which parts of your advertising really drive business outcomes. Facebook Attribution is an advertising measurement tool designed to give you a more complete picture of your customer journey, so you can make smarter business decisions."

And there are certainly some interesting insights - for example, you can track each element of your Facebook presence, which, along with Pixel data, will give you a better idea of how each is impacting your bottom line.

The dashboard incorporates data from various sources, including Facebook Insights, the Facebook pixel, app events and Offline Conversions, which, in combination, provides a clearer picture of actual performance, as opposed to more general summaries of Facebook engagement alone.

There are also insights into device usage and how users are converting, providing a more direct connection between Facebook ad exposure and results.

This is a key element - social media ROI has long been a questionable aspect, with the real impact of social on conversions being somewhat questionable, because we don't know how exposure to a social ad actually contributes to, say, an in-store conversion. Facebook Attribution doesn't solve this, but it does move a step towards greater transparency, and better tracking of how social drives business results.

Facebook Attribution also provides 'randomized controlled experiments', which enables you to measure the estimated incremental impact of all your marketing efforts across Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network and Messenger by using Facebook's data-driven attribution modeling.

There's a heap to take in - it'll take some experimentation of your own to get a full understanding of the potential value of the new data reports for your business.

As noted, the key element Facebook Attribution is focused on is proving social ROI, and better linking online ad efforts to offline conversions and bottom line sales. We still have a way to go before we have streamlined, accurate systems to track such, but Attribution provides new tools to assist, and better measure your Facebook performance. 

You can check out Facebook Attribution for yourself here.