As of mid-October 2018, the fbclid parameter is associated with many Facebook outbound links. There is currently no comment from Facebook on what exactly fbclid is, but the name of the Facebook parameter leaves room for speculation.
Let’s access the fbclid parameters.
The fbclid parameter that appears in some URLs is similar to the gclid (Google Click ID) parameter of Google Ads. In the Google definition, this parameter is defined as follows:
“GCLID, short for Google Click Identifier, is a unique tracking parameter that Google uses to transfer information between your Google Ads account and your Google Analytics account. “
Ultimately, fbclid is a new type of tracking mechanism that appears to provide valuable information about visitors and their responses to advertisers.
Also, if you’re not signed in to Facebook, you won’t see the outgoing link parameters. We can therefore assume that user-related data is also exchanged here.
Some users have suggested that this parameter bypasses Apple’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention 2.0 (ITP) feature.
Google Ads also has parameters.
If you switch to Google Ads and enable auto-tagging, the tag will automatically be added to each click parameter URL in Google Ads. “gclid”. However, you won’t find this parameter in Google Analytics because Google filters it automatically.
Back to Facebook and its click parameters
Facebook had click parameters for a while. These parameters are added to regular Facebook posts as well as when you click on links in Facebook ads. This parameter contains the “fbclid” key. This parameter is very similar to the Google Ads gclid parameter.
Using this parameter does not directly determine the number of hits to the page/URL. Instead, each time you visit the same web page, Google Analytics now recognizes it as a separate URL.
Background: Why is Facebook doing this?
Although there is no official information yet, we can assume that the Facebook pixel can use these parameters to connect to the click or user in question. This will help you better evaluate your Facebook ad campaigns.
You’ve probably already reviewed your Facebook analytics. There you can find the corresponding values and ratings.
What if I don’t like it? Need a simple solution to your fbclidissue problem?
I’m having trouble adding parameters to URLs that are repeatedly visited by Google Analytics. So there is a very simple way to remove this parameter from the trace. No need to use Google Tag Manager or any other code. You can resolve this issue in the Google Analytics interface.
Remove Click ID from Facebook: Here’s how to do it.
Log in to your Google Analytics account at analytics.google.com and check that the parameters are there. To do this, you need to go to the section “Actions” => “Site Content” => “All Pages” and type ” fbclid ” in the small search bar.
If the “Pageviews” value is higher but not 0, you already have an appropriate scoring parameter. To automatically remove them from URLs, click “Manage” at the bottom left. In the administrator overview, in the left column of data views, click Data View Settings.
In the middle of the settings page there is a form field “Exclude URL search parameters”. Here you can enter the parameter key. For Facebook, it’s ‘fbclid’.
Keeping these settings will remove the parameter from subsequent URLs. But be careful. From now on, this setting only applies to all tracked URLs.
Another solution to hide the fbclid parameters:
Filter 1: Remove the fbclid parameter
Manage > All Filters > Add Filter
Name=’fbclid’ hide parameter
Customize>’Find and Replace’
Filter field=request URI
Search string=(fbclid=[^&]*&?)
Replace string=[empty]>Add to all relevant views and save
Filter 2: Question mark “?” at the end of URL or hide “&”
Follow the same steps as above, but replace ($[?&]$) with [blank]
Additional click IDs from various providers
Besides Facebook and Google Ads, there are many other providers that use this click ID, such as Zanox (“zanpid”) and Microsoft Bing Ads (“mscklid”). You should evaluate each report page and take appropriate action to find parameters that are hindering your report.
Concerns about fbclid parameters and their purpose
While Google allows you at any time to decide and control whether to add parameters to the final URL of your digital marketing campaign, Facebook has started adding fblids without notice and does not allow you to control them. There is no configuration tool or option to enable or disable the fbclid parameter, nor that I know of.
Be careful that adding fbclid to URLs used in your paid posts or campaigns does not change the final URL due to redirects. Also, make sure you don’t change any other parameters used to drive traffic to specific pages on your website. Be careful not to miss the session properties in Google Analytics as well.
Our fbclid Public
We welcome any improvements that help us analyze and attribute data in any way possible. This is especially true today, when social networks generate the majority of web traffic, and measuring results and taking action increases the time required to properly analyze the data.
We’ll have to wait for Facebook to comment on the matter and post more details on their support page to confirm our suspicions, but for now, any comments or information are welcome.
From this point on, you can use our instructions on how to hide the fbclid parameter in the URL. If you find different functions of fbclid, please share them in the comment column.