When building or editing a campaign on Classic Canvas or Journey Canvas, you must decide how to configure the Enable Cross Device setting. This article highlights the pros and cons of the feature so you can decide whether Enabled or Disabled is the best option for your campaign.
Understanding the cross device feature
If enabled, you can identify and track users across multiple devices, such as smartphones, tablets, desktop computers, and even smart TVs. For example, a user's first touchpoint was on a mobile device, and the conversion was recorded on a desktop. Generally, the feature is less useful for campaigns with awareness or CTR goals and more useful for campaigns focused on CPA and ROAS. Note that this service is not available in EU countries.
Opening the cross device page
If you're building a new campaign on Classic Canvas or Journey Canvas, the workflow naturally guides you to the cross device feature. Note that you can only adjust the cross device setting before publishing the journey.
Classic canvas
To access the Enable Cross Device feature on an existing Classic Canvas:
- Go to the top menu bar and click the Journeys link. On the new page, click a campaign name. The canvas displays.
- Go to the top right corner of the page and click the gear icon (next to the money bag icon). The General Settings & Billing page displays.
- Scroll down to the Enable Cross Device heading.
- Select Enable or Disable.
- Click Save.
Journey canvas
To access the Enable Cross Device feature on an existing project:
- Go to the top menu bar and click the Journeys link. On the new page, click a campaign name. The canvas displays.
- Go to the top right corner of the page and click the gear icon (next to the money bag icon). The Journey Settings page displays. By default, the General settings & billing tab is selected.
- Scroll down to the Enable Cross Device heading.
- Select Enable or Disable.
- Click Save.
Benefits of enabling cross device
- Target users across all of their known devices.
- Manage frequency capping at the user level rather than at the device level.
- On connected journeys, conditions (e.g. views and clicks) can be tracked across devices.
- Enhance first-party attribution by capturing conversions for users, even if the impression or click and conversion occurred on different devices.
Benefits of disabling cross device
- Enhances prospecting scale by reaching devices that may not have any cross-device profiles available.
- If the third-party audience has a small number of unique users compared to the total number of devices in the audience library, we recommend disabling this feature.
- Due to varying methodologies in identifying cross-device profiles, there is potential for improved third-party attribution when using external ad servers for evaluating conversion performance.