Facebook Conversion API

Facebook Conversion API

The Facebook pixel is a highly valuable tool for tracking business data on Facebook. Unfortunately, its effectiveness has been declining in recent years. But all is not lost, thanks to the Facebook conversions API.

The Facebook conversions API another tool in your Facebook data toolkit that works with the Facebook pixel to ensure you get all the data you need. Combined, they help you properly track, attribute and improve your Facebook marketing performance.

What is the Facebook conversions API?

Facebook Conversions API used to be known as Facebook Server-Side API, and it’s designed to help businesses maintain data privacy all while delivering personalized advertising experiences to customers and audiences. This is all done without having to rely on browser-based tools like cookies.

Facebook’s Conversions API is thorough and provides businesses with a wealth of helpful tools and insights. Here is what it provides:

• Full funnel visibility: Conversions API offers businesses the ability to share exactly the data they want to, and nothing else. This is more than what Facebook Pixel alone currently offers. That being said, combining both Pixel and Conversions API means full-funnel visibility.

Pixel alone offers insight into actions that occur on the website. These actions could be something like a page view or a purchase. When combined with Conversions API, you truly get the full picture of the customer journey. Actions like off-website purchases and whether or not a customer continues to use their free trial and then converts are now tracked.

• Accurate data sharing: Sharing data through Conversions API is more accurate than any other method in the mid-funnel and lower funnel. Businesses don’t have to worry about any data getting lost due to a browser crash or an ad blocker.
• Data control: Conversions API gives businesses control over what data they share. This means that businesses can implement Conversions API in addition to Pixel and decide what to share and when to share it. By contrast, Pixel sends all events in real-time.

Instead of sharing data with the browser, Facebook Conversions API companies can share the data that matters with Facebook through their server. This means that if a customer uses a privacy tool for non-Facebook activity, their actions will be extended to data sent through Conversions API.

Conversions API Facebook

Facebook itself encourages advertisers across the board to implement Conversions API in addition to Pixel for optimal full-funnel tracking and much more reliable data sharing. This way, advertisers can transmit a larger array of data in order to back their advertising efforts. With the implementation of Conversions API, data such as CRM data/lower funnel events can be captured. This is more than Pixel can offer alone.

Companies with high-security needs can use Conversions API to decide which data they want to share. Implementing Conversions API will require some development resourcing, but a network of partners that are certified through Facebook or your own existing system integrator/marketing platform provider can help in the implementation.

What is the API and Conversion process?

This is all very technical, but it’s not as difficult to understand when it’s laid out in a step-by-step process. Here’s a quick rundown of how Facebook Conversions API works:

1. First, the customer enters the website.
2. The website has to have Facebook Pixel. Facebook Pixel documents user data in cookies (which is 1st party).
3. The server will save user information in the same way that it saves IP addresses, user agents, Google Analytics client_id, and other parameters.
4. When the user (with their saved user data) triggers an event, the server will make a request that contains information about the said event and said user data to the Facebook server.

Facebook Conversions API is very intuitive, and it doesn’t take much know-how in order to set it up. In fact, all you really need is:

• Meta Business Manager (this is a must, as you cannot use Facebook Conversions API without it).
• Set up a Facebook Pixel with your website. It’s important to note that it should be correlated with the Business Manager.
• A Facebook App. This is an app for working with Facebook Conversions API and it’s combined with Business Manager.

Facebook Conversions API vs Pixel

Facebook Conversions API helps businesses share specific online and offline events between their server and Facebook’s Server. While Facebook Pixel – which has been around for quite a while now – helps businesses track the effectiveness of their product or service. It basically tracks what people do on your website. This includes the pages they visit, what actions they take on those pages, etc.

There are differences between Facebook Conversions API and the Pixel:

1. Facebook Conversions API gives you insight into the entire customer journey on your website pages. While Facebook Pixel helps you see how users are engaging with your website pages after viewing your Facebook ads.
2. Facebook CAPI helps you control the data you share and when you share it. While Facebook Pixel helps you track pixel data for conversion events on your website pages.
3. Facebook CAPI helps you share web events from your server while Facebook Pixel helps you share web events from your web browser.

In conclusion, Conversions API is a great tool for advertisers. It’s used by advertisers around the world in order to gain better insight into the customer’s funnel journey, and customize their ad experience in order to achieve better results.

All of this unique ad experience is done while maintaining data privacy. Data privacy is a massive deal in advertising since cookies and browser-based tracking are dying off fast, especially in the mid and lower funnel, where customers share important and personal data.