The Facebook Pixel's days are numbered. This is what Meta has assured. The reason? Facebook wants to adapt as soon as possible to the cookieless world that is increasingly closer.
Whether organically or through an advertisement, cookies are the breadcrumbs that allow us to track the information and behavior of users who enter our website. In the case of third-party or technically unnecessary cookies, due to their nature, they are normally considered intrusive to our privacy. But in order to preserve user privacy, these are going to disappear. From
Línea Gráfica we explain everything you need to know about the conversion API and data privacy.
What is the Facebook Conversions API?
The Conversions API is a tool that allows you
to track and measure the success of your advertising campaigns on Meta. With this tool, you can see which ads are driving conversions and how leads are converting into customers. Additionally, the Conversions API also allows you to set up custom conversions to measure specific events on your website.
How does the Conversions API work?
For the Conversions API to work, this tool creates a strong and secure connection between the marketing data on your server, website or CRM and Meta. This connection allows marketing data to be used to
improve the personalization, optimization and measurement of ads . These ads can then be
tailored to users' preferences and behaviors to be shown to those who may find them most interesting and relevant.
By customizing them in this way, you can
improve the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns and
achieve better results . In other words, the Conversions API allows us to leverage your own marketing data to improve the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns on Meta.
Benefits of using the Facebook Conversions API
Improve measurement
Facebook's Conversions API offers a significant improvement in conversion measurement, resulting in a better understanding of user behavior and the ability to optimize advertising campaigns. By being able to
track and measure campaign success
more accurately , more informed decisions can be made about advertising strategy or
social media management and necessary adjustments to achieve desired goals.
Increase data control
This tool gives businesses
more control over the data they share. This allows them
to deploy both the API and the Pixel and decide what information to share and when to share it. By having more control over the information that is shared, businesses can have greater flexibility in how they use Facebook’s advertising platform and how they measure the performance of their campaigns.
Avoid cookie restrictions
By bypassing cookie restrictions,
conversion measurement is not limited to users who have allowed cookies in their browsers. Instead, the Conversion API uses a
unique identifier for each user who interacts with an ad. This allows for more accurate and comprehensive conversion tracking, which can help businesses better understand user behavior and optimize their campaigns accordingly.
Ensures better user privacy
The API, also called CAPI (Facebook Conversions API), does not depend on cookies and also protects users' privacy by
not tracking their online activity in an invasive way .
Optimize ads
By analyzing conversion data in real time, you can identify which ads are driving results and adjust your marketing strategy accordingly. Not only does this allow for
more accurate measurement of the success of your advertising campaigns, but it can also help you optimize your ads to increase their effectiveness.
How to install Facebook Conversions API?
Setting up your conversion API can be done in a number of different ways, and it's important to choose the one that's right for your business. Below, we'll walk you through some of the options.
Integration with partners
If your website is hosted on e-commerce platforms like
Prestashop ,
Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix, or BigCommerce , you can easily set up the Conversions API in
Meta Events Manager . Using this option is a
quick and easy process (perhaps less than an hour) that doesn't require you to edit any of your website's code.
Alternatively, if your site is hosted on one of
Meta's partner platforms (Google Tag Manager or Tealium, for example), you may be able to set up the Conversions API through a
partner integration as well.
Direct integration with code
If you want
more control over the integration process , you can create a direct connection to the Conversions API. However, this will require the help of a
developer . Please note that the implementation process will take longer (more than a week). If you prefer a more customized experience, you can create your own setup instructions in Event Manager and send them to the developer or receive the instructions yourself.
Gateway
This is a configuration option that will not require any programming. The Conversion API Gateway can be found under “Data Connection Platforms” in the
Meta Event Manager . It will allow you to connect websites to Meta by installing packages on cloud service server instances. The gateway
integration time is
much shorter than direct code integration, and by requiring fewer resources or technical requirements,
costs are reduced.
Recommendations to improve the performance of your campaigns
The Conversions API is a powerful tool for
measuring and optimizing the performance of your advertising campaigns . However, to get the best results, it is important to follow certain recommendations that will allow you
to maximize its effectiveness . Below, we will provide you with some useful tips that will help you improve the performance of your campaigns with the Conversions API.
Use both the Meta Pixel and the Conversions API
To maximize the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns, it’s important to use both the Conversions API and the tracking pixel (at least until the pixel goes away). You’ll be
setting up redundant events , which can be very beneficial since the Conversions API allows you to share website events that the pixel may have missed. However, if you set up redundant events, some events may be repeated on both the server and the browser. To avoid this repetition, you can keep one and discard the others, which is known as
deduplication (this will prevent the same event from being reported twice).
Quality event coincidences
When you improve match quality, events are more likely to be associated with a Meta account, so you should always aim for a “Good” or “Excellent” rating. That is, by
increasing match quality , you can
improve the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to your match quality rating and work to improve it over time. With this in mind, the more
information parameters you include,
the better your match quality will be.
Combine Pixel and API to measure better
It's a good idea to take advantage of every opportunity to connect pixels and share events through the Conversions API, as this can significantly improve the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns. So if there are events that you're currently only sharing through the pixel, you may want to consider sharing them through the Conversions API as well. By
connecting more pixels to the Conversions API and sharing more events through it, you'll have
access to more valuable data that will allow you to optimize your ads more effectively.
But why combine the API and the pixel if the latter is going to disappear? By combining them, there is a greater chance that neither tool will miss any events (the pixel sometimes leaves information uncollected, for example, in the case of people with ad blockers). Another reason is that
there is not yet a specific date when we know that the pixel will stop working, so if you combine both tools, by the time that happens, your company will already
be prepared and the conversions API will have collected enough information to continue on its own.
At Línea Gráfica we help you manage both the
conversion API and your
PPC campaigns ,
Social Ads ,
Marketplace integration and much more.
