Improve your Facebook Ad tracking with Conversion API

In this article, you will learn how to improve your Facebook Ad tracking with Conversion API.

Marketing decisions driven by accurate data always yield a higher return on investment than simply our intuition. We will discuss how to improve the communication channels between your Facebook Ad Account and your website to improve the quality of the data you receive.

While this article has some technical information, it’s relatively straightforward and something you can do quite easily. When your data channels send accurate information, you can improve your Facebook Ads’ performance.

Don’t forget: what’s measured can grow.

Introducing The Conversions API

Marketers used to rely simply on the Facebook Pixel to get reliable and accurate data delivered to their Facebook Ad account.

You would simply install the Facebook Pixel on your account, and voila, you were done. Ok, there were a few more steps, like setting up your conversions events – but it was relatively simple, and Apple wasn’t trying to prevent Facebook from collecting that data.

Since iOS 14, combining the Facebook Pixel with the Conversions API is the best way for you to get reliable data, so it’s essential to get it working correctly.

The Conversions API allows you to track three primary types of data:

• Website conversions
• Post-conversion events
• Page visits

It allows you to look deeper into your sales funnel than simply having the Pixel installed on your site.

Benefits of the Conversions API

Data coming from the Conversions API is more stable and less impacted by ad blockers, browser errors, or connectivity issues than the Pixel.

The Conversions API communicates in real-time with your website and improves:

• Ad Conversion Reporting
• Audience Insights
• Insights for Dynamic Ads
• Improved Measurement
• Better Conversion Optimization 
• Constantly Improves Targeting

You’ll also be able to add further details to your ad accounts, such as profit margins and customer lifetime value.

Creating A Pixel/Conversions API

Before we get your Conversions API installed on your e-commerce store, you will need to create one. 

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Go to Events Manager.
2. Click the Data sources icon on the left side of the page.
3. Select the Pixel ID that you chose to associate with the Conversions API.
4. Click Add Events below the activity graph.
5. Select Using the Conversions API.
6. Click Install code manually.
7. Read the overview and click Continue.
8. Select the events you want to send through the Conversions API. Use the dropdown menu for event recommendations based on your business type.
9. Click Continue.
10. Select the parameters you want to send for each of the events you selected.
    1. You need to select at least one customer information parameter.
    2. If you want to set up new custom events and custom parameters, learn how on Meta for Developers.
11. Click Continue.
12. Review your events and parameters.
13. Click Confirm Setup.
14. Decide if you want to send your personalized instructions to your developer or if you want to implement the Conversions API yourself.
15. If you want to Send Instructions:
    1. Click to check or uncheck the box next to Send me a copy of this email.
    2. Click Send Instructions.
    3. Type your recipient’s email, and press enter on your keyboard.
    4. Click Send. Your recipient will receive an email that invites them to set up the Conversions API for your business. If they don’t already have a role in your business, they’ll also receive an email that asks them to accept developer access to your business. After they accept developer access, they can set up the Conversions API by clicking Manage Integrations in Events Manager.
16. If you want to Manually Implement the API Yourself:
    1. Click Open Implementation Guide. This will take you to Conversions API setup in Events Manager.
       

**From Facebook’s Conversion API Implementation Guide**

Installing the Conversions API

Now that your Conversions API is created, you can quickly follow the following how-to guides for your e-commerce platform.

Shopify

Woo-Commerce

Best Practices for Conversions API

Now that your Conversions API is installed, we recommend using these best practices to get the most from your setup.

1. Redundant Setups
   
   Use the Conversions API & the Pixel together and share the same events using both tools. The Conversions API will work with the data coming from the Pixel and cross-reference the data accordingly.
   
2. Event Match Quality
   
   Get your Event Match Quality score to “Great” or “Good” at the very least. For obvious reasons, if your score is “Poor,” your data will not be as reliable.
   
3. Share as much as possible.
   
   The more data you share, the better the Machine Learning can work. If you have several pixels, ensure they are connected to the API.
   
4. Monitor your connection regularly.
   
   Check back to make sure that your Conversions API is firing. Just open up your events manager and ensure that you have recently tracked events coming from your Pixel & Conversions API.

Bonus: 3 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) you should obsess over

The Meta ad dashboard can be intimidating, and marketers and business leaders are often misled and spend their energy trying to improve the wrong KPIs.

Here are the three most important KPIs and why you should focus on them.

Cost Per Result

Ultimately the most crucial factor in determining the success of a Facebook Marketing campaign is understanding what it costs to achieve the desired action.

For e-commerce businesses, we highly recommend making the desired action be “Website Purchase.” When you have an intimate understanding of the cost of acquiring a new customer, the decisions you can make to increase your customer base are based on profits.

You’d be surprised how often we audit a Facebook Ad account, and a company is pillaging money into a brand awareness or recall campaign. If you have Coca-Cola advertising budgets, then go ahead; otherwise, let’s focus on what pushes the needle for your business.

Return On Ad Spend (ROAS)

Depending on how accurate the data you receive from Facebook is, you might need manual work to calculate this yourself. You should have an idea fairly quickly if you look at “Website Purchases” vs. “Website Purchases Conversion Value”. When you take in your average cart value, you should be able to deduce quickly whether your API is tracking correctly.

A healthy return on investment is the key to creating a scalable campaign and inevitably turning your Facebook Ads into a profitable customer acquisition source.

As you scale your ads up, you will often see the ROAS decline quickly; one of the best ways to prevent this phenomenon is by maximizing the Machine Learning capabilities of your account. The Power 5 Method is the best way to do that. Click here to read our article that describes how you can implement this on your account.

Conversion Rate

You’ll have to do some quick math here.

Purchases / Link Clicks = Conversion Rate.

This will help you determine the maximum CPC you can afford on your ads to maintain profitability. Just promise us you won’t change to a link clicks campaign and be excited because you are now getting clicks for ⅓ the cost. Not all clicks are created equally. You are better to focus on how you can make more value and conversions from your clicks than radically changing your bidding strategy.

For instance, we helped one of our client partners take their conversion ratio on Facebook clicks from 1.2%  to 11.7% by targeting the right audience and improving product pages. This made their acquisition efforts profitable and allowed them to scale their ads.

Getting the most from your data

The Facebook Conversions API is an essential first step in getting accurate data. Still, to properly set up your account, you also need to: verify your domain, export previous attribution data, update the attribution window for automated rules, compare time windows to review performance and goals, and review and confirm the eight conversion pixel events are set up correctly, ensure that every ad set is optimizing for one of those eight events, and update SDK to at least 8.1 (if you’re running app campaigns).

Additional how-to articles will be coming soon to go over these steps in further detail.

Now, go set up your Conversions API

You now have the tools to properly implement the Facebook Conversions API in your Facebook Ads Account. Following these steps will improve your ad costs and help you create scalable, evergreen campaigns.

Want our help maximizing and managing your Facebook ad account? 

Don’t hesitate to reach out to our team. You can do so on our contact page or email us directly at: [email protected].

If you found value from this article and want to learn more about how to advertise your e-commerce business profitably, here are a few more articles that will help you out.