WARNING! Facebook Pixel and Conversion API must be set up only once, you can set this up through the Google Tag Manager pixel or Facebook’s pixel but never using both. By doing so will derive on events duplication causing wrong metrics.
Conversion API is a Facebook Business Tool that lets advertisers share customer actions directly to Facebook. CAPI works with the Facebook Pixel to help advertisers improve the performance, measurement, and data collection of their Facebook campaigns.
Capabilities and Measurement
CAPI moves conversion tracking from the browser to the server-side.
In other words, CAPI lets you send the data you capture from your tools and platforms to Facebook Ads Manager. When you use the Facebook Pixel, Facebook collects the event and conversion data. With CAPI, you collect your own data, such as customer information or purchase events, then share that data with Facebook.
This server-side tracking is a more accurate way to track actions and attribute them to Facebook campaigns. In situations where the Facebook Pixel might be blocked by privacy controls, CAPI can still track conversions.
For more information related to CAPI you can read more on this article.
On the following lines we’ll describe how to set up the Facebook pixel and the Conversion API service.
Set Up Facebook Pixel
First we need to get our Facebook Pixel ID located in the Facebook Events Manager, once there we’ll find the pixel code in the right top side of our screen.
We need to copy this value, then go back to our WFIO instance and select the Facebook Pixel tag option from the list, we create a name for the tag, we paste the pixel id and click on save.
Enable CAPI for Facebook Pixel
From this point on, we’ll start configuring the CAPI service for our previously created pixel. Below the pixel ID input, two switches are listed
Facebook CAPI integration Disabled
Facebook Test Mode Disabled
Facebook CAPI Integration Switch
When we turn on this switch, the system will ask us for the token that is required for consuming the conversion API. This token it is really important for using the CAPI service; if you haven’t generated the CAPI token at this point, please go your Facebook’s Events Manager and follow these steps:
1.- Click on the Settings tab and look for the Conversions API section
2.- Click on the Get Started button below the Set up manually section and first click on the Generate Access Token; a new token will be generated, please copy this string and save it somewhere safe, Facebook won’t display this value again and it is required for finishing the CAPI integration set up.
3.- Click on Continue to start the set up process.
4.- Select the Add to Cart, Lead, Purchase, View Content events
5.- Make sure to select the following parameters for each event in addition to those selected by default.
Event | ||
|---|---|---|
Add to Cart |
|  |
Lead |
|  |
Purchase |
|  |
View Content |
|  |
Remove From Cart |
|  |
In addition to the events listed above, every time a new survey is started and completed the following information will be reported to Facebook.
Event ID
Client IP Address - Do Not Hash
Client User Agent - Do Not Hash
Browser ID (fbp) Cookie - Do Not Hash
Finally click on the Continue button and Finish the set up.
Just like is mentioned on the Facebook's documentation, we are going to need three important things for setting up our CAPI service;
Pixel ID
Business Manager
Access Token
Once that we’ve generated and store our access token we need to jump back to WFIO and enable the Facebook CAPI integration switch from disabled to enabled. (see image below)
When we change the switch to enable, a new input will be displayed asking for the access token that we previously generated; paste it and click on the save button.
At this point we’ve successfully configurated our Facebook pixel (and if required, the CAPI service as well). However, how do we know that what we’ve done is actually going to work when we start receiving traffic to our website?. We’ll, worry no more; both Facebook and WFIO are prepared for testing these events.
If you want to test the Facebook Pixel integration please follow this link.