What is Facebook Conversion API?
Facebook Conversion API is a tool that helps you to track your customers’s behavior and have access to all the necessary data so you can improve your Facebook marketing strategy and adapt it according to the information you keep track of on a daily basis.
How does the Facebook Conversion API work?
The word API is an acronym for “application programming interface”, which is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. In this context, Facebook Conversion API allows you to send data you capture from your system (like your store) to Facebook Ads Manager. This helps you to track events from which you can extract meaningful information to base your marketing strategy on it.
What is the difference between Facebook Conversion API and Facebook Pixel?
The Facebook Conversion API and Facebook Pixel are two ad tracking and measurement tools offered by Facebook to advertisers for enhancing the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns. Nevertheless, there exists a distinction between the two techniques.
The Facebook Pixel relies on browser cookies or the browser itself, whereas the Facebook Conversion API operates differently, as it doesn't rely on cookies or the browser. Instead, it relies on the communication between your site's server and Facebook's server.
Due to this dissimilarity, discrepancies can arise in the data gathered by the two tools, as certain third-party tools, like Adblock software or cookie-scanning tools, can impede the functioning of the pixel, leading to the recording of duplicate data. In contrast, the Facebook Conversion API is immune to such interferences and operates unaffectedly.
Which type of events you can track with Facebook Conversion API?
Here are some examples of events you can track with Facebook Conversion API:
Email Subscription
Purchases
Product view
Form submissions
Leads
Audience Insights
Ad Reporting
Steps to activate Facebook Conversion API in your store
Go to the Apps section and click on Install.
Click on "Get Started" then you will be redirected to this page to fill in.
Type the name of your store in the column.
Go to Events Manager and click on Settings.
Copy your Pixel ID.
Paste your Pixel ID in the Facebook Pixel column.
Go back again to the settings page in Events Manager and scroll down till you see Generate access token.
Copy the token and paste it into the Conversion API Access token column.
Choose if you either want to track by Purchase or Lead.
Click on save.
Note: You can check this article if you want to learn more about the Events Manager tool.
Watch this video if you want to see the entire process.