Facebook Conversions API Reference
Destination Info
Accepts Track calls
Supports HIPAA mode
Refer to this destination as Facebook Conversions API in the Integrations object
If you've configured multiple Pixel IDs, you can choose a specific one by suffixing the Pixel ID, such as: Facebook Conversions API::0123456789012345. You can retrieve this value from the Facebook Conversions API configuration page for the Pixel ID of interest.
When no suffix is specified, all configured Pixel IDs are selected for inclusion / exclusion.
Connection Modes:
| Client-side | Server-side | |
|---|---|---|
Web | ||
Mobile | ||
Server |
This is a reference document for the Facebook Conversions API destination. For information on how to set up this integration, see the Quick Start guide.
Events
When you send an event to Facebook from Freshpaint, Freshpaint will create an event in Facebook by hitting Facebook's event API endpoint at: https://graph.facebook.com/{API_VERSION}/{PIXEL_ID}/events?access_token={TOKEN}.
Standard Facebook Events
See below for a complete list of Facebook standard events, the Freshpaint event definitions they are mapped to, and the available properties that can be sent in with each event. All properties are optional unless otherwise noted as "Required".
| Facebook Event | Freshpaint Event Definition | Available Facebook Properties |
|---|---|---|
| AddToCart |
|
product added | ||
added product | ||
| AddToWishlist |
|
| AddPaymentInfo |
|
| CustomizeProduct | `` |
| Contact | |
| CompleteRegistration |
|
| Donate | |
| InitiateCheckout |
|
checkout started | ||
started checkout | ||
| Lead |
|
| Purchase | Required: |
| Schedule | |
| Search |
|
products searched | ||
searched products | ||
| StartTrial |
|
| SubmitApplication | |
| Subscribe |
|
| ViewContent |
|
product list viewed | ||
viewed product list | ||
product category viewed | ||
viewed product category | ||
product viewed | ||
viewed product |
Facebook Events are case-sensitive
Any of the space-delimited names above are case-insensitive and may be alternatively delimited by an underscore or no separation. For example, "product added" can also be expressed as:
Product_added
productAdded
These non-Facebook-specific names can be useful when sending to multiple destinations, such as Facebook Conversion API and TikTok Ads, without requiring a Rename Transformation for one or both destinations.
Required Server Event Parameters
Parameters are JSON-formatted objects that you can include when tracking standard and custom events. They allow you to provide additional information about your users and their actions.
Event Source URL
If your Freshpaint account is set up in HIPAA Mode, the URL will be redacted by default because it may contain PHI. For example, if the URL of the event is https://example.com/heart-conditions#treatments?user=alice then Freshpaint will send https://example.com/url-redacted-by-freshpaint. To send the complete URL to facebook, add the Built-in URL ($current_url) property to your HIPAA allowlist.
Action Source
Facebook requires every event sent to the Conversions API to have an action_source parameter describing where the event came from. If action_source is "website" (the default value), then the Built-in User Agent($user_agent) / user_agent is required to be Allowlisted, if in HIPAA mode. The URL must also be sent in some form - as noted above, Freshpaint will always send a value for URL. These correspond to the client_user_agent and event_source_url properties described in facebook's documentation.
action_source is set to "website" by default for server-side events. action_source should be included under properties on track events.
| Action source value | Description |
|---|---|
| Conversion was made on your website. |
| Conversion happened over email. |
| Conversion was made over the phone. |
| Conversion was made via a messaging app, SMS, or online messaging feature. |
| Conversion was made in person at your physical store. |
| Conversion happened automatically, for example, a subscription renewal that’s set on auto-pay each month. |
| Conversion happened in a way that is not listed. |
Client User Agent
client_user_agent is automatically set from the built-in $user_agent property, or by including the user_agent property on track events. The value should be the user agent of the browser where the event occurred.
Additional Parameters
When you send user actions to Facebook, Facebook will attempt to match those actions to a particular Facebook user. In most cases, you'll want to send additional user traits and Facebook parameters to improve the number of the events that are matched to a Facebook user. See Facebook's documentation on all of the parameters that Facebook Conversions API accepts.
User Traits
User traits you can include as event properties to improve match rate include:
emailphonelast_namefirst_nameip_address(is automatically set from built-in$ipproperty, or fromip_addressproperty)user_agentstatecityzipcountrydobgender
Facebook requires the following customer info parameters to be hashed:
emailphonelast_namefirst_namestatecityzipcountrydobgender
Freshpaint will automatically hash the values sent with any of these properties when sending them to Facebook.
Read Facebook's documentation on how match quality for events helps deliver ads to people who are more likely to take the action you care about, and attribute those actions back to your ads.
Facebook's fbp and fbc Parameters
You should ensure thefbcparameter, at minimum, is sent whenever possible.
The fbc parameter is automatically derived and sent by Freshpaint when the fbclid query parameter is available (captured by Freshpaint as $fbclid). If in HIPAA mode, you must have the Recommended property $fbclid Allowlisted for this to work. You may explicitly send fbc if desired, in which case it will be sent, overriding the $fbclid-derived value if any (provided that it's Allowlisted, if in HIPAA mode).
The fbp parameter is automatically generated and sent by Freshpaint. This generated value can be overridden if you send the value with the event (Allowlisting applies here in HIPAA mode). See Facebook's documentation for more information.
Configuration Options
Transformations
Converting Freshpaint Events Into Facebook Standard Events
Freshpaint events can be converted into one of Facebook's standard events. A popular use case would be to convert an existing conversion event into Facebook's Purchase event. The Conversions API creates a connection between your first-party customer data and the Meta systems that optimize ad targeting and help measure the results of your advertising efforts.
In the example below, we are going to transform an existing "Test Event" into one of Facebook's standard Purchase events.
To get started, create a new Transformation and select Standard Event. Next, select the existing Freshpaint event you want to transform and the destination you want to send it to:
Then, select the "Purchase" event from the list of standard mappings and click "Save" to go to the following step:
Some of Facebook's standard events requires a certain set of properties.
In the case of the Purchase event, your existing Freshpaint event will need the following event properties:
value(amount of the conversion)currency(USD, CAD, etc)
In the case of the InitiateCheckout event, your existing Freshpaint event will also need the following event property:
num_items (number of items)
For this transformation, you'll see that the event will be sent to Facebook named as "Purchase" while converting the value property type into a number and sending the currency property value in all uppercase characters as required by Facebook.
If a currency property isn't sent with your conversion event and all of your conversions are in a single currency type such as USD, you can add a new transformation rule to send USD as a constant property for your conversion event:
As new instances of "Test Event" occur, the transformation would then send them to the Facebook Conversions API destination as standard Purchase events.
If a currency property isn't sent with your conversion event and all of your conversions are in a single currency type such as USD, you can add a new transformation rule to send USD as a constant property for your conversion event:
As new instances of "Test Event" occur, the transformation would then send them to the Facebook Conversions API destination as standard Purchase events.
Finally, visit your Facebook Events Manager account and navigate to the Overview tab and confirm the Purchase event is in the list:
Note: events may take a few minutes to populate in this view.
Options for Configuring Facebook Destinations
There are a few different ways to implement conversion tracking with Freshpaint's Facebook Conversions API integration. You can use it to complement tracking with your Facebook Pixel, or you can use it as a standalone integration. The option that's best for you depends on your specific goals with the Facebook Conversions API.
You can choose from the following implementation options:
If you are a HIPAA customer, you should use only Facebook Conversions API
Use Only Facebook Conversions API
This approach is best if you don't want to load the Facebook Pixel on your site, or if you want more control over what gets sent to Facebook.
HIPAA customers should use this approach to remain HIPAA complaint
Matching
When you send user actions to Facebook, Facebook will attempt to match those actions to a particular Facebook user. When using just the Facebook Conversions API without including many properties normally collected in the browser, the match rate will likely be lower than if they were included.
The match rate can be improved by including additional parameters.
Deduplication
In this approach, events are only sent from the server, so no deduplication is necessary.
Use both Pixel and Conversions API to send the same events
By sending the same events from both the browser via the Pixel and the server via the Conversions API, you can improve the accuracy of browser events by providing redundancy. Events that previously would've been lost (e.g. due to the browser Pixel being blocked or network errors) can still be captured using the Conversions API.
Matching
When you send user actions to Facebook, Facebook will attempt to match those actions to a particular Facebook user. For matching in this configuration to work best, the same external_id should be sent from both the browser and server.
This can be done by enabling the "Use User Id or Anonymous Id as External Id" setting in the Facebook Pixel destination. Enabling this setting will direct Freshpaint to use the User ID for identified users or Anonymous ID for anonymous users as Facebook's external_id both on the browser for the Pixel and for the server/Conversions API, enabling Facebook to better match users.
You can also improve the match rate by including some additional parameters to your events.
Deduplication
When the same event is sent from both the browser and the server, the events must be deduplicated to avoid having the same event counted twice. For events to be deduplicated, event names must be the same, and the server event from the Conversions API must arrive after the client event from the Pixel. In this case, the server event is discarded.
If the server events is received first, no deduplication occurs. The server event must arrive after the client event in order to deduplicate.
For Facebook to deduplicate events correctly, the recommended "Use UserId or Anonymous Id as External Id" setting must be enabled, OR the fbp parameter must be included in server-side events.
Use both Pixel and Conversions API to send different events
In this configuration, you will send some browser events through the Pixel and some server events to the Conversions API. This approach is best when you have events that can't be captured in the browser, such as a separate payment system. This approach is also ideal when you want to include sensitive data that shouldn't be sent to the browser.
Matching
When you send user actions to Facebook, Facebook will attempt to match those actions to a particular Facebook user. For matching in this configuration to work best, the same external_id should be sent from both the browser and server.
This can be done by enabling the "Use User Id or Anonymous Id as External Id" setting in the Facebook Pixel destination. Enabling this setting will direct Freshpaint to use the User ID for identified users or Anonymous ID for anonymous users as theexternal_id both on the browser for the Pixel and for the server/Conversions API, enabling Facebook to better match users.
You can also improve the match rate by including some additional parameters to your events.
Deduplication
In this approach, different events are sent from the browser and the server, so no deduplication is necessary.
Validation
To validate that your events are making it to Facebook, you can use Facebook's test_event_code property. To set up a test event code, see: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1624255387706033?id=818859032317965.
Then, you can send the test event code from your browser console like so:
freshpaint.track("Test Event", {test_event_code: 'TEST60659'})ORfreshpaint.addEventProperties({test_event_code: 'TEST60659'})
View-Through Conversions and Retargeting
View-through conversions and retargeting are possible for a user when the user traits provided, such as email or IP address, match a user in Facebook.
If user traits are not provided, then view-through conversions and retargeting are not possible.
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