Complete guide to
Facebook conversion
tracking after iOS 14
by RedTrack.io
Intro to FB Guide 2021 was a hard year for all Facebook marketers. It all started with
Apple Privacy Update that was followed by tracking & attribution
changes on FB. Facebook lost an immense amount of data to feed it
to its algorithms. FB Pixel stopped being a trustworthy tool for
tracking as it does not allow any optimization. If you are here, you probably got some issues with Facebook Ads
too after all the mess started with iOS 14 Update. These days you
need to get acquainted with Facebook Conversion API (CAPI) and
Aggregated Event Measurement if you want to maintain successful
performance on FB. As a marketing analytics & tracking tool, at RedTrack we decided to
take the bullet. Therefore, we step out as a shield between you and
a complex world of Facebook tracking & attribution. By offering you a complete solution for Facebook ads
tracking & optimization after iOS updates:
Integrate CAPI in several step
Verify your domain (even if you are an affiliate who uses
landing pages
Warm-up the pixe
Optimize for the event of your choic
Bypass attribution window restrictions from FB In this guide, you will also find plenty of useful
tips & insights for efficient work with
Conversions API and Aggregated Events
Measurement. Sharing is caring, so everything
we know about FB Ads is yours!
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Table of contents
3 4 5 6
7 15 16 17
18 19 20
Preparation:
what do you
need for the
setup
Set up your
RedTrack
account
Add events to
Aggregated
Events
Measurement
Domain
verification
Connect
the assets
Save data
from
Facebook
Complete
setup with a
test
campaign
Pixel
warm-up
with test
conversions
Prepare
events for
Aggregated
Events
Measurement
Optimize for
events of
your choice
RedTrack
— your
marketing
partner
2
Get yourself ready
For the setup of Facebook Conversion API (CAPI) and
proper tracking of your ad campaigns performance, you
will need the following:
!
Take a look at the right top corner of each page, you can find
a logo of a tool that is required to complete this step.
E.g. on the next page for Step 1 you need to use FB Business
Manager for the setup.
Facebook Business Manager (BM)
Make sure to have (or be ready to create) at
least 1 Business Page, 1 Ad Account, and 1 Pixel
Facebook Events Manager
Facebook Ads Manager
RedTrack account
-Can I set up integration from my personal account?
- No, if you want to send conversions back to FB, you need a business account.
Reason: pixels created in the personal accounts do not have an API access token
required to send conversions back to FB via API.
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Step 1: Domain verification
First thing first, according to a recent Facebook privacy update,
you have to add and verify the domain where conversions
happen. This step is very important as CAPI will not work as
supposed to without this step.
If you are a product/service owner, do not overthink and just
add your domain, verify it using one of the suggested by
Facebook methods, and skip to the next step of the guide.
Now, if you are an affiliate promoting 3rd party products, read
on.
According to changes in FB attribution, all conversions should be
coming from verified domains. The only domains that you can
reliably verify are your landing pages. So, you need to add your
landing page domain and verify it as if conversions are happening
on this LP. With RedTrack, you can do that easily.
> And we will show how in step №4.6
Facebook verifies a domain +1, meaning that if you verify
yourlandingpagedomain.com, it will automatically verify all the subdomains, like
page1.yourlandingpagedomain.com or page2.yourlandingpagedomain.com.
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Step 2: Make sure all assets
are connected
It might not be evident at first, but to properly leverage the setup,
you need to make sure all Facebook assets are properly
connected.
Go to your Facebook Business Manager → Business Settings
and check the following:
Brand safety → Domains and make sure that your
verified domain has your FB page as a connected
asset.
2. Data Sources → Pixels and check your pixel has
the correct ad account added as assets.
This is it for the preparation step, now we’re ready to proceed
with the integration of Facebook Conversion API and RedTrack
setup. 5
Step 3: Save data from Facebook
In this step, we will need to save FB Pixel ID and Access token
from Facebook for later use in the RedTrack account. Go to Facebook Event Manager, and in the list of
Data Sources, select the pixel (data source) you
want to send conversions to. Go to pixel settings:
copy and save Pixel ID to a separate document as
you will need this info later.
2. Then, scroll down to the Conversions API section
and click Generate access token. And save it for
further use in the same document next to the
Pixel ID.
It should be the same pixel you checked to be
connected to your ad accounts on the previous step.
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!
Step 4: Set up your RedTrack Account
Now, we proceed with the steps necessary to use Facebook as a
Traffic Source in RedTrack.
Once you complete these tracking settings, you will be able to
track an entire visitor’s journey from your ad to an offer, receiving
all information regarding the visits and conversions. And what is
more important - report conversion events back to Facebook for
further optimization.
RedTrack settings consist of the following steps:
Offer setup + Landing page setup (optional
Domain setu
Adding Facebook as a Traffic Source
Campaign setup that bands all the elements
(offer, lander, domain, traffic source) together
To leverage Facebook CAPI integration or send conversions
back to FB via Conversion API, you need to have a RedTrack.io
Pro subscription or higher. - What’s the difference between RedTrack Pro &
Advanced subscriptions for FB CAPI setup? - Pro plan may be your solution if you work with one FB
Business manager or one Pixel. While you should consider
choosing an Advanced plan if you run ads from several
business managers or use multiple different pixels.
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4.1 Offer & Landing Page setup
1. First thing first, add an offer in the RedTrack ‘Offer’ tab.
> If you’re a product/service owner, most likely, your offer is the
URL to your product that you’re going to promote on Facebook.
So just add an URL in the corresponding field in the Offer. > If you’re an affiliate, you’re most likely to work with affiliate
networks, like Clickbank, Digistore24, etc., and promote offers
from their marketplaces. In the latter case, follow this easy instruction to add Offer source
(Affiliate Network) and offer in RedTrack:
Redtrack.io
Adding an Offer Sourse (Affiliate Network/Advertiser)
2. Configuring your landing page with RedTrack is an optional
step, as you may run Facebook traffic directly to your product
(most likely, in the case of product owners). But for affiliates
landing pages are a must-have. Please, follow the guide
below.
Redtrack.io
Adding a Landing Page
Setting up tracking is like setting up any other
analytical platform and takes some time. We
have extensive knowledge base guides on the
topics above and offer onboarding services to
our customers.
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4.2 Add Facebook as a traffic
source in RedTrack
The next step is to add Facebook as a traffic source in RedTrack.
We have Facebook saved as a template for your simplicity, so
there’s not much work to be done.
Add Facebook template to RedTrack. Go to Traffic Sources → New → find Facebook from
the list → press ‘Add’.
2. To ensure that the data about your conversions is
reported back to Facebook, scroll to the ‘Subs’
(parameters) section and make sure you have
“fbclid” under sub9 alias.
Then click ‘Save’.
Please, do not create FB traffic sources manually (avoiding
the use of the template in RedTrack). Unless you add FB
from templates, it will not have correct integration and
pixel setup options.
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4.3 Connect RedTrack to your
FB profile via API
Now you should connect your Facebook traffic source in
RedTrack to your Facebook Business Manager to enable
automatic cost update. Press ‘Connect Facebook’. Once you’re redirected back to your
RedTrack account settings, this means Facebook accepts the
integration, and you can proceed with the next step.
Facebook ‘likes’ to expire API sessions from time to time, so
if it stops working (like cost updates not happening), please
reconnect your Facebook Business Manager first.
Please consider that the recommended setup is one FB
traffic source per one BM in Facebook, reading data from
all the accounts in that BM. If you want to connect more
than one BM, please repeat the steps to add one more FB
traffic source and use it to connect another BM.
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4.4 Add default FB pixel & access
token to RedTrack
Now let’s complete the Facebook pixel set up in RedTrack.
Here’s where you will need the saved Pixel ID and Access Token
(we made it at step №3). Put these credentials to your Facebook
traffic source settings in RedTrack. Save the changes.
This step is essential if you want to send the conversion data
back to Facebook so it was further used for optimization.
!
The pixel you add in the traffic source settings is the default one, and it will be used as a destination to send conversions from
all tracking campaigns under this traffic source. But let’s suppose you run several different products and want to collect conversion data to different pixels (to have better
optimization results). In that case, you can skip the default pixel settings in the Traffic Source tab and set individual pixels on
the Offer level for each individual product that you promote. 🠗
To do that, go to Offers → choose the offer that you created at step
№4.1 → scroll down to Pixel settings. Add as many pixels as you need them. Each pixel should be
attached to its unique conversion API key and has a verified
domain. The setup is the same as for the default pixel.
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4.5 Set the conversions events
for Facebook
By default, we send all conversion events as “Purchase”
from RedTrack to Facebook, but you can change the default
conversion type name to any other label you need. Or set
different names for different types. For this case, go to Tools → Conversion tracking →
Conversion type, where you can set any name you want.
RedTrack will be sending your custom conversion types to
Facebook automatically. Conversion information will fall to
your Pixel/Data Source.
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4.6 Campaign setup in RedTrack
Now that we have the traffic source in place, it is time to set up a
campaign in RedTrack. Go to Campaigns → Create a new campaign. Complete the settings
Choose Facebook that we just created from the dropdown
menu on the Source tab
Add your custom domain in the corresponding field
Add offer and landing, if you have it, in the funnel settings.
Other settings in the campaign (like auto-optimization, fraud
check, etc.) are optional, so you can skip them. Click Save. Once you save the campaign, tracking links and pixels
are generated. Since Facebook does not support redirect
tracking, you will have to use our direct traffic script for that
purpose.
Your no-redirect script will be generated automatically
and include all the supported macros. Copy the script
and add it to your landing page code.
If you run multiple Facebook campaigns (ad sets, ads) sending traffic
to the same landing page, you do not need to create additional
campaigns in RedTrack. We will capture campaign name, ad set
name, and ad name automatically, and you will be able to drill down
to details in reports. Redtrack.io
Adding no-redirect script to your website.
If you run an affiliate campaign, you can still rotate offers for one
landing page (but not landing pages). Just make sure that they are
consistent and follow the landing page content so your account is not
banned. Still, note, running one offer per landing page with no rotation
is always safe.
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4.7 Verify your domain on
Facebook & RedTrack
If you’re an affiliate, please do not neglect this step.
In most cases, affiliates don’t have access to the advertiser’s
website (= web page, where the conversion happens). It means
you cannot add the pixel we generated on the previous step
to that page. Then as a solution, you need to sync your own landing page
and verify it as the main domain on Facebook. RedTrack will
send all the conversion events to FB via Conversion API as if
conversions happen on your landing page with the verified
domain.
Follow our instructions on domain DNS verification of your
lander for Facebook CAPI:
Redtrack i
omain verification for Face ook
!
Once you are done with the Facebook part, you can proceed
with the domain verification on the RedTrack side.
To do that, go to Offers and pick the one that you created for
your Facebook campaign. Go to Edit, scroll down and set up
the following:
Default Action source: keep it “Web”, but if you do real
offline conversions with RedTrack.io, feel free to change it to
what fits you best.
Default Event URL: that’s the URL of your landing page with
the same domain you have just verified on Facebook.
. o
D
b
So we are done with the setup on the RedTrack side and are
now back to Facebook.
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Step 5: Complete setup with a
test campaign
In this step, you need to create a test ad campaign on Facebook
with tracking parameters from RedTrack.
Open Ads Manager → Create Ad → Create New Campaign or Use
existing Campaign → set up campaign parameters:
Under the Website URL insert the URL of the website / LP
where the traffic goes for this particular ad (the link
without tracking parameters);
For each ad in the campaign: scroll down to URL
Parameters and paste the tracking parameters from the
RedTrack campaign.
Make sure there are no special symbols that can break the URL
(#, %, etc.) in the names of your ads and campaigns – otherwise,
the data won’t be tracked. sub=FB value should be the same as
you have in your RedTrack account (step №4.2).
Click Save and repeat for all ads
Launch the campaign.
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Step 6: Pixel warm-up with test
conversions
After all the integration steps are complete, make sure that
RedTrack is recording clicks for FB campaigns (check the
number of clicks near your campaign in the RedTrack
account). Usually, the number of clicks in FB and RedTrack
should closely match, as RedTrack updates data in real-time. Then proceed to generate test (or fake) conversions.
Once you launched a Facebook ad campaign, you need to
run some live clicks. We will need them for fake conversion
generation
Your FB clicks can be found in RedTrack click log: Logs →
Clicks
Copy the click id from the list and add it to Logs →
Conversion logs → Add conversions
The conversion will appear in your RedTrack account. Do
the same with different clickIDs within a day. You will need
approximately 20 conversions to warm up the account.
Why is it important?🧐
Facebook will not accept your conversion event until it
considers this is a real event that can be used for optimization
on its side. To start running a live campaign, you need to make
sure everything is up and running. And at this point, the fastest
way to warm up your account is to generate some fake
conversions.
We don’t suggest generating fake conversions
simultaneously in bulk as Facebook may not
accept them.
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Step 7: Confirm that AEM receives
conversions
Go back to FB Event Manager. Pick the pixel you added for this
traffic source or offer.
Scroll down, and you should see events sent by RedTrack in
the list of events. Click the arrow down symbol at the right of
the event row, and then select ‘View details’ to check if the
events are coming from the verified domain
In the new pop-up window go to ‘Event overview’ and in the
dropdown menu to the right select ‘Domains’. Check if the
domain is right there. Event frequency is a hidden parameter that signals FB the event is real and can be added to an AEM protocol. There is no official
guideline (as of the time of writing this guide) for the recommended number of events and periods to generate the required
frequency. Our observations show that anywhere between 20 conversions across 2 days and 40 conversions during less than 7 days
do the job.
Please, note that events coming via CAPI have “Server” as a connection method. If you see “Browser / Server” in the Connection
method, it means that you might be sending the same event from the pixel and CAPI, and you need to add the “event id”
parameter in order for FB to deduplicate them. To make things easier we suggest not to use FB pixel and CAPI at the same time for
the same event.
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Step 8: Prepare events for
optimization
When the event gets a significant event frequency, you will be
able to add it to the AEM. You won’t understand that frequency
has been generated unless you try to add the event. So let’s do it
now. Go to Aggregated event measurement → Click ‘Configure Web
Events’. Select your verified domain and click on it → go to
‘Manage events’.
Add events by specifying your pixel / event name for each event
priority. (If the event is not selectable for your pixel, FB thinks it
has not reached significant event frequency). You should return to
step №6 and make more test conversions yet. As RedTrack can send the same conversion events to different
pixels at the same time you can work around the FB attribution
issue, by having the same events but with different priorities in two
or more pixels. This is especially important for equal events that
may be triggered by multiple similar users, for example when
measuring multiple different contact forms on the website.
-What does event priority mean?
Suppose you have “add to cart”, “checkout”, and “purchase” with the
purchase being the highest priority event. For the user that completed all
three events, Facebook will attribute conversion to “purchase”, and less
likely to “checkout” and “add to cart”. It means that “add to cart” is more
likely to be properly attributed to people who never initiated a checkout or
completed a purchase. Please, consider the higher the event is in the list on
Web event configuration on Facebook, the more important it is for Facebook
optimization algorithms.
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Step 9: Optimize for events of your choice
Congrats! Now you can create a campaign and choose the
events for optimization (those events we were warming up
during the previous steps). Do not forget to select the pixel and conversion event that you
have set up on previous steps when choosing a conversion goal to
optimize for. As it’s solely the reason why you went through all
this hassle with previous steps.
!
We know it hasn’t been easy for you these months. So many
changes started with a single update from Apple that made
Facebook completely different advertising space. However, at RedTrack, we found solutions for advertisers and
affiliates to keep the results from Facebook Ads that we loved.
CAPI integration, domain verification, improved attribution
window — the result of hard work from our developers’ team.
Btw, we always welcome feedback and contribution from your
side! Vlad Zhovtenko
CEO of RedTrack
“Digital marketing goes through tremendous changes
caused by privacy updates. RedTrack is more than a tool,
but a trusted partner helping to navigate through those
changes. We created a dedicated FB group and run
bi-weekly streams for us all to have a public dialogue to
share findings, insights, and discoveries”.
Learn & Connect with
Facebook Ads tracking
& and attribution experts
Enjoy fruitful results of Facebook Ads!
Join Fb group
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Now, what else can RedTrack do for your
marketing endeavors?
RedTrack is more than a native Facebook CAPI solution, but a smart tool to
consolidate data from all your media-buying activities across all channels.
Apart from that, if you wanna go really PRO,
you get access to a set of features like:
Automation, rules and alerts
Cross-channel multitouch attribution
Partner performance reports
White-label publisher portal
Anti-fraud solution and more!
direct
advertiser
Single source of truth for all your
marketing activities. your
website
request demo
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