Facebook paid campaigns have been a go-to marketing channel for Shopify sellers, but in recent years achieving success with these adverts has become more complicated. With expanding tracking restrictions, it is more difficult to accurately target campaigns and track user acquisition costs - leaving businesses with less insight into their successes or failures than ever. However, with some creativity and new tracking technology, you can work around these issues for maximum benefit.
Facebook Conversion API helps advertisers measure and optimize their campaigns more accurately by sending server-side events directly to Facebook. It is handy in mitigating the impact of browser restrictions, such as ad-blockers or cookie policies, which may affect the accuracy of the Facebook Pixel. By combining client-side (Facebook Pixel) and server-side (Conversion API) events, advertisers can get a complete picture of their campaigns' performance.
Shopify users have several options on how to integrate Facebook conversion API. In this article, we will discuss all of them and show how to implement the Facebook conversion API for Shopify using the Stape Server GTM app. By the way, check out Stape’s pre-configured templates for Meta CAPI. Now it is easier than ever to configure your setup: everything is done and all ready for you!
Understanding which ads drive conversions is critical to optimizing your ad spend and improving the overall effectiveness of campaigns. The Facebook Conversion API allows for precise attribution by using server-side tracking to capture and convey data that might be missed due to ad blockers or other client-side factors. By accurately measuring and attributing conversion events, businesses can invest in the most effective ads and channels while continuously optimizing their campaigns for better results.
Tracking conversions using traditional client-side methods, such as JavaScript or cookies, can contribute to slower site performance, impacting the user experience and potentially leading to lost sales. With server-side tagging, the Facebook Conversion API can reduce the load on your website, leading to faster load times and a more customer-friendly experience. A seamless and fast website improves the user experience and increases customer satisfaction and conversions.
Facebook Conversion API for Shopify also improves security by reducing the potential for third-party data breaches or manipulation. Server-side tracking restricts data access to a limited set of authenticated servers, making it more difficult for malicious actors to gain access or manipulate data for their benefit. This improved security translates to higher trust between your business and its customers, increasing sales and customer loyalty.
By leveraging the capabilities of the Facebook Conversion API, and Shopify, you can make more informed decisions, optimize your marketing efforts, and drive revenue growth.
For those familiar with Zapier, it will be an easy way to integrate FB CAPI on Shopify. Though there are three main disadvantages:
- lack of customization
- the complexity of the deduplication setup
- price
The setup is simple. You must select which action in Shopify should send the server event to Facebook. But there is no possibility of adding any custom events or tracking events like add to cart or product view. Besides, if you want to use a hybrid approach of FB pixel + FB CAPI as suggested in Meta documentation, sending the same event ID from the web and Zapier server will be hard.
This approach is also simple, but it usually comes with issues like lower than expected match quality score, not accurate event tracking. There are also some issues with consent management and cookie lifetime as well, not to mention there’s close to zero control over what’s being sent beyond the standard event models.
By using server-side Google Tag Manager along with Facebook Conversion API, your Shopify store can gain a more holistic view of user activity across multiple channels, leading to better ad performance, higher conversion rates, and lower acquisition costs.
All because setting up FB CAPI for Shopify using server Google Tag Manager allows customization, data enrichment, and setting up proper event deduplication. The following section will show how to set up FB CAPI for Shopify using Stape Shopify App.
Here’s a step-by-step guide about Server-side tagging for Shopify, where you can find more information about the implementation.
3. Send data to the server Google Tag Manager container. There are three most popular ways to do that:
4. Configure Facebook CAPI inside server Google Tag Manager.
Facebook tags by Stape have two behaviors: Inherit from the client and Override. If you select the inherit option, the FB CAPI tag will listen to the event data and try to parse and map all data it can identify and send to the meta. If you select override, then you must specify all parameters manually. Below are examples of configuring FB CAPI for each of these tag behaviors.
We will automatically convert your GA4 events into corresponding Facebook standard events.
I. Add a Facebook Conversion API Tag to your server GTM container by clicking Add to Workspace.
II. Create a new tag and select the tag type Facebook Conversion API Tag.
Select Inherit from client and add:
III. Add a trigger. Click triggers → + in the top right corner → trigger settings and select a custom trigger → this trigger will fire on Some Events → Client Name equals GA4. Click Save.
I. You’ll need to set up FB events manually.
Use GA4 events to trigger Facebook server events.
Example: an “add_to_cart” event and send value, currency and item_id parameters.
II. In your server container add Facebook API tag from the template gallery. Select override in Event Name Setup Method and the event type AddToCart. Fill in your:
III. Fill in the custom data that we decided to pass to Facebook. For these parameters, we will also need to make variables, but now in a server container with the type of variable “event data”.
Custom event is triggered with the event name add_to_cart that triggers on client name equals GA4. Click Save.
1. Open the web and server GTM containers debugger and click through your site. In the server GTM container, you should see events fired by Facebook conversion API Tag.
2. You can test this event inside the Facebook testing tool as well.
Overall, Shopify users have a variety of options when it comes to integrating Facebook’s conversion API. We’ve discussed each possibility thoroughly and explored how to deploy the Facebook conversion API for Shopify using the Stape Server Google Tag Manager app.
Shopify users should take the time to review their own business needs and use cases before determining which integration is best for them. Then, whether you choose a manual solution or rely on automation, implementing the Facebook conversion API will provide your company with additional insights into customer behaviors, help optimize campaigns, and deliver more engaging experiences for your customers.
To get started quickly and achieve the best results, we recommend trying the Stape Server GTM app for Shopify, which provides an easy-to-use implementation option.
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