[Stape & Meta Webinar] Conversion API Gateway vs. server GTM: what to use, why and when

Meta and Stape were hosting a webinar on Conversion API Gateway vs. server GTM! 

We described in details: what to use, why and when. 

For Whom: digital marketers, analytics experts, business owners, freelancers, and agencies curious in the difference between two server-side solutions - Meta conversion API Gateway and server GTM.

Speakers: 

• Florian Will, Strategic Partner Manager, Signals, EMEA, Monetization Partnerships at Meta.
• Serge Shkvarnytskyi, Account Manager at Stape.
• Denis Golubovskyi, Founder of Stape.

- Introduction to Conversion API Gateway (CAPIG): learn the basics and how it works.

- Business use cases and top brands case studies: learn how leading brands successfully utilize CAPIG.

- CAPIG demo: watch a step-by-step demonstration of CAPIG setup in action.

- Overview of server-side Google Tag Manager (GTM): discover the core benefits of server-side GTM.

- Advantages of GTM Server-Side: explore how GTM can transform your ad tracking and data management.

- CAPIG vs. server-side GTM: get insights on which tool to use and when for optimal results.

- CAPIG and server-side GTM benefits for Agencies.

• Understanding when it is better to use CAPIG and server GTM.
• Written guides on Conversion API Gateway and server GTM setup.
• Q&A session to address your specific questions. 
• Webinar recording. 

There is no such deadline existent. However due to the massive impact on performance uplift leveraging first party data through CAPI and the evolution of the data regulatory landscape which is ongoing, we highly recommend to adopt Conversions API.

This will help gather 1st-party cookies from your site. It is not necessary, but it will increase your event matching score.

Meta's Events Manager provides statistics on how many more events were received due to CAPI.

Yes. Correct. Here you can find the Meta Business Partner Directory of badged partners, including stape.io : https://www.facebook.com/business/partner-directory

If you use Stape as your CAPI GW provider, then your site can be hosted anywhere. It doesn’t matter.

Yes, you can leverage CAPI for Offline signal inclusion, though there is still the offline-CAPI that you might know from the past.

We had never seen a situation where fewer server events were sent from the server than from the web. I assume there might be situations where no uplift was generated after implementing CAPI if there were some issues with the implementations of CAPI.

If you have one website, example.com, and another, blog.example.com, you can use CAPI GW for example.com and server GTM for blog.example.com.

Basically, you can mix CAPI solutions for different domains.

Also you can use one CAPI GW for few different domains even they use different CMS and hosting.

There is a limit: Up to 100 pixels and Up to 200 million events per month.

For this case using server Google Tag Manager and configure CAPI though sGTM is the best way. You can use first party data (like offline events) to sent it to Facebook. This type of data can’t be blocked. This guide explains on how to use offline events in sGTM.

Deduplication is set up automatically for CAPIG, there is no way on how you can debug it in a live mode. But after implementing CAPIG you can check events manager and see if the dedulication worked correctly.

This is on how you can check if CAPIG was configured correctly.

This guide explains how to configure data routing.

All is done for you automatically in case your web Meta (Facebook) pixel is configured properly.

Yes. It will send to server same events that you have on the web.

Acording to Meta documentation - yes.

Because web pixel gathers 3rd party cookies in the Chrome like browsers.

We suggest using sGTM in this case.

We do not recommend using the Conversions API via sGTM and the Gateway methods in parallel. Therefore, if we are talking about tracking the same events, it is better to choose one method. This article explores the differences between Meta Conversions API Gateway and Conversion API to help make an informed decision and choose the one that best suits your tracking and analytics demand: https://stape.io/blog/meta-conversions-api-gateway-versus-conversion-api.

No, there's nothing stopping you from using GW on any platform, including Shopify.

You always need to make sure you don't have unnecessary data sources. In the case of Meta you should have one source of web events (some plugin / integration / customised events in web GTM / inline code) and one source of server events (Gateway / direct integration via sGTM / plugins etc.).

Otherwise if you have multiple sources of e.g. server events it is very likely that they will not be deduplicated and you will have overreporting.

If you already have direct integration active and configured you do not need to abandon it, you can continue to use it without any restrictions.

Event deduplication for the CAPI gateway is set up automatically. Event_id deduplication key is automatically generated and propagated to help ensure deduplication between both channels (web and server). Please check FB Conversion API Gateway documentation to find more details about event deduplication: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/conversions-api/guides/gateway

This article explores the differences between Meta Conversions API Gateway and Conversion API to help make an informed decision and choose the one that best suits your tracking and analytics demand: https://stape.io/blog/meta-conversions-api-gateway-versus-conversion-api.

We do not recommend using the Conversions API via sGTM and the Gateway methods in parallel. Therefore, if we are talking about tracking the same events, it is better to choose one method. 

Meta Conversions API Gateway benefits are a 13% cost-per-action improvement and a 7% Increase in the lead-to-sale conversion rate when using the Conversions API with lead ads.

You can find more details here: https://stape.io/fb-capi-gateway

Meta Conversions API Gateway works based on the data that FB pixel sends. This means that whenever CAPIG sees an event triggered by an FB pixel, it sends server events.

sGTM: Requires more initial setup and ongoing maintenance but offers higher long-term benefits in terms of data quality and match rates.

CAPI Gateway: Easier and faster to implement but may not provide the same level of detailed data customization and enrichment.

Gateway is connected in the same way regardless of what CMS you have for your site. The only condition for everything to work is that you must already have web events configured and working on your site.

If you already have web events and they work - then yes, through Gateway you can set up CAPI events within a couple of minutes.

If you already have this working and are happy with the results you don't need to change it and move to Gateway.

This will help gather 1st-party cookies from your site. It is not necessary, but it will increase your event matching score.

No, the tracking setup is different for each platform. You can find a lot of information about this on our blog and YouTube channel. We are also planning to hold further webinars on how to set up tracking for popular platforms.

Meta Conversions API Gateway works based on the data that FB pixel sends. This means that whenever CAPIG sees an event triggered by an FB pixel, it sends server events. Event deduplication for the CAPI gateway is set up automatically. Event_id deduplication key is automatically generated and propagated to help ensure deduplication between both channels (web and server). Please check FB Conversion API Gateway documentation to find more details about event deduplication: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/conversions-api/guides/gateway

You can check it out on our website under Case Studies: https://stape.io/blog/category/case-studies

This article explores the differences between Meta Conversions API Gateway and Conversion API to help make an informed decision and choose the one that best suits your tracking and analytics demand: https://stape.io/blog/meta-conversions-api-gateway-versus-conversion-api.

Using server-side tracking first of all allows you to drastically reduce the impact of adblockers and ITP (Safari) restrictions on your tracking, which results in platforms receiving more data -> better attribution and optimisation of your ads -> better ad results.

There's no better way. Each way is convenient in its own way. You can use some plugin for web events, or set them up in web GTM, or have them in the site code. Any of the options will work without problems with Meta Gateway.

Match quality depends mainly only on the amount of user data you send along with the events. Make sure that for example if you have ecommerce you send all available billing data together with purchase event. The full set of user data that Meta accepts can be found here: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/conversions-api/parameters

There is no best practice specifically for Stape, this applies to any tracking setup - you need to follow the recommendations and best practices that the platform itself offers. In the case of Meta, you need to have a web data source + server data source, deduplication and send as much user data as you have available: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/conversions-api/parameters

Everyone will have their own metrics, but in general your conversion cost should get lower from tracking improvements.

Meta Conversions API Gateway works based on the data that FB pixel sends. This means that whenever CAPIG sees an event triggered by an FB pixel, it sends server events. Event deduplication for the CAPI gateway is set up automatically. Event_id deduplication key is automatically generated and propagated to help ensure deduplication between both channels (web and server). Please check FB Conversion API Gateway documentation to find more details about event deduplication https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/conversions-api/guides/gateway

Meta Conversions API Gateway benefits are a 13% cost-per-action improvement and a 7% Increase in the lead-to-sale conversion rate when using the Conversions API with lead ads.

You can find more details here https://stape.io/fb-capi-gateway

Our blog contains numerous helpful articles with detailed instructions and video tutorials. Here is a link to access it https://stape.io/blog

1. 1.
   How to set up Meta Conversions API Gateway
2. 2.
   How to Set Up Facebook Conversion API + Events Deduplication & Hash User Data
3. 3.
   Meta Conversions API Gateway vs. Conversion API
4. 4.
   Meta conversion API for Shopify
5. 5.
   Meta conversion API for WordPress
6. 6.
   Meta conversion API for Bigcommerce
7. 7.
   Meta conversion API for Magento
8. 8.
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