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Social media advertising is going through unprecedented change as users demand more privacy and technology giants move away from browser based tracking toward server side tracking. As opposed to browser based tracking where data is sent to from a user’s browser directly to the destination server, server side tracking adds an additional step where data is first sent to your web server then your web server passes it to the destination server.
In the example of Facebook, browser based tracking would send conversion data directly from a user’s browser to Facebook’s servers whilst server side tracking would have conversion data sent to Shopify then Shopify servers would send the data to Facebook’s servers via the Facebook API.
Some of the advantages of implementing Facebook Conversion API include:
- Improved data quality as server side tracking helps to fill in the conversion gap as a result of browser restrictions such as ad blockers
- Improved attribution as both browser and server conversions are reported (and deduped) to Facebook
- Improved Facebook optimisation as the Facebook algorithm gets more data
How to implement Facebook Conversion API in Shopify
Shopify has made it really easy to implement the Facebook conversion API using the Facebook Channel app.
- Step 1: Download the Facebook Channel app in Shopify. You can find the Facebook channel app via this link https://apps.shopify.com/facebook
- Step 2: Connect your Facebook business account with the Facebook shopify app. You can do this by setting up Facebook page shop
- Step 3a Enabling data sharing on the set up screen
There are 2 ways to enable Facebook conversion API. The first one is via the set up screen under the data sharing drop down. Turn on the data sharing setting then select maximum. The maximum setting allows Shopify to send conversion data directly to Shopify.
Once you select ‘Maximum’ you need to connect your Facebook Ad account to the Facebook channel app on shopify. You should see a drop down of all your ad accounts, select the most appropriate account and connect. This would complete the set up process linking your Facebook ad account to shopify and allowing Shopify to send conversion data to Facebook under the assigned Facebook ad account.
- Step 3b: Enabling data sharing on the Facebook channel app overview page
The other way to set up Facebook conversion tracking is via the Facebook channel app overview page under the settings tab.
Once you are in the settings tab, select marketing settings to link your Facebook ad account to the Facebook channel in Shopify
You then need to select your country and accept the terms and conditions:
Once you have configured your settings you need to select ‘Data sharing settings’ on the left panel, enable customer sharing data, choose level as maximum then confirm. This would finalise the Facebook conversion API set up process.
To confirm server side tracking is working correctly, go to Event Manager in Facebook and look at your purchase events from your pixel activity. You will see that your purchases now contain both browser and server side events.
That’s all folks! You can now go ahead and implement CAPI on your Shopify stores. As always, reach out if you have any questions.
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