Should your business send Facebook events server-side?

Wow, 2020 has been a crazy digital advertising year. For many, Facebook provided historical performance. The landscape didn’t disappoint in the amount of tracking changes either. From IDFA getting an overhaul in iOS14 to an increased effort around third-party cookie tracking, the landscape is moving faster than ever.

Tracking and attribution (through matching) is paramount for most performance advertisers. Without it, you can’t see how your ad dollars are performing. That’s why having a direct server-side event is so important.

What is server-side event sending?

In a nutshell, this is a pathway in which you can send data from your server directly to Facebook’s servers. Facebook calls this a Conversions API (CAPI).

Why should you use CAPI?

A few big reasons:

• Control — By sending directly, you bypass the possibility Facebook’s pixel can change (and it has changed a lot) and therefore could capture some potentially sensitive information on your customers that may cause frustration. This is more applicable to sensitive companies but regardless (IMHO) you should always try to control the data flows.
• Prevent Data Loss — A pixel for online data sends is great but it’s by in large (even with FBC) still cookie based. With the digital advertising landscape shifting and cookie tracking getting harder, sending data is a hedge against data loss. In other words, if a user’s cookie didn’t fire through the pixel they would likely still up in the interface (and match) if you have CAPI integrated.

Is this a replacement for pixel tracking?

No. This will be in addition to your regular pixel. CAPI operates independently to the pixel. That said, event deduplication is required to ensure double counting.

Is it easy to setup?

While it’s not as easy as the normal Javascript pixel, Facebook has partnered with a number of vendors such as Shopify to make it easier. (The full documentation can be found here.)

If you don’t have a common platform, I would recommend hiring a developer.

After setup, I recommend you review Events Manager to check the data and the match quality.