How to setup Facebook Conversion API?

Facebook Conversions API (or Server-Side API) is designed to help businesses maintain data privacy while delivering personalized experiences to their customers without relying on browser-based tools like cookies.

Additionally, Conversions API provides businesses:

Full funnel visibility: it offers businesses the ability to share a wider array of data with us currently captured by Pixel. This gives businesses full-funnel visibility.
Accurate data sharing: data sharing through Conversions API is more accurate than other methods; businesses don’t have to worry about data getting lost because of a browser crash or an ad blocker.
Data control: Conversions API gives businesses more control over what they share. That means businesses that implement the Conversions API can decide what to share and when to share it.

LeadsBridge will send anonymized data to Facebook using the SHA-256 algorithm. By design, LeadsBridge will not store any sensitive data in its database.
LeadsBridge only acts as a “hub” or “middle-ware” that retrieves the information from your data warehouse (e.g. CRM, etc.), validates the information, and push to Facebook using their API.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to create a Bridge between your Facebook Conversions API and your CRM.

A Bridge is a word we use to describe a connection between a Source, in this case, your CRM, and a Destination, in this case, your Facebook Conversions API.

Facebook Conversions API lets you:

Measure customer actions in more ways. For example, you can share delayed values, user scores, or lead scores and use them for optimization in our other business tools.
Improve reliability to send events for measurement and optimization when used along with the pixel. The Conversions API will help capture events that you may lose due to poor network connectivity or long page load times.
Control the data you share. You can include more meaningful data about your users, such as their user scores, alongside the event data you share with Facebook via the Conversions API.

This can help you better understand the ROI of your advertising and allows you to optimize for the outcome that matters most to your business.

After you finish your Bridge setup, LeadsBridge will start automatically syncing your data, retrieving them from your CRM, and keeping them synced with your Facebook account.

Conversions API step-by-step setup

1. Select the source

This is the first part of the Sources step; in this step, you should select the CRM or Platform from which LeadsBridge will retrieve your data.

For these guidelines, we will use Salesforce and create a new Salesforce Integration. Still, you can use any of the hundreds of integrations available in LeadsBridge (e.g. SFDC, HubSpot, SFTP, Database, CSV files).

After we have selected our Integration, we can select the Destination settings.

2. Integration setup

This is the Integration step; in this step, you will create the connection with your CRM by clicking Create a new integration, in this case, Salesforce. You can click on Authorize to set the connection between Salesforce and LeadsBridge.

Since we are using Salesforce, you set set some integration options such as Use sandbox?

If you have already created your Integration, you can jump to the next step.

The parameters may vary according to the Integration you’re using. You should type your Integration name and confirm it. So, you will be redirected to the bridge.

3. Source setup

This is the second part of the Sources step; in this step, you can select the type of segmentation concept you want to use while retrieving the selected Source objects. For example, if you choose Salesforce, LeadsBridge will retrieve your List Views, which is a Salesforce segmentation concept.

After that, in the Manage ”Objects“ as dropdown, you should choose the kind of object you want to retrieve from Salesforce. If, for instance, your business uses the Salesforce Opportunity, please select that option in the dropdown. Otherwise, if you want to keep the Leads or Contacts from your websites synced, choose those kinds of objects.

Then, in the Use ”Segment“ as dropdown, you should choose the type of segmentation concept you would like to use when retrieving your Integration objects. Since we are using Salesforce, we may select List Views as a segment to receive the contacts that belong to a specific List. For instance, let’s say that you have a specific List View that contains all the contacts that showed Interest when being reached by your call center.

4. Account information

This is the Destination step; in this step, you need to select the System User you want to connect to. When the Bridge is ready, LeadsBridge can periodically sync and update your CRM data with your Facebook Conversions API.

Initially, you’ll need to connect to LeadsBridge the Facebook Ad Account that you’ll be using in your Campaigns, and create a System User.

Select the System User that you previously created from the dropdown. Alternatively, click on the Create a new Integration button and select the Business Manager you want to create the System User. LeadsBridge will attempt the System User creation for you.
Now, on the Facebook side, follow these steps:
Go into Business Manager Settings: https://business.facebook.com/settings
Select your Business Manager
From the left menu, select Data Sources and then Pixels
Select the Pixel you want to connect to CAPI (e.g. “My Facebook Pixel”) and click on the Add People button
Select LeadsBridge_SystemUser (which has been created at the end of step 5 above) and tick Manage Pixel
Click Assign to save and submit

Now that you have connected the Facebook Ad Account and created the System User, we can proceed with the bridge configuration steps.

5. Pixel settings

This is the first part of the Settings step; in this step, you should select the Pixel to which you want to send your data.

In the Pixel dropdown, choose between creating a new Conversions API or select one that you’ve previously created.
Under the Sync Each dropdown, you should define the Sync frequency you would like to use; we recommend using the 24-hour sync frequency.
Then, in the Start Sync At dropdown, you may choose at which specific time of the day you would like to start the syncing process; we advise you to leave it as Automatically Detected.
If you are ingesting conversions without a specific value, we suggest flagging the default conversion value to 1 and the default conversions currency to USD.
In this last selection option, you may set your Bridge on Live Sync and start sending your data into your Facebook Pixel, or set it as Simulation and allow LeadsBridge to elaborate and validate your source data, excluding the syncing process. Thanks to this latter option, you will be able to double-check the information sent to Facebook when you set the Bridge on Live Sync mode.
Finally, click on the Continue button

6. Source Filter

Also, if you click on Add Filter for Incoming Leads, you will define Conditions on which you can set further segmentation filters for your contacts. In this way, you may allow contacts to be sent into your Facebook Pixel based on some conditions like, for instance, a filter that will only allow the syncing of contacts that have been assigned a specific State or Stage in your CRM.

After you have selected your Segmentation and optionally assigned your Source Filter, you can click on Save Changes to continue with the following step.

7. Fields Mapping

This is the Fields Mapping step, and it is the most important part of the Bridge creation. In this step, LeadsBridge will ask you to do the mapping between the fields requested by Facebook to recognize the Pixel with your CRM data.

Notice that Facebook doesn’t need to receive your contact’s Email address, Phone number, and so on, but this kind of mapping between Facebook and the source CRM fields will increase the Matching Rate.

Facebook allows advertisers to send multiple pieces of information to recognize their users.
You can map 1st party data (e.g. email, phone, etc) or additional data (e.g. lead_id, browser agent data, fbclid, etc) to allow the Facebook platform to properly match your data with the Facebook platform data.

For sure, the more data you will send to the Facebook platform, the higher will be the matching rate, and the more accurate will be the attribution rate.

*Here you can find a list of full matchable data
*https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/server-side-api/parameters

Make sure to map every mandatory value marked with a blue star. Usually, Action Source, Event Name, and Event Time are mandatory values, so you should map them accordingly.

You may also want to map fields such as Event Value or Event Currency if, for instance, you’re syncing your opportunities, which usually have a specific amount.

Once you have mapped all the required and optional fields, you can click on Continue to activate your Bridge.

That’s it. When the sync period begins, your Bridge will start the elaboration and validation of your Source data and, if you have set your Bridge on Live Sync, LeadsBridge will sync the data to your Facebook Pixel.