Facebook Conversions API Support?

[aiandy]

With the upcoming changes to ad tracking in browsers, Facebook is aggressively pushing folks to adopt the new Conversions API.  From my reading, this has to be done server-side, so we'd likely need Hubspot to support this and provide hooks for our page templates.

What's the recommendation for Hubspot users during this transition time?  Is there a timeline/expectation about when we might need to adjust how we do tracking with Hubspot and Facebook?

[CWilhelm]

Hi @TiphaineCuisset 

I'm trying to figure out how to get the Facebook Conversions API integrated with our HubSpot Account but I am wondering if this feature is available for all levels of HubSpot (free & paid).

[TiphaineCuisset]

Hi @CWilhelm 

Thank you for reaching out!

The beta is available for Marketing Hub Pro and Enterprise. 

Thank you!

Best

Tiphaine

[LeaJolimoi]

We would really like to join the beta. We tried sending private messages to different people from this thread but didn't get any answer. It is really important for our business to be able to connect Hubspot to the conversion API.

Is anybody aware of the current process to join the beta for this feature?

[TiphaineCuisset]

Hi @LeaJolimoi 

Thank you for reaching out, and a happy new year! It does look like you may be using HubSpot in French, I just wanted to let you know that you can access the FR Community by changing your language in your settings via the language selector at the top left. 

Regarding the beta, I can see you have a paid account, I would recommend connecting with HubSpot Technical Support, as Support is included in your subscription and they will be able to help you on that. 

Thank you!

Best

Tiphaine

[hhawk]

I fully agree on the value of the beta. 

I'm facing the same issue of an urgent need to implement on our own. 

Events like button presses? scrolling? or events like MQL or SQL status? 

[HGriffiths]

We are more B2C, with a bit of B2B, so the events we have programmed are trial starts for our subscription product, and then on-website lead form submissions for B2B. 

Do you know if there is any danger in manually implementing the CAPI alongside the Beta? I don't want to duplicate data, but I feel like for our business and Facebook account we'd reap benefits a lot sooner through manual implementation (just to give more data back to Facebook for optimization). 

[HGriffiths]

@hhawk well we optimise to a series of custom conversions and some standard events. I'm just not sure what value the CAPI is adding via Hubspot so far - we have the ability to manually implement, but expected more matching of events than just pageview from the OOTB Hubspot Beta. And obviously expected that fluid syncing data between Hubspot, Facebook and Business Data would be better than manual implementation of direct to Facebook capi from business data...I'm not seeing how CAPI is adding value to Facebook/Hubspot/our business above and beyond the data exchanged via the pixel pre-implementation

[HGriffiths]

@jacquimalis what are the next steps in the Conversion API Beta to upgrade from just pageviews? 

Not sure how much value CAPI via Hubspot is adding vs the potential of manual implementation of CAPI.

Would love to hear Hubspot's thoughts/findings/plans, given the Beta has been out a few months.

[hhawk]

@HGriffiths I'm wondering what you are looking for?

More pixel events or offline events like Lifecycle stage chances?

[hhawk]

I'm looking for HS users who are testing Conversions API (CAPI) in the beta. It took us a few weeks to get some bugs worked out -- we have implemented the CAPI in HS.

If you are testing CAPI if you look in the Events Manager are you seeing similar errors or warning (see images below)?

We are observing errors and I'm wondering if anyone else is observing these errors?

1.  FB is not receiving the data needed to deduplicate the pixel and CAPI data. These keys include FBC/FBCLID, FBP, and ExternID.
   1. FBP is an ID saved by "the pixel [it] automatically saves a unique identifier to an _fbp cookie"
   2. If the website has a Facebook pixel that uses first-party cookies, the pixel automatically saves the fbclid query parameter to an _fbc cookie for that website domain.
   3. If no first party cookie or no Pixel installed, then "it is still possible to send the fbc event parameter if an fbclid query parameter is in the URL of the current page request."
   4. ExternID is an external ID with no PII, in the case of HS the ContactID could be used as the ExternID
      
   5. 

[MiaSrebrnjak]

Hi @hhawk, 

crossposting here for visibility: I replied to you in this Community post and also tagged in other users from this thread to see if they're observing similar behavior. 

Cheers
Mia, Community Team

[RCTMAP]

Is this Facebook Conversion API for Hubspot in beta?

If so can I get it?

[hhawk]

Updated
It is in beta. I'm testing on my page(s). There are many limits. You can request it from @jacquimalis 
 - Spoiler alert it may not be worth it (details below).

1st - there are no offline events; only a single event is currently passed "Pageview."
 

2nd - based on prior implemenations the number of server events should be greater than the number of browser events. The beta, for my pages has browser events > server events.
- We are observing a small # of server events (15%) that are unique. Originally this had been 0%
- It may be worth using the trial - it will not help right now with offline (deep funnel) events

- Why this matters?  This means there is less optimization value gained by using the beta.
E.g, it's great to test it but you will not see any benefit in your paid and organic campaigns on FB/IG.

Here is a light day (Sept 18th)

Images (above) breakdown of PageView events

• On Sept 18 (5pm - EOD): 158 pageview events
• 55 server events 
• 15% of those events were unique E.g., 8 page views
  • Those are Pageviews not users (e.g, could be 1 or 2 people)

What is dedup?

• Dedup is seperate from "Matching" with the user
  • CAPI requests events from both the Server and the Browser
• We want to record only 1 event (not 2) so Facebook deduplicates any overlap
• Facebook uses several "keys" to identify duplicated events
  • The goal is to have depulicated events
  • The goal is through both server and broswer events to get closer to 100% of events
• FBP is an ID that is placed in a cookie on the user's machine
• ExternID (External ID) is a unique code that has NO PII
  • It can be any unique string but for example it could be a Contact ID #
• Event ID "any unique string chosen by the advertiser. event_id is used to deduplicate events sent by both Facebook Pixel and Conversions API"

3rd - Why do I expect Server Events to be > Browser?
- Background Brower events are often blocked in a manner that server events wouldn't be.
- With a prior implementation I observed Server sent pageview events to be 24% > than browser sent pageview events.

4th - Why aren't HS sending over more server events?
HS's implementation doesn't send server events unless the user has opted into tracking 
- IANAL but I feel the privacy policy on our site covers this (YMMV)

5. Will the HS Implemenation of CAPI be worth it in the long run
- Yes I believe so! The team is doing a really great job and the support is top notch as expected.
- I hope HS can resolve some of these privacy issues
- Offline events are the key to conversion optimization (e.g, a user moving from Lead -> MQL or SQL)
- Those typically can't be sent by the browser and would be very helpful
- This would be esp. good if we are able to send a HS Score (e.g, lead score as a value). I've written up in many other posts why and how that would be helpful.

More Background
- That primary data needed to be sent contains no PII
- It should contain an FBCLIC,* FBP (cookie ID), and/or an ExternID, or Event ID + Event Name
- IP looked up GEO location data could be sent -- I don't see that as being PII
- If the users email/phone # are known, those could be sent. Those are PII--  if the user has given us these, i strongly believe that our privacy policy should cover sending those to FB.

Matching Rates
* FBCLID is being used for matching but not deduplication

Here is what we are seeing from the Beta in terms of Matching

1.  Error on Country/City "Server Sending Invalid Country/City" Parameter"
   
2. We could be getting a better match rate if FBCLID (url parameter) of FBP (cookie data) was being sent
3. Also for ZIP code
   • The other parameters like date of birth isn't data that we would have and certainly is PII and would need permission and be included in the privacy policy.
4. In this example we have a match rate of 5.8 and the following "recommendations" could increase that to 8.2 which would be signicant. 

"If you have browser IDs (fbp) for your customers, sending them with your server event may increase your Event Match Quality by up to 1 points."
"If you have click IDs (fbc) for your customers, sending them with your server event may increase your Event Match Quality by up to 0.4 points."
"If you have zip codes for your customers, sending them with your server event may increase your Event Match Quality by up to 1 points."

[RChowdhury]

Hi Aiandy

Any update on this?

[PamCotton]

Hello, @RChowdhury as @jacquimalis mentioned: "this is now out in private beta for professional and enterprise customers only. If you meet these criteria and have not already reached out please send me your HUB ID if you are interested in being ungated at this time." If you are a pro or enterprise account currently I would recommend sending @jacquimalis  the information to be able to join this beta.

Thank you,

Pam

Kindly,

Pam

[jacquimalis]

Hi everyone - those who are ungated please check https://app.hubspot.com/l/whats-new which lives under your main menu under "product updates" to find your product notification on FCAPI beta release.

[hhawk]

Thanks.. when we are ungated will there be a notice? or is there some place we should check? 

[jacquimalis]

You will receive a product notification at time of ungate with instructions of how to implement and a link to the password protected Knowledge Base document for the beta. If you go into your ads settings under the tab "pixel," you can hover over the pixel you would like to integrate FCAPI and select edit to open up a modal to turn on FCAPI, and begin the authorization process. 

Modal Step 1:

Modal Step 2 once Authorized through Facebook Business Extension:

[ferojas87]

Hi Jacqui, 

We already config the Facebook conversion API, we complete step two in your screenshot. But in facebook we dont see any event or the posibility to add a new event from hubspot. please can you help us?

Cheers

[ShamlanLye]

@ferojas87 you can try Zapier integration for this HS > FB Conversion