The world of advertising tracking changed a few years ago with the introduction of iOS 14 which restricted over how tracking works across apps. Apple previously allowed data tracking to cross between apps and would share secret behind-the-scenes information about your identity and behavior.

The most common example of cross app tracking would be when you use the Facebook app and then switch apps to your mobile web browser. Previously, data could be shared between those two apps without you knowing. (This explains how if you clicked a Facebook ad for a pair of shoes, you would then see other ads on for the same pair of shoes when reading the news on your phone on the mobile web browser). Specifically for advertisers, they need that data sharing between Facebook and your mobile browser because that is how they track sales from a given ad. You click the ad from Facebook on those pair of shoes, which opens up your mobile browser, and then complete your purchase. This data then gets shared back to Facebook who in turns reports conversion stats and numbers to advertisers.

Facebook tried to sue Apple to stop this restriction but lost the fight. Then when iOS 14 got introduced on Apple Devices, Apple blocked all sharing unless users consented to tracking and data sharing. Obviously most consumers typically say no. And with over 56% of all US internet traffic coming from mobile phones, the impact was huge.

Now you know the backstory of why tracking and advertising metrics are have been upended. Here are the tools Facebook uses to try and overcome these restrictions.

1: The Facebook Pixel

The Facebook pixel is a piece of code that can be added to a website to track user activity and conversions. When someone visits a website with the pixel installed, the pixel sends data to Facebook, which can then be used to show targeted ads to that person on Facebook and Instagram. The pixel can track actions such as page views, purchases, and form submissions, and can be used to optimize ad targeting and measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.

Any business can obtain a Facebook pixel by creating a Facebook page and creating a tracking pixel for the business to install on their own website. TicketSpice supports the Facebook pixel inside the Tracking menu when editing a page. Insert the pixel ID and your TicketSpice page will report back to Facebook views, clicks, add to cart, initiate checkout, and purchase.

But when it comes to conversion tracking on mobile phones (over half of all internet traffic), the Facebook pixel cannot correctly attribute a sale back to an ad. That then created the need for another way to track conversions from mobile phones, which is the server side conversion method.

2: Facebook Server Side Conversion (known as Facebook Conversion API)

Facebook's server-side conversion tracking is a way to track ad conversions without relying on tracking pixels or cookies, which are blocked by iOS 14. Instead of sending conversion data directly from a user's browser to Facebook's servers, the server-side method involves sending the data from the e-commerce platform that captures your sales and then sends the data to Facebook's server. TicketSpice supports the Facebook conversion API method to send purchase data over to Facebook so that events can track the effectiveness of their advertising efforts.

How does Facebook know who purchased and from which ads? The server-side conversion method sends basic encrypted information about each purchaser such as name, email, order amount, to Facebook. Facebook collects enormous amounts of data of people and they piece together if a given person saw or clicked on an ad that resulted in a conversion.

If you want to learn how to create a Facebook pixel and setup the server side conversion tracking (which is a bit more nerdy) check out this article.

If you are spending any amount of money to promote your event on any Meta platform (such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), you should at the very least utilize the Facebook pixel to track clicks, views, and page interactions. When it comes to tracking purchases to your event that came from ads accurately, you should consider going through the process of setting up the Facebook Conversion API between your TicketSpice page and your Facebook account. Even when using the Conversion API, tracking is not perfect, but it is closer than using the Facebook pixel alone.