Facebook Conversions Cloud mode

RudderStack supports sending event data to Facebook Conversions only in cloud mode.

Page

RudderStack sends the page call to Facebook Pixel with the event type as pageView.

You can also pass properties in your page call - RudderStack automatically sends them along with the event ID to Facebook.

A sample page call is shown:

rudderanalytics.page()

Track

You can use the track call to custom events as they occur in your web application.

A sample track call is shown:

rudderanalytics.track("Product Added", {
  order_ID: "123",
  category: "boots",
  product_name: "pink_boots",
  price: 49.99,
  currency: "EUR",
  checkinDate: "Thu Mar 24 2018 17:46:45 GMT+0000 (UTC)",
})

data object format

Whenever you make a track call, RudderStack sends a request to Facebook’s /events endpoint with a data object.

A sample data object is shown:

data = [{
  "event_name": "Product Purchased",
  "event_time": 1697553987,
  "user_data": {
    "em": [
      "309a0a5c3e211326ae75ca18196d301a9bdbd1a882a4d2569511033da23f0abd"
    ],
    "ph": [
      "254aa248acb47dd654ca3ea53f48c2c26d641d23d7e2e93a1ec56258df7674c4",
      "6f4fcb9deaeadc8f9746ae76d97ce1239e98b404efe5da3ee0b7149740f89ad6"
    ],
    "client_ip_address": "<ip>",
    "client_user_agent": "$CLIENT_USER_AGENT",
    "fbc": "fb.1.1554763741205.AbCdEfGhIjKlMnOpQrStUvWxYz1234567890",
    "fbp": "fb.1.1558571054389.1098115397"
  },
  "custom_data": {
    "currency": "USD",
    "value": 123.45,
    "contents": [{
      "id": "product123",
      "quantity": 1,
      "delivery_category": "home_delivery"
    }]
  },
  "event_source_url": "http://example.com/product/123",
  "action_source": "website"
}]

The data object has the following parts:

Common data

The common data parameters are set at the root level of the data object sent as a part of the event payload.

The following table lists the mappings between the RudderStack properties and the Facebook properties included in common_data:

Note that:

• If your event does not contain any of traits.action_source, context.traits.action_source, or properties.action_source, then RudderStack falls back to the value specified in the Action Source dashboard setting.
• Do not set action_source to any value other than the following - otherwise you will get a Invalid Action Source type error:
  • email
  • website
  • phone_call
  • chat
  • physical_store
  • system_generated
  • app, and
  • other

User data

The following table lists the mappings between the RudderStack properties and the Facebook properties included in user_data:

After the payload is formed, Facebook checks if name field exists. If yes, it is split into fn and ln fields. Facebook does not hash the values of user_data parameters if you send an integrations object in your event as below:

"integrations": {
  "fb_conversions": {
    "hashed": true
  }
}

RudderStack accepts any of the following names for Facebook Conversions in the integrations object:

• fb_conversions
• fb conversions
• FacebookConversions
• Facebook Conversions
• FB Conversions
• Facebook_Conversions

Custom data

RudderStack flattens the custom_data object before sending it Facebook along with the user_data and common_data fields in the data object.

Note that:

• RudderStack sends the properties present in custom_data as is, without any change.
• It also excludes opt_out, event_id, and action_source from the event properties.

The following table explains how RudderStack maps and sets the properties in the specific Facebook fields:

Each of the below parameters are applicable/valid only for certain events.

See Standard events mapping for more information on the properties mapped for each Facebook property according to the event.

Note that content_category must be of type String. For more information on this field, see Facebook developer documentation.

• If content_category is passed as an array, RudderStack merges the array elements as a comma-separated string.
• If content_category is passed as an object, RudderStack throws an error: "Category must be must be a string."

PII properties

Facebook identifies the following event properties as PII properties:

• email
• firstName
• lastName
• first_name
• last_name
• gender
• city
• country
• phone
• state
• zip
• birthday

If any mapped custom_data property is among the above properties, RudderStack checks if the property is allowlisted. If no, it is dropped.

If the property is denylisted, RudderStack checks if the Denylist PII Hash Property toggle is turned on in the dashboard. If no, it is dropped. Otherwise, RudderStack hash-encrypts it before sending to Facebook.

As mentioned above, if you send an integrations object within your event with hashed set to true, RudderStack does not hash the property again.

"integrations": {
  "fb_conversions": {
    "hashed": true
  }
}

App data

RudderStack includes this data only if action_source in the data object is set to app.

The following table lists the mappings between the RudderStack properties and the Facebook properties:

Standard events mapping

RudderStack maps the following events to the Facebook standard events by default:

You can also use the Custom Event Mapping dashboard setting to override the above default mappings.

See the Ecommerce Events Specification for more information on the above events.

Note that:

• For the Purchase standard event (mapped to Order Completed event), properties.revenue is a required field. Also, RudderStack sends the delivery_category field along with id, item_price and quantity as a part of the custom_data.contents object.

• For the Products Searched event, the query property must be a string.

• If you map an event with the ViewContent standard event using the RudderStack dashboard setting and don’t send the products array in the message.properties object:

  "properties": {
    "phone": 1-202-555-0146,
    "email": "alex@example.com",
    "category": "clothing",
    "list_id": "1234",
    "testDimension": true,
    "testMetric": true
  }
  

  Then, content_ids is mapped to properties.category value (clothing in this case) and quantity is set to 1 inside the contents object.

The below table elaborates the property mappings between RudderStack and Facebook corresponding to the RudderStack event:

For all the standard events mentioned above:

• Default values for the currency and quantity properties are USD and 1 respectively.
• content_ids field is populated from the products array. If the products array is not present in the properties, content_ids is set to an empty array resulting in num_items being set to 0.

Other standard events

If you map your event to any of the following Facebook standard events, then RudderStack treats it as a standard event as well:

• Lead
• CompleteRegistration
• Contact
• CustomizeProduct
• Donate
• FindLocation
• Schedule
• StartTrial
• SubmitApplication
• Subscribe

For any properties you want to send with these events, you must specify them in the Event Mapping settings.

For the above-mentioned events and custom events, Rudderstack sends content_ids and num_items to Facebook as a part of properties in the appropriate format.

Deduplication

Facebook allows you to send events via your web browser and your server via the Conversion API. Depending on how you send your events with this duel setup, there is a possibility of Facebook receiving redundant/duplicate events. Hence, to get an accurate representation of your data, Facebook deduplicates the incoming events.

Using event_id

Facebook’s (and RudderStack’s) recommended deduplication strategy is to leverage the event_name and event_id properties. When two events coming into Facebook meet the following criteria, they are deduplicated.

• They are sent within 48 hours of each other.
• They are received by the same Facebook Pixel ID.
• They have the same event_name, for example, Purchase.
• They have the same event_id.
  • The event_id must be unique to that specific event and same for both of the events. For example, the event_id could be a purchase order number.

You can set the event_id as a unique identifier in the event’s traits, context.traits, or the properties object. RudderStack automatically picks up the event_name from the event.

If you don’t set the event_id, RudderStack uses messageId and maps it to Facebook’s eventId.

For more information on the event_id deduplication logic, see the Facebook developer documentation.

Using fbp and external_id

This deduplication strategy is not recommended as it has a few drawbacks:

• It will always discard the server event if Facebook identifies a redundant event.
• It only works for deduplicating events sent first from the browser and then the server.
• There is no deduplication if two consecutive browser events with the same information are sent to Facebook. The same is true if two server events with the same information are sent to Facebook.

For this approach, it is necessary to send an event, first from the browser and then from the server. Note that both events must have the same event_name, the same fbp parameter, and the same external_id.

If the browser event is received before the server event and both events have the same event_name and the same fbp and external_id, then the server event is discarded.

RudderStack maps the event_name from the event sent to Facebook. The fbp parameter is taken from the context.fbp key-value pair. Finally, the external_id will be the userId or anonymousId (if userId is not present).

For more information on the fbp and external_id deduplication logic, see the Facebook developer documentation.

Sending custom content_type

You can send a custom content_type field by specifying it in the properties.content_type field of your event.

RudderStack sets the value of content_type in the following priority order:

1. It gives the highest priority to properties.content_type in your event.
2. If properties.content_type is absent, RudderStack sets the content_type to product by default, except in the following cases:

• If Product List Viewed event is sent:
  • with products array, then the content_type is set to product.
  • without the products array, then the content_type is set to product_group.
• If Product Viewed event is not mapped in RudderStack dashboard (default mapping is set to View Content event) but is sent:
  • with products array, then the content_type is set to product.
  • without the products array, then the content_type is set to product_group.
• If any other event is mapped to the Facebook standard event View Content in the RudderStack dashboard and is sent:
  • with products array, then the content_type is set to product.
  • without the products array, then the content_type is set to product_group.

product and product_group are the only two acceptable values for content_type.

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