[2022] How To Set Up Facebook Conversion API w/ Google Tag Manager (Server-Side) 

Here's something you should really add to this video because it took me way longer than it should have to troubleshoot this issue. I didn't even realize the issue until I noticed a day later that my Google Analytics account wasn't capturing any data. Most of us are going to use Google Analytics 4 alongside Facebook Conversion API. In your video, it makes it look like all you have to do server-side is setup the FB Conversion API tag and data will go to both places. Maybe that's not your intention but with this being a tutorial for newbies, I just assumed Google would have some internal mechanism to send data off to Analytics. Once you check the box in your web container to send GA4 data to the server, you'll stop receiving data to your Google Anaytics 4 account. In order to prevent this from breaking, you have to go to your server-side container and add another tag (along side the FB CAPI tag) for Google Analytics: GA4. Input your measurement ID, and set the trigger for that same GA4 client you used for FB. Submit it all and you're in business. Now your server-side setup will send data to both Facebook and Analytics. Looking back on it now, it makes total sense. I just never considered it because I've literally seen nobody do this in any of the tutorial videos on RU-vid.

It's the best video on RU-vid for setting up the FaceBook Conversion API. Thanks man for it.

Thank you so much for your video. I did exactly what you said and it works now!

Hands down "Best gtm/FB Capi Tut" on the Tube ! especially if you never had a GTM set up before like me. I was totally newb at it. Thanks Cedric, you helped me a lot !

Thanks god for the existence of this guy

honestly, this is the best tutorial on any topic to date. I can't believe how much detail you give us. Strat session booked for Monday. I have so many systems integrated for a funnel I had to put together due to merchant restrictions with our 2 CRM's and Clickfunnels

You are my heros guys!!!

Literally been trying to read the developer stuff on Google Tag manager to understand this! Was getting nowhere! Thank you so much! You should add the donate on your videos!

Hands down the best, we all appreciate the time, effort, knowledge and resources you've provided with this video.

Thanks man! This is by far the best tutorial!

Awesome video. Great and helpful content

Amazing Cedric! you rock!

I have found this video very informative and one of the best tutorial about Facebook Conversion API. It would great, if you could make another video for Pinterest Conversion API.

Brilliant tutorial. Thanks 😊

Wow. This is such a knowledge-packed walkthrough. Thank you!

Absolutely awesome! Big thanks Cedric!!

Amazing video, THANK YOU so much. We'd been struggling with the CAPI implementation for a while and this was a perfect walk-through.

Superb!

Everything seems to work, thank you so much! However it costs a lot of money especially if you want to set it up for every client you have (as an agency). For example I got a small website with a low volume of pagevisitors, I'm paying for 5 days already 20 dollars! That's insane. Is there a free way or a less expensive way?

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:00 *🎥 Introduction to Google Tag Manager and Server-Side Tracking* - Explains the purpose of the video, - Mentions that the setup will be shared for easy use, - Stresses the importance of supporting the video for better RU-vid visibility. 01:11 *📚 Understanding Facebook Conversion API and Server Side Tracking* - Detailed overview of what is Facebook Conversion API and Server Side Tracking, - Explains how tracking information gets send to Facebook platform using tags in Google Tag Manager, - Discusses the difference between browser-side and server-side tracking. 03:28 *💻 Setting up Facebook Conversion API with Google Tag Manager* - Demonstrates live setup of Google Tag Manager, - Explains the need for event id and timestamp to avoid duplicacy in data, - Shows how to import the setup provided by the video creator into one's own Google Tag Manager account. 05:21 *🔧 Configuring Various Events in Google Tag Manager* - Walks through different types of tags and their relevant settings, - Discusses concepts like advanced matching, object properties, triggers, variables, - Highlights the difference between standard and custom events. 10:19 *📈 Setting up Server side tracking using ga4 tags * - Details how to setup server-side tracking, - Mentions the need for Google analytics 4 property, - Describes what each attribute in the setup does and how to set them. 14:25 *🏷️ Setting up Other GA4 Events and user properties* - Discusses how to set up other Google analytics 4 events, - Stresses on the importance of correct ID to send data to server, - Further explains the purpose and usage of triggers, setting up user properties and how the event names differ between Facebook and GA4. 16:47 *🛒 Introduction to Property Setup and Custom Events* - Explains how to add currency and value to your data layer, - Highlights the importance of adding currency and value-especially for metrics like return ad spend, - Goes through the setup for adding user properties. 18:23 *🕹️ Setting up GA4 and Custom Events* - Walks through the process of creating custom events, - Explains the need for consistent naming for events across GA4 and Facebook, - Stresses the importance of selecting the exact triggers as your Facebook tag for the browser. 19:20 *🎯 Creating the Server Container and Choosing Cloud Provider* - Demonstrates the step for creating a server container and choosing Google Cloud, - Discusses the cost associated with server-side tracking, - Guides through the process of adding a payment method and verifying domain name in Google. 22:33 *🌐 Setting up Custom Sub Domains and DNS Records* - Explains the process of setting up custom subdomains and considering uniqueness, - Guides through setting up DNS records and its time frame, - Discusses the process of verifying domain in Google. 24:05 *🧾 Configuring Server Container URL * - Shows the process of adding the server container URL to your browser, - Discusses about the need for using your own server URL for tracking, - Highlights a specific error, 404, when not set up correctly. 25:15 *💽 Setting up GA4 Client, Tags, and Triggers * - Demonstrates setting up GA4 client, tags, and triggers, - Highlights the need for choosing the specific tag template for the Facebook Conversion API, - Explains the process of getting the pixel ID, access token, and test event code, along with setting up a custom trigger for GA4. 28:08 *🔄 Setting up Google Tag Manager Web Container * - Guides through setting up another client for the Google Tag Manager Web Container, - Highlights the need for adding the container ID from the browser container, - Demonstrates setting up the measurement ID for GA4. 30:05 *🕵️‍♀️ Inspecting Event Fire in Facebook Events Manager* - Highlights the connection between the browser-side and server-side events, - Discusses the importance of custom conversions for custom events, - Shows the importance of setting up DNS records for using your own server and adding the codes into the website. 32:37 *🏢 Server-side Tracking for Google Tag Manager* - Discusses the importance of server-side tracking for Google Tag Manager, - Demonstrates how to set up the web container library, - Highlights the need of changing the script of Google Tag Manager in the web container to use the server URL instead of Google's. 34:15 *🚀 Deploying the Server * - Shows how to access the Google Cloud Platform for deploying the server, - Discusses the need of verifying that the project ID matches with Google Tag Manager, - Highlights the process of deploying the server through Google Cloud Shell. 34:59 *📌 Upgrading in Google Cloud Platform* - Explains how to match Container ID in Google Cloud Platform with the Google Tag Manager, - Walks through the authorization of Google Cloud Platform for the upgrade script, - Discusses the significance of setting a policy script URL and enabling request logging. 35:35 *⚙️ Changing Deployment Mode* - Demonstrates changing the deployment type from "Testing" to "Production" in the settings, - Advises turning on auto-scaling and setting the minimum number of servers, - Discusses the maximum number of servers needed based on company size. 36:37 *💰 Understanding Cost Implications* - Clarifies that upgrading the server initiates cost for the service, - Mentions the cost varies depending on the number of events sent to the Facebook Conversion API, - Explains the process of acknowledging and confirming the paid service. 37:31 *🔄 Recap of Server-side Tracking Configuration* - Recapitulates the setup of server and browser tracking, event ID creation, and event duplication, - Reiterates the process of creating custom subdomain in Google Cloud for first-party server authentication, - Recounts the creation of GA4 client and Facebook tag for sending data to Facebook Conversion API, - Summarizes the method to load the Google Tag Manager web library via the server, not Google's server. Made with HARPA AI

Great tutorial. I really really like this video.

Wow, awesome video, mate.

Greate video, Thank you so much sir!

Good stuff! wasnt expecting the load GTM js file via the subdomain at the end of the video :-)

Great video 👍

Amazing turorial, thanks for that! The question would be why do you want to use FB pixel on the website and the server and then make them to de-duplicate? Why not to use only on the server side tracking?

Hi Cedric, your responses to the following questions are requested: 1) After importing the container, will the default event parameters values (event id, event time,...) require or are generated by the presence of a data layer? Or will they work in general? In general my website does not have a data layer so I will be using javascript variables created with the GTM Variable Extension. ---------- At approximately 17:38 you begin to reference GA4 'user properties'. 2) Are those property names (user_data.email_address; user_data.first_name,...) the equivalent of the 'customer information data parameters (email, first name,...)' used when FB pixel advanced matching is enabled? 3) Could the 'user properties' values be those variables created by the data layer or custom javascript? Thank you for your helpful videos.

23:11 can you please tell me where should i add DNS records? in Main Domain or a custom domain in cpanel that i want?

Great video as always, thanks alot. One question though, the unique event ID, is it a unique number that the developper should push to the datalayer?

Is it essential to activate "Request logging" in the Google Cloud Shell, I have heard that this brings a lot more costs? Looking forward to your reply and thanks for the great video!

A really valuable video, thank you! I've been setting up Conversions API for the last few weeks, have read/watched a lot of strong content on the subject, yours was the first to have explained how/why load the web container via the server. I am struggling with one thing. I use custom engagement events (scroll depth, time on page) - I have successfully set up CAPI to send the events via both browser and server and they are deduplicating correctly. However while I am able to send custom parameters (ie Scroll Depth 50%) via the Browser/Pixel I just cannot get the parameters be included via the Server. ie those parameters are shows within 'Test Events' for the Browser, but not shown for the Server, nor are they shown in the Server container outgoing HTTP request details. I have the custom parameters referenced in the base GA4 web tag, the GA4 event tag, and the Facebook tag (I have experimented with both Custom HTML and Facebook Incubator template versions). Any pointers would be much appreciated!

very nice video! But this still uses cookies right? So i use the real server side conversion API from FB..what is better?

Thank you so much.

In this video you are sending the FB pixel from web and sending CAPI by server. Have you done any videos on doing proxy the FB pixel or another marketing tag from the sGTM through an HTTP requests? Obviously, being able to control the FB cookie through 1st party server response header settings is much more appealing than having those cookies set from the web to the client.

Thanks

Hi Vertex, Thank you for your value video. Of all the videos I watched on this subject, your videos are the only ones I find very well taught and step-by-step. I have a question: When I go to the App Engine in Google cloud when I clicked ADD A CUSTOM DOMAIN it directed me to create an application. Is this correct in order to add the website?

Hi friend, everything was amazing and i almost made everything correct. But when im trying to see the action of the webside on the server side, doesnt appear the tag activated. What you think i made wrong? That is the only part where i have problems Please helps. Thanks For so much helps

Thank you so much for this video! Question - you mentioned about loading the GTM webserver script via the GTM server side. Should this be best practice? If we are saying that one of the flaws with webside is ad blockers, shouldn't this impact GTM webserver script from loading, hence GA4 and FB CAPI will not function? Thanks again

Thanks for the great tutorial! I have a question pertaining to using the server url as apposed google tag manager standard url >From minute 34 you speak about changing the head tracking code as well as the body tracking code. >How exactly or where exactly am I supposed to change this? If i just replace the standard code with my server url, the website is not even picked up in preview mode. >Please note that I have gone ahead and created a GTM client as well in the server container and put cloudshell to "live mode" Thanks for your help in advance

Hi, thanks for the video, I have a question, what would be the average cost of aws for the service?

Hi Cedric, thanks a lot for the very helpful content. One question: You said that some things (custom domain, cname...) did crush your website? Does that mean one couldn't enter the website afterwards or something worse? Was the website fully functional again after undoing the settings? Thanks for clarifying and best wishes! Ole

if you also want Google Analytics to send data from the same server, do you need to set up another client in the Server Side Container? Or, is it already doing that? Thanks for your help. Your videos are so well done.

Thanks you for your great work. But why not using "all pages" trigger instead of "GA4" trigger. Whats the difference between these two triggers

Do I need to use FB pixel code on my website, if I set up everything like in this video?

Really great walkthrough. Thanks for demystifying the transport_url vs 'send to server container' question. Have you run into an issue where your GA4 is not receiving data after following these instructions? My GA4 now won't receive events, even in the DebugView. Any ideas?

thank you

Hi, thank you for the great explanation! When setting up the FB conversion API, FB offered me to use their self-installation wizard. It connected to my GTM and created 4 tags automatically in the client-side GTM - a FB pixel setup tag, FB pixel event tag, FB GA4 Config tag and FB GA4 Event tag; and 1 FB tag in the server-side GTM. I am a little bit confused about few things: 1. Should the newly generated FB pixel tags replace the old ones (set up years ago) or should they work together? The new pixels do have some FB variables included in the code that are not present in the old code (FBEventName, Event_ID_Constant). Is it safe to delete the old pixels and use the new ones only? 2. Once cookies go away eventually, will it be safe to delete the FB pixels from GTM and leave only the FB API tags? 3. I had previously created GA4 tags in order to use them for Google Analytics in both client and server-side GTMs. And now FB has created new GA4 variables, which are almost identical, except for the FB GA4 Event tag in the client-side GTM, which contains some FB variables. Should all of them stay, or is this an unnecessary duplication? In other words, does the FB conversion API require a separate/new GA4 tag or could it use the GA4 tag created for Analytics purposes?

Thank you for this great video. Really great walkthrough! I have one question regarding the GA4 tag setup. I already have a GA4 setup running server side. Do i simply just need to add the variables from your template to my already existing GA4 tags, download the Facebook CAPI template on the Server GTM and follow your instructions to make it work? I think my real question is, do i need to create seperat GA4 event tags for the facebook events, or can i use my existing ones? Kind regards

Great tutorial. I have a question. Since I'm using shopify and adding facebook pixel on preferences setting. For website container, if using gtm to add facebook pixel, should I remove the pixel at preferences setting to avoid duplicate issue?

The only connection for both the browser and server is pageviews. How do I set up the server for leads and purchase? I set up the GA event name "generate_lead" with the same trigger for the FB lead event. I only see browser activity, but not on the server side. Is there something I'm missing?

so i can't find API plugin before verify my domain

My man, thank you! Can you provide the link to buy you coffee again, please?

Seem to be getting a 400 when trying to download the template

Hi, thank you so much for this amazing tutorial. I'm stuck in how to create custom triggers for events like AddToCart. As you mention there is another video with this explanation, however I was unable to find it. Can you gimme the link pls?

How would this differ then using the facebook app on Shopify that uses Shopify's server to send the info to facebook? Is one more reliable than the other? Trying to understand why I would want to go through all these hoops on a personal server.

What do you use to create the "event id" variable?

Great video so far. If I would have done the mistake at 22:15 min, how to fix it? Asking for a friend. ;-)

Hello, thank you for the great tutorial. I have two questions: 1- I had one base GA4 tag, and I edited this tag for Facebook capi and put the server URL as you said in the video. Facebook capi is working fine and but google analytics stop to work. i don't see data since I edited my GA4 basic tag for Facebook capi. Do I have to have two dedicated base GA4 tags (page view), one for Facebook capi and another for basic GA4 for analytics? 2- Do we have to upgrade our testing server to production? Can we go with testing? Thanks.

Hi there!! great tutorial everything worked fine but I don't see the "Test Events" proof that events are coming from Server side... any idea what could cause it?

Hi, Thank you so much for sharing this tutorial which is so clear and helpful. I don't know if I missed the part, but I'm curious about what event parameters (event_time, first_party_collection,page_location....) are for? I don't see these data shown anywhere on Facebook or GA4. How can I use these fields?

Thanks for this tutorial. I'm just getting a business started and wow are things complicated! I can't seem to make the above links to work...is there an updated place I can go?

Great video, I lost a little bit at the last minute when you change the url of the gtm with your url domain in the GTM script code tracking. This change should be implemented by the developers team right? Because it's direct in the code.

Great tutorial 👏👏 Just before configuring App Engine, it's pricing page says 0,05$/hour (+-30$/month) per instance. Does it mean that 3 servers are 90$/month? In this case, it's too expensive for just 1000 visitors/day :S

Hi Cedric thank you for this video why should I add my web container to inside my server ? can I just stop once "deduplication' is detected by Facebook ?

Thank you for the video! I have one question though, if I use set up Facebook Conversion API with google tag manager would that fix the missing data from my ads manager (Add to cards, Initiated checkouts and Purchases). BTW, I am using Conversions API with Shopify built in

Hi Cedric, @VertexMarketingAgency great video, thank you for sharing. I followed step by step but when I put this live, events stopped tracking in GA4. What could be the reason for this? The the CAPI was working and sending data.

Great demo! Thanks. I've traked all events within my site. But some events are outside my domain, in Hotmart. Is there any workaround to track hotmart events (checkout, purchase...) as well??

When i preview in GTM on the server side, nothing fires. But it seems that GA4 is reporting events back to analytics. Is that an issue?

Great tutorial. I have a question. When I test the event in business manager, the server activity is not activated. And also the event ID gives me a weird number like ob3_plugin-set_...... how can I solve it?

Thank you soo much for this tutorial! Best one out there. Unfortunately my website crashes when trying to create a custom subdomain. I have removed the pre-setting and entered all the A & AAAA records with @. Still my website keeps crashing. Any clue what I might have done wrong?

Thank you so much for making this video... I just tried to download the file, but I think there is an issue with it. Can you confirm that the CAPI Custom GTM Templates is the right one to download?

Hi Bro, Great content. I followed everything and 24 hours later, I found out my website had crashed. Any idea where I could have gone wrong please?

unable to download the file that you mentioned in the video

thankyou for tutorial! , i have question, currently i dont have google cloud for server, but Now i'am using Vultr as hosting which is my domain stick in it. So if i chose Manually provision tagging server on container setting, and then code Container Configuration generated. and then what should i do next ? where i should put that code?

great tut! So the pros of SS GTM instead of web are pagespeed & more privacy basically. If we already have web GTM can we change it to SS GTM (I haven't found that option) or do we have to delete and start again? Would that create any problems like data loss etc.? PS : I think I found it. Export the web container workspace and after setting up the ss container importing the previous workspace?

Hi Cedric & thanks for the video. Quick question: I am not currently using GA4 on my sites. Still on UA. How do I get this to work without having to upgrade to GA4? Do you have a video for that? Thanks in advance for your help.

Awesome Tutorial! Thank you: I need help at 35:19 I'm getting the message "Container config cannot be empty." Container Config (Required): I don't what to enter here or where to find what to enter This is my first trying this on Google Cloud.

hi. good video. I dont understand something... in the subdomain, what is in there? the store? or just use it as a reference to send events?

First of all thanks for this useful video and your insights. Is it possible to use Universal Analytics instead of GA4 when setting the FB CAPI? I have the GA4 configured with just one event (purchase). All other events in my GTM container are configured in UA/GA3.

Hi Cedric, you did a great video for MeasureSchool about Facebook Conversion API w/ Zapier. I was wondering what should we put for the Event ID field in the Zap? It seems like it's very important since it allows Facebook to de-duplicate conversions. there is no event_id parameter when i do a test lead, only contact_id. and i cant find the answer anywhere on youtube... please let me know!

Hello i love ur video but there is one problem i cant get tag facebook conversion API TAG - he is not on my tag list's its deleted from there ? or it will be avaible only after create server-side container ?

hello hi, im currently using GTM web for my container, does it means I should set up another server container and use both web and server container for my website at the same time? Thanks.

how can I set this up for a company when i want to track how many people purchased something through a redirect of my ads i make on facebook

We downloaded the file but how do we update the account information with our FB account built inside of it?

Hello! Thanks for this tutorial. It is amazing. I've followed every single step. The only thing that doesn't work for me is the 'Deduplicating'. When I test the events in the 'Test Events' section in Facebook event manager, The browser events come in later then the server events. Is this the reason the events aren't deduplicating? In the overview section, the 'Event Match Quality' displays 'poor'. Is this the reason the Timestamps aren't the same?

Hello Cedric, Thank you very much for sharing this tutorial. Tried to get the CAPI Custom GTM Templates but the link is broken. Is there any other way to get it?

Great Guide! I am having issues with FB browser pixel not receiving the pixel fire from GTM. I get it from the server side but not browser side. In GTM it says that it fired off. So the Page Views deduplicate it self. And then It just deduplicates the lead from the server side even though it never came in from the pixel side.

Do we need to upload the json file? Shouldn't the tags fire if we configure them in GTM? Sorry, missing the point of why to add the json file. Thanks in advance for your time and thanks for uploading the video

Question. Do I enable advanced matching on GTM and Facebook event manager or just on GTM?

I have no idea why, but since I've implemented this my Facebook Pixel is not capturing landing page views in reports. I used to had about 150 clicks daily and about 30-50 landing page views. Now I have 150 clicks and 0-1 page views. It seems my events are not deduplicated, but they all are captured by Server side, but they stopped using Web container. Why?

why we need GTM? i have a woocommerce store and i run ads on FB

may we use segment instead the google cloud server?

thanks vertex ♥ I not found "facebook plugin API" in tag manager what the best alternative?

Hello, can I ask please? What I can do if I do not have Facebook Conversions API Tag in a search Gallery in Tag Templates? Thank you very much

Help me please. I have setup the custom domain like you said. I didn't add the CNAME in the DNS record. Now when I try to preview the serverside Tag manager it doesn't load like your video. Also not getting anything from server on the Facebook Event manager. What should I do?

Hi Vertex. I'm getting the following message: DNS records could not be found. Certificate activation will retry automatically.

Hey! Great video. The link to the templates does not work. Do you have updated links? Thanks in advance!

Do you have tutorials on this topic?

how can you setup a trigger for a purchase using browser/server if you have a multi order bump/upsell funnel on clickfunnels? I wanted to have the trigger be a button text click and have the next page be the tag of product purchased. However there is variable data and that purchase could contain 1, 2 or 3 products being purchased. just a high level answer would be sufficient if possible

Tried to follow this, but ended up more frustrated with too many little details skimmed over. Can't get any sort of data flow with the User Properties with what's given in this video. Down many hours with more of a tangled mess than before.