Facebook and RedTrack
What’s Facebook/Instagram?
Both Facebook and Instagram have the same ad managing interface (Facebook Ad Manager), and this article describes the flow for both platforms. The most crucial point of this guide is that redirect URLs are forbidden on Facebook. If such URLs are detected on the account, they will be blocked immediately (even if you are using them in your Instagram stories directly). Facebook prohibits redirects as they potentially can lead to restricted content (adult, dating, etc.)
Important!
✓ For all of your Facebook campaigns, no-redirect tracking with a custom tracking domain should be used instead. This method of tracking means that traffic filtering is unavailable for Facebook. For more details go to the Traffic filtering guide.✓ Facebook integration allows you to:
- pass all the conversion data back to Facebook, attaching it to the Campaigns (not only to the event manager) and optimise the Campaigns inside Facebook;
- pause non-converting creatives and campaigns directly on a Facebook side, no manual work;
- auto-cost update
✓ Due to Facebook restrictions, conversion data can be delivered to Facebook within 24 hours.
Facebook setup checklist
1. Add Facebook Traffic channel template to RedTrack
2. Integrate the Facebook account with RedTrack
3. Add a custom tracking domain
4. Add to RedTrack Offer and Offer source (if you are an Advertiser) or Brand and Website (if you are an Affiliate)
5. Create a Campaign in RedTrack
6. Generate the Conversion API Key on FB
7. Add your FB pixel to RedTrack
8. Set the conversion events for Facebook
9. Verify your domain on the Facebook side
10. Create an Ad on Facebook
11. Add additional tracking parameters from your RedTrack account to your Facebook tracking URL
12. Configure your events on Facebook
13. Set the automation
Settings explained
On the RedTrack side
⬇️ 1. Add Facebook template to RedTrack1.1 go to Traffic Channel -> New from template -> find Facebook and press Add:
1.2 you can modify some Facebook parameters in the opened template. Once you’ve done it, press Save:
Important!
✓ Blocked (greyed) parameters cannot be changed and should be used in the same order under the same sub-values. It’s essential for the API integration.✓ “fbclid” parameter is required for sending conversion information back to Facebook. This parameter should be the last in the line,meaning, that there should be no other parameters under it:
1.3 Integrate your Facebook account with RedTrack
Once you save the source template, the Connect Facebook button becomes active. Since it is a complex API integration, we need to get permission to integrate from Facebook first. Press the Connect Facebook button and follow the steps after (it will ask you to verify your ad account). Once you integrate RedTrack with Facebook, the green mark “Connected” will appear:
You will be redirected back to your RedTrack account settings. This means Facebook accepts the integration, and you can add your Conversion API key and Pixel ID. At this step, you integrate your Facebook Business Manager for an accurate cost update.
Important!
It’s recommended to reconnect your Facebook account with RedTrack every 2-3 months for the integration to be valid.
- use this guide to add Offer source and Offer (for the Affiliates)
- use this guide to add Brand and Website (for Advertisers)
3.1 use this guide (for Affiliates) or this one (for Advertisers) to help you create a Campaign in RedTrack.
Act further depending on the account type (Affiliate or Advertiser):
3.2 for Facebook tracking you will need to use the universal tracking script. Follow this guide to set it up.
3.3 once the campaign is created, all the tracking links and the parameters for the script will be generated automatically and include all the supported macros. Since Facebook does not support redirect tracking, you will have to use our universal tracking script for that purpose (created within step step 3.2), and the tracking parameters under the Universal script tab. Copy those parameters:
3.4 add the script to your landing page code and add the parameters string to the end of your URL
Important note 1
It is preferable to place the universal tracking script at the end of the body section of the landing page script.
Note 2
Important note 2!
RedTrack will identify the incoming traffic based on the “cmpid” parameter. If there is no “cmpid” in the URL, the traffic will be attributed to the default organic traffic campaign. Thus, in step 9.2 of this guide you need to insert the tracking parameters from step 3.3, not any other tracking parameters.
3.2 once the campaign is created, all the tracking links and the parameters for the script will be generated automatically and include all the supported macros. Since Facebook does not support redirect tracking, you will have to use our universal tracking script for that purpose (created automatically once you've added Website within step 2), and the tracking parameters under the Tracking parameters (UTMS) tab. Copy these parameters:
3.3 add the universal tracking script (Tools-> Scripts) to your landing page code and add the parameters string to the end of your URL
Important note 1
It is preferable to place the universal tracking script at the end of the body section of the landing page script.
Important note 2!
RedTrack will identify the incoming traffic based on the “cmpid” parameter. If there is no “cmpid” in the URL, the traffic will be attributed to the default organic traffic campaign. Thus, in step 9.2 of this guide you need to insert the tracking parameters from step 3.2, not any other tracking parameters.
(optional) Set the API Integration Conditional postbacks
In case you want to send the particular conversion types to Facebook, in your campaign settings, go to the Integration postback field -> choose the types needed:
On the Facebook side
⬇️ 4. Generate the Conversion API Key4.1 go to your Facebook account -> pixel settings -> settings -> Conversions API -> Create Access Token
4.2 once generated, copy it, and add it to your RedTrack integration settings, save the changes.
Important!
This block is essential if you want to send the conversion data back to Facebook.
5.1 copy the pixel. You can find your unique pixel in the campaign settings:
5.2 there are 3 ways of adding your FB pixel to RedTrack:
- on the Offer level, which is the preferred method and the most recommended by RedTrack;
- on the Traffic channel level, which might be a bit limited and useful for certain types of Affiliates only;
- via offline conversion upload, which means that you or your team has some knowledge of the settings within Facebook environment.
Mind that these ways cancel each other out, so you need to choose only one of them to proceed. Go to the tabs for more details on each of the pixel-adding ways:
Way 1: via the settings of the added Offer (for Affiliates)/ Website (for Advertisers).
Adding pixels this way is possible due to the maximized signals feature specially designed by RedTrack for you to get all the conversions not just from Facebook but other traffic channels as well. This feature is also meant for cases where you need to send the conversion info to separate pixels.
To do that:
a. go to the settings of the added Offer/ Website-> navigate to the tab CAPI (Maximize signals):
b. add the needed values to the RT Offer/Website form:
Values in the fields explained:
1. Default action source: this is the action source for default FB pixel. "Website" is a recommended option.
2. Default Event URL: this is the URL of your verified domain. Please use "https://domain.name" URL structure.
3. Pixel ID: paste here your unique FB pixel. You copied it within step 6.1.
4. API key: paste here your API key. You copied it within step 5.1.
Way 2: via settings of the Facebook Traffic channel you've added within step 1 of this instruction. It's a default method of adding the pixel. This way pixel will get only the conversions that have been attributed to this channel.
To do that:
a. go to the settings of the added Facebook template:
b. paste the copied (within step 6.1) pixel to the Pixel ID field in the Facebook default data source block and press Save changes:
Go to the article Offline conversion upload for the detailed guide on the matter.
It will send your custom conversion types to Facebook automatically.
Note!
Conversion information will fall to your pixel/data source.
Follow the guide to help you do that: Domain verification for Facebook.
8.1 open Ads Manager > Create Ad > Create New Campaign or Use existing Campaign -> set up campaign parameters -> copypaste your LP URL (the link without tracking parameters) to the Website URL field (for some ad types, it is called Website URL):
Note!
If you have no landing page/ your workflow doesn’t presuppose a landing page, copy your Offer URL and paste it to the Website URL field in Facebook.
By Offer is meant the Offer page you own (meaning, you have the access to the page code so you can add the tracking script), NOT the affiliate offer, which will be blocked due to the redirect link, since most of the affiliate offers have redirect.
8.2 add additional tracking parameters from your RedTrack account to your URL in the “URL parameters” section:
Important note 1:
Make sure there are no special symbols and spaces (#, %, etc.) in the names of your ads, adsets and campaigns – otherwise the data won’t be tracked. sub=FB value should be the same as you have in your RedTrack account (step 2 of this guide).
Important note 2:
Facebook catches only the initial data for ads, adsets and campaign names (even when some test name was added as a draft), it will ignore all names updates you make after. If you need to be sure you receive the correct names, add them to the tracking parameters manually:
cmpid=5f92a30bc860ee0001fa9996&sub1={{ad.id}}&sub2={{adset.id}}&sub3={{campaign.id}}&sub4=myad&sub5=myadset&sub6=mycampaign&sub7={{placement}}&sub8={{site_source_name}}
Important note 3:
If there are already some UTM parameters in the URL parameters field, you do not have to delete them, just append the parameters taken from your campaign in RedTrack to the already exsisting parameters with the help of the ampersand symbol: “&”. Check out this video for a more detailed explanation.
Follow our Events configuration instruction to do that.
(not obligatory) Warm up your Facebook account with test conversions
Tip!
This action is not obligatory. Warm your account up only if it is fresh and has no data.
Check out the following articles for the automation features:
- Integrated Traffic channels (for a general overview of the automation features in RT)
- Auto rules
- Auto cost update
Note!
Our tool also offers you the opportunity to manually switch on/off your Facebook Campaigns, Ad sets, or Ads without leaving RedTrack UI. Please check out a brief overview of the manual campaign management feature and contact sales@redtrack.io if you are interested.