The challenge

If you are still relying mostly on third-party pixels for your marketing measurement, than you are walking on thin ice!

Consumers have increasing concerns about their data to be shared between different companies, legislation around the world is turning those concerns into laws and the large ad platforms have no choice but to act on this.

What this means for you as an e-commerce advertiser, is that you need to figure out a different, more future proof way to measure your marketing to be able to continue your advertising in a profitable way.

Don’t worry, we will walk you through it in this blog, so you know what actions to take tomorrow.

What is conversions API?

Preparing for a world in which third-party cookies are banned by law and/or consumer demands, Meta has developed the conversions API as an answer. Though it has been around for a couple of years already, the release of IoS 14 in 2021 made Meta encourage its users to start using it more and more. 

Essentially, conversions API is a way in which you are able to share events that happen on your website with Meta after you tracked them yourself (we will get to how in a moment) instead of Meta tracking these events in your audiences browser. By switching to a setup like this, you are changing who is measuring your traffic and controlling the data from Meta (or other third-parties) to your own website (first-party). 

What is server-side tracking?

In order to leverage the conversions API in a future proof way, you too will need to move your tech stack into the future. Meaning you should stop relying on third-parties to measure your traffic and instead make sure that it is you who measures and stores that data. The term we use for that is server-side tracking, which comes down to not using the browser and pixels of others to measure events, but setting up a server that runs within your own DNS records (making it first-party) to track and store events. This way you comply with current and future regulations, your audience will feel safe while browsing your website and you take control over your marketing measurement, which is a strategic move all e-commerce businesses will eventually have to take.

5 reasons to take action now

1. Meta will reward you for your first-party data 

As you will understand, Meta feels the heat of complying with privacy laws as they are one of the largest tech companies in the world. No wonder they are actively pushing this new, compliant way of sharing data. At the same time, they also really love getting extra data about purchases and other events that happened on your website after they directed traffic there, as this helps them optimise their algorithms. Feeding conversions events with high quality data back into Meta through the conversions API has shown to boost campaign performance by up to 20%!

2. Maximum measurement within regulations

By running up a proper first-party tracking setup, you will be able to measure events and traffic as much as possible, without having to break any laws! We see tracking coverages in the ranges of 80-95% depending on how many in your audience actively ask you to not track them and this is easily enough to enrich your ads managers and run marketing analyses like attribution. Server-side tracking and conversions api’s are the way forward.

3. More reliable data flow compared to pixels

On top of everything already discussed, a server-side tracking setup is technically just a better structure than relying on pixels and browsers to track events. You will experience less data and connection errors and your website will likely perform better as you take load off of the browser.

4. Ability to share additional information with Meta for ad optimisation

Now that you control the tracking and storage of events, you also have the ability to enrich that data with things like margin per conversions, product of conversions or others. This allows you to optimise your advertising for the type of conversions that actually help move you business forward in a profitable way, not just for top line revenue.

5. Filling in cross-device tracking gaps together with Meta

By combining first-party tracking data with the usage insights Meta has of its platform users, together you will be able to fill in gaps that would otherwise be left unfilled, like cross-device browsing. This will enable Meta to further optimise your ad reach and thus your ROI.

‍Bringing it all together

By implementing a server-side tracking setup and feeding high quality event data back to Meta through their conversions API, you will increase your campaign performance and return on ad spend, future proof your marketing measurement setup and take control over the event data that your audience generates on your website. Summing it up like this, it’s quite the no-brainer!

How Eyk helps

So why does not every e-commerce store have this under control yet? Simple; it’s technical, complex and can quickly get expensive to setup. That is where Eyk comes in.

Eyk is a first-party tracking & analytics platform that is almost completely automated and has an experienced and engaged team behind it that will help you set things up, making going server-side easy and quick.

On top of that, Eyk does not stop at tracking and feeding the conversions API. It also turns your server-side event data into actionable marketing insights like un-biased attribution and tracking performance to help you and your team make better informed marketing decisions. And since Eyk is a software as a service (SaaS) platform, there are no setup costs involved, making the barriers to start significantly lower.