Meta Ads
Conversions API (CAPI)
The Conversions API is Meta's server-to-server interface for sending web, app, and offline events directly from your server to Meta, complementing or replacing the browser-based Meta Pixel.
In practice
The Meta Pixel runs in the browser, which means ad blockers, iOS tracking restrictions, and consent choices all reduce what it sees. CAPI sends the same events from your server, where none of those interfere. Meta recommends running both, deduplicated with a shared event id, so each conversion is counted once and the combined coverage is as complete as possible.
CAPI also carries customer information parameters, hashed email, phone, name, and address, which Meta uses to match the event to a user. The quality of that matching is scored as Event Match Quality, and it directly affects how well Advantage+ and conversion-optimized campaigns perform.
Shopify, WooCommerce, and most major platforms offer native CAPI integrations; custom sites use a server-side GTM container or a direct API implementation. After setup, verify in Events Manager that events arrive from both sources and deduplicate correctly.
Why it matters
Without it, Meta sees a fraction of your conversions and optimizes on incomplete data.
RELATED TERMS
Event Match Quality (EMQ)
Event Match Quality is Meta's 1 to 10 score of how well the customer information sent with a Conversions API event can be matched to a Meta account, shown per event in Events Manager.
Advantage+
Advantage+ is Meta's family of automated campaign and ad features, including Advantage+ Shopping and Advantage+ audience, that use machine learning to handle targeting, placements, budget allocation, and creative optimization.
Google Tag Manager (GTM)
Google Tag Manager is a free tag management system that deploys and controls marketing and analytics tags on a website from a single container without editing site code for each change.
Written by Ilya Bulychev, Founder, Live PPC Ads. Part of the PPC Glossary.
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