Immediately after the onset of iOS14, server-side tracking surged in importance. However, it did take a bit of time for some partners to catch up and provide effective integrations for the CAPI. 

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Before the integrations were available, manual implementation had to be used and although some platforms have CAPI integrations, sometimes you need to know how to set up the CAPI manually.

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Typically, advertisers create the instructions and developers implement the CAPI, however, this isn’t always possible and you may have to implement it yourself.

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So let’s dive into how to install the CAPI manually.

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Firstly, when you don’t have the CAPI installed, there should be a prompt to do so in the Events Manager. If this doesn’t show up, you can just head to your Pixel (under the Events Manager still) and click the Settings tab and scroll down to the CAPI section or select Add Events on the main Events Manager area for the appropriate Pixel > Using the Conversions API. Both will take you to the same process.

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Under the CAPI subheading of the Settings section, if you started the process this way, there will be an option to ‘Set up manually’, select this.

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This will take you to an area where you can progress through the steps. It will ask you to start by reading some overviews about the CAPI.

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The next step is to select the events that you want to track. These should be the same as the events you’re tracking on the pixel.

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From there, it will ask you what data you want to be part of the tracking. There may be an option to select Recommended parameters but either way, you want to follow best practices by tracking the following options: Event ID, IP address, Email address, First name, Surname, Phone number.

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The for the next step, on this page you’ll have to generate and copy the access token for your CAPI (keep this somewhere you won’t delete or forget it.

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Then, you’ll want to go to: fb.me/graph-explorer

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Replace the Access Token with the one that you just copied.

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Then grab your Pixel ID and from the Business Manager and paste it in the text box after GET and the Version drop-downs in the top-left. You’ll want to remove the current content of the text box before you paste the Pixel ID here. Then type “/events”.

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Change the GET drop-down to POST.

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After this, go back to the implementation tab you have open on the Business Manager and copy the code in the Payload Helper section. (If it isn’t here, you can find it at fb.me/payload-helper).

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Back on the graph explorer, change tab from the Params to JSON. After this, remove the default curly braces and paste in the code.

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After the last square bracket (]), near the bottom of the code, type a comma and hit return/enter to move to the line below.

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From here type the following (including the speech quotes):

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“test_event_code”: “”

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Open a new tab and open up the Events Manager that you’re working on. From here, navigate to the Test Events tab, filter to Server events or select the Server test. 

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Copy the test ID. This usually looks something like TEST1234.

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Paste that ID into the empty speech marks that you just wrote in the graph explorer. 

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This should now look like:

“test_event_code”: “TEST1234”

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The final steps are to verify everything you’ve written is correct and hit the ‘Submit’ button in the top corner of the graph explorer.

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You should see a bit of code return in the middle column saying that an event has been received.

Check if you’ve received an event successfully on the Test Events tab.

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Finally, check under the Manage Integrations section on the Events Manager (to the right of the graph showing Pixel activity) to ensure it has been implemented and is active and has a green light.

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All done!

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Hope this helps!

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