How To Use Facebook Events Manager: Step-by-Step Walkthrough (2024)

Have you ever wondered how a visitor interacted with your website? I bet you have — whenever I launched a new campaign, I refreshed the analytics tab every minute to know what action users took.

How did I do that? 

Facebook Events Manager allows me to track user activity on my website and Meta’s owned marketing assets. So I can use this information to optimize my ad campaigns and improve conversion rates.

Want to learn how to leverage Facebook Events Manager to optimize your ad campaigns and improve conversion rates? 

Keep reading. In this article, you’ll learn everything about Facebook Events Manager, its benefits, and how to set up standard and conversion events. 

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What is Facebook Events Manager, anyway?

Facebook Events Manager is a tool in Meta’s suite that provides centralized management to track target audience behavior, called events. Datasources are your website, Meta’s owned marketing assets like Facebook and Instagram, CRM, apps, and offline sources like an Excel sheet of customer details. 

Events are of two types: Standard and custom conversions: 

• Standard events, which are pre-built by Meta, include page views, sign-ups, purchases, etc.
• Custom conversions are other than standard events created by you. For example, an additional code snippet is installed to capture email form leads on a specific website page. 

It identifies website visitors on Facebook or Instagram to track their activity on multiple channels and gathers more data to help businesses tailor their marketing strategies and optimize ad campaigns. 

One example is retargeting ads. Have you ever noticed that after checking out a product once, you see its ads on both Facebook and Instagram? 

That’s because the website owner has set up retargeting ads and custom events to track your activity. As you click on the product, it’s counted as an event, and its ads appear on your feed. 

For the products you checked out but didn’t buy, retargeting ads will keep popping up to remind you to complete your purchase. And once you do it, it will be tracked as purchase events — that’s how it helps in conversion tracking and increasing ROAS.

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What are the features of Facebook Events Manager?

Using Facebook Events Manager is quite eventful. You get one centralized dashboard to perform many tasks, such as:

• Create, manage, and promote events so they keep tracking user interaction and collecting data. 
• Track events performance 24*7 so you don’t miss out on a single detail.
• Outsource and share assets access to an agency or freelancer with limited permission and role settings. 
• Manage Events for more than one account — perfect for agencies or freelancers who work with multiple clients. 
• Integrate multiple data sources for different use cases. For example, the website collects new prospects, and the mobile app collects new customers. 
• Collect data to create more optimized custom and lookalike audiences.
• Event promotion to create tailored ads from Facebook Ads Manager. 

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4 Benefits of using Facebook Events Manager

Facebook Events Manager is a secret weapon in your marketing arsenal. 

When used correctly, it allows you to collect your user data without overwhelming your audience and use that data to impress your audience by showing optimized campaigns. Here are some benefits of using it:

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1. Centralized management 

Many tools allow you to collect audience data, so what makes Events Manager different? Its centralized management aspect that lets you track multiple data sources on one dashboard. 

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2. Improved campaigns’ performance

With the new “Datasets” feature, you’re not limited to Facebook and website for data collection. You can tap into different sources like apps, offline, and third party sites to collect more data and create relevant campaigns.

You can connect third-party websites by choosing the “Partner Integration” option. It means you can track user activity on your Amazon, Etsy, or Shopify stores, which wasn’t possible before as you had to install a Facebook pixel code on the website. 

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3. Increased customer understanding and engagement

With multiple data sources, you collect more data, create more relevant campaigns, and engage your audience better. Have you ever noticed how Spotify always reads your mind by sending your favorite music recommendations? That’s because Spotify has mastered tracking your activity to personalize content based on your preferences. 

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4. Create optimized audiences

A report by Nielsen shows that the more targeted your audience, the better ad campaigns perform and the higher your ROAS. That’s because with more collected user data, you’ll create a more targeted audience, reduce ad spend, and increase web conversions.

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How to use Facebook Events Manager: step-by-step process

If you’re not using Events Manager, here’s a step-by-step process to set it up. 

NOTE: After the Datasets announcement, you don’t need to add a pixel code to your site (although it’s still an option.) Now, use conversion API to integrate your data sources. 

The benefits of using conversion API over Facebook pixel code are:

• ‍Integrating with conversion API
• Installing pixel code on the website‍
• Collect data from multiple sources, including websites, Meta channels, CRM, offline, and third-party sources.
• Collect data from only one source website, which limits data and affects audience targeting.
• It allows you to create standard as well as conversion events. For example, to track a specific ad campaign performance, you track its ROI as an event.  
• You can only create standard events like page view, add to cart, link click, etc.
• With conversion API, you get exposure to more data and flexibility. But with pixel, you’re limited to website data and standard events. 

However, I’ve explained both methods: Step #2 will show you the conversion API method and step #3 is the Facebook pixel method. 

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Step 1: Complete the Events Manager setup

You can access Events Manager in two ways: via Meta Business Suite or Meta Business Manager.

1. If you’re on the Meta Business Suite dashboard, click “All Tools,” then scroll down and click “Events Manager.” 

 2. On your Facebook Business Manager account, click “All Tools” and “Events Manager.”

In both cases, you’ll see your Events Manager dashboard:

What if you’re to work on your client’s assets? Can you request Events Manager assets? 

Yes, you can request access to your client’s Business Manager assets. Still, it can be overwhelming as you’ll need their Business Manager ID, Facebook Ads Manager ID, and a million other details. 

If you want to avoid that, it’s okay — because Leadsie makes it way easier! Simply share your Leadsie link with Event Manager assets and permission with your client. They grant permission, and you get access! 

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Step 2: Set up a data source (using Conversion API)

After setting up your dashboard, add a source from which you’ll collect data. It allows you to set up five different types of data sources: 

Types of data sources

• Web (collect user activity on your website)
• App (your mobile app)
• Offline (Excel sheet of customer details)
• CRM (track customers from CRM database)
• Messaging (Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp audience)

Click “Connect a new data source” from the sidebar to add a data source.

You’ll get these five options: 

Let’s choose “Web” as a data source to enable tracking my website visitors’ activity. This will create a new dataset. Name it.

Next, add your website to connect it using a partner integration. You can choose “I don’t have a website” to connect to a third-party site.

Choose whether you want to add both Facebook pixel and conversion API or only pixel (it’s recommended to choose both for better data coverage.)

If you lack coding skills like me, choose the partner integration option. But if you’re comfortable with coding, you can also do it manually.

Choose the partner you want to integrate. If it’s a third-party site like Shopify, choose it. My website is hosted on WordPress, so I’ll select it.

 Based on your method, Meta will guide you in moving forward. For WordPress, you need to install the Meta Pixel for WordPress plugin and simply connect your Facebook account. 

Once you’re connected, send test traffic to verify your connection. 

After verification, you can set up events. Similarly, you can connect other data sources in the same dataset by following simple steps. 

This is how you collect data in one dataset from multiple sources by installing one conversion API. 

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Step 3: Add a Facebook pixel to your data source (optional)

To add the pixel to your website like the traditional way, click on the dataset and choose “Setup Meta Pixel.”

Choose “Install Code Manually.”

Copy the code and add it to the header section above your website's HTML </head>.

Once your Facebook pixel starts working, you’ll see your dashboard like this: 

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Walkthrough of a data source

See different options on your data source? Let me quickly walk you through each so you understand how to use them. 

The overview section will show you the event performance. View events’ activity, add more integrations, and create audiences and conversion events.

Test web and browser events will help you verify if your events work properly. This will help you see if the conversion API/pixel is set up correctly. 

Diagnostics will show errors with your datasets.

History records every activity that took place in your dataset.

Settings show you the dataset, event details, and options to add more data sources, create standard events, etc.

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Step 4: Verify your domain (optional)

Although verifying your domain is not a necessary step, it’s still a good idea to do it for branding and security purposes and to be able to prioritize events. 

To verify your domain, head over to your Facebook Business Manager dashboard and click “Domains,” “Add,” and “Create a new domain.”

Enter the domain and click “Add.”

Copy the meta tag and paste it between <head> and </head> code in the header section. Come back and click “Verify domain.”

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Step 5: Create a standard event

Let’s create a standard event. The Facebook platform allows you to set only a few types of standard events:

• Add payment info
• Add to cart
• Add to wishlist
• Complete registration
• Contact
• Customise product
• Donate
• Find a location
• Initiate checkout
• Lead
• Purchase
• Schedule
• Search
• Start trial
• Submit application
• Subscribe
• View content

Head to your dataset’s settings section and scroll down to Event Setup. Click “Open event setup tool.”

Enter your website and click “Open website.”

The event setup tool will launch. You can track buttons and URLs as standard events on this page.

Let’s add a “Contact” event to the “Contact Me Now” button. I’ll click “Track new button,” click on it, choose “Contact,” and “Confirm”:

You can view it in the events section. Once you’ve set up all your standard events, click “Finish setup.”

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Step 6: Create conversion events

You can filter specific events by creating Facebook conversion events. Let’s take an example.

Suppose, on your e-commerce website, you only want to track conversions for a shoe section. Then, you’ll create a custom conversion on the “Add to cart” event and add rules that only track action on the URL with the ‘shoes’ keyword. 

Here it is in action: To create a custom conversion, click “Add events” and choose “Custom conversion.”

Name your event and add a description. (A tip for this later)

Choose the data source, select an event source, and add rules. Now, I want to track all the website traffic on my website's thank you page. So, I’ll create a specific rule for all URLs containing the keyword “thankyou.”

You can add as many rules as you want to customize the event. Other than URL parameters, choose other domains (third-party) and event parameters to track different events like form submissions, button clicks, or a combination of both.

Another step is to assign an optional conversion value. Suitable for e-commerce websites, especially if you want to track shopping above particular order values. Once done, click “Create.”

TIP: It’s a good idea to add a name and description based on the rules you set for this conversion event so it’s easier to categorize. For example, an event that tracks purchase orders of 500 and higher can be named “Purchase-500.”

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Step 7: Test web events

To test if events are tracked properly, go to “Test events” and enter your website. 

Earlier, we prioritized events based on what order we wanted them tracked, which included tracking just eight conversion events. But after the dataset features, you no longer have to do it, as only one event is counted for one interaction. 

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How and why set up automatic events?

With the conversion API option, you can turn on automatic event tracking to allow Meta to collect event data for standard events. This way, you won’t have to spend time manually adding standard events, which also saves you from debugging issues. 

To enable automatic events, go to “Settings” of the dataset and scroll down to Event Setup. Turn on the toggle button to allow Meta to track events automatically without adding specific codes to your data sources. 

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How and why turn on automatic advanced matching?

Automatic advanced matching allows Meta to match your data source audience to Meta’s audience. For example, Meta will use email addresses, phone numbers, or any other information your customers provide to your business to match and identify them on Facebook or Instagram. 

By enabling this option, you’ll allow Meta to connect specific actions to specific users at a large scale, which will help you increase conversion attribution and expand your audience. 

To enable automatic advanced matching, go to “Settings” on your data set and scroll down to automatic advanced matching. Turn on the automatic event matching tab.

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What can't Facebook Events Manager do?

Facebook Events Manager offers many features but there are three things you can’t do:

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1. Track offline activity

Events Manager can only track the online activity on Meta’s, third-party, CRM (customer relationship management,) and your website sources, but not offline outside the digital environment. 

You can track offline events, but that is only possible by adding a list of offline customers (from physical shops) to Meta as a data source. Then, Meta will try to identify these offline customers from its audience base, and only after identification can you add them to your audience.

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2. Run complex data analysis

Meta Events Manager can only give you basic reports on event tracking activity. Unlike Ads Manager reports, its analytics section is limited, so you’ll have to extract insights.

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3. Limited standard events

While you get various standard events, these often do not properly align with the purpose. Take, for example, a consultation company that offers virtual interior design consultation. The closest standard event is “Schedule,” which isn’t correctly aligned with the service.

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Get access to your client’s Events Manager assets

Events Manager is the secret weapon your clients should leverage to boost their sales. And if they need to outsource Events Manager, impress them by simplifying requesting access with Leadsie.

You don’t need to know your client’s Facebook Business Manager or Ads Manager ID; simply send your Leadsie link with the requested permission and get access. 

What are you waiting for? Send your Leadsie link, get access, and start creating conversion events. It’s more secure for everyone and saves a ton of time! Give it a try with our 14-day free trial…enter your email in the box below!