Activate is Funnel’s conversion upload capability that creates server-to-server connections between your Funnel workspace and advertising platforms like Facebook Ads, Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, TikTok Ads, and Microsoft Ads. By activating your data, you connect key events like purchases or form submissions to the corresponding ad engagements from platforms. This direct data sharing helps advertising platforms optimize your campaigns for better performance and provides more accurate attribution measurement.
How do conversion uploads work?
Traditional conversion tracking relies on browser-based pixels and cookies, which can be blocked or limited by privacy settings. Activate overcomes these limitations by sending conversion data directly from Funnel to advertising platforms through their conversion APIs.
Here’s the high-level process of conversion uploads in Funnel:
Data collection: Aggregate conversion data from your connected data sources.
Data preparation: Format the conversion events according to each platform’s requirements.
Secure transmission: Send data through encrypted server-to-server connections.
Platform integration: Advertising platforms receive and process the conversion data.
Optimization: Platforms use the data to improve ad targeting and bidding strategies.
Advantages of using Activate
Improved attribution: Capture conversions that browser-based tracking might miss due to privacy settings or technical limitations.
Better campaign optimization: Provide advertising platforms with richer conversion data to improve automated bidding and targeting.
Cross-device tracking: Track conversions across multiple devices and touchpoints more effectively.
Privacy compliance: Reduce reliance on third-party cookies while maintaining measurement capabilities.
Real-time data: Send conversion data as it becomes available in Funnel, enabling faster optimization.
Centralized management: Manage conversion uploads to multiple platforms from a single Funnel workspace.
Supported advertising platforms
Funnel’s Activate feature supports conversion uploads to the following platforms:
Platform | Conversion API | Key features |
Facebook Ads | Conversions API | Website events, app events, offline events, custom audiences |
Google Ads | Enhanced Conversions | Store sales, enhanced conversions for web and app |
LinkedIn Ads (Beta) | Conversions API | Lead generation, website conversions, offline events |
Microsoft Ads | Offline Conversions | Import offline conversions, enhanced conversions |
TikTok Ads (Beta) | Events API | Website events, offline events, app events |
Requirements, guidelines, and limitations
Before you begin
Configure your advertising accounts with conversion tracking.
Ensure you have admin or appropriate permissions for both Funnel and your advertising accounts.
Review data privacy regulations that apply to your business and conversion data sharing.
Connect relevant data sources to Funnel that contain your conversion events.
Data requirements
User identifiers: Include email addresses, phone numbers, or other identifiers to improve match rates.
Event details: Provide conversion values, currencies, and timestamps when available.
Event deduplication: Include unique event IDs to prevent duplicate counting across platforms.
Data quality: Ensure conversion data is accurate, complete, and properly formatted.
Privacy and compliance considerations
Customer consent: Verify you have appropriate consent to share customer data with advertising platforms.
Data hashing: Customer identifiers are automatically hashed using industry-standard methods.
Data retention: Understand each platform’s data retention policies and your obligations.
Regional compliance: Consider GDPR, CCPA, and other applicable data protection regulations.
Technical limitations
Historical data: Most platforms limit how far back you can upload historical conversion data.
Processing time: Conversion data may take several hours to appear in platform reporting.
Rate limits: Platforms impose limits on the volume and frequency of conversion uploads.
Field requirements: Each platform has specific required and optional fields for conversion events.
Set up conversion uploads using Activate
Step 1: Plan your conversion upload strategy
Identify conversion events: Determine which conversions you want to upload to each platform.
Map data sources: Identify which Funnel data sources contain your conversion data.
Choose platforms: Select which advertising platforms will receive conversion uploads.
Define success metrics: Establish how you’ll measure the impact of conversion uploads.
Step 2: Configure data destinations
In your Funnel workspace, go to Activate from the left navigation pane and click the Get started button.
Select your target advertising platform from the available options to create a new conversion upload.
Follow the platform-specific setup process to authenticate and configure your upload.
Step 3: Map conversion data
Select data source: Choose which Funnel data source contains your conversion events.
Map event types: Match your conversion events to the platform’s supported event types.
Configure field mapping: Map your data fields to the platform’s required and optional parameters.
Set up scheduling: Configure how frequently conversions should be uploaded.
Step 4: Test and validate
Run test uploads: Send sample conversion data to verify your configuration.
Check platform reporting: Confirm that conversions appear in the advertising platform.
Validate attribution: Ensure conversions are properly attributed to your campaigns.
Monitor match rates: Review how well your customer data matches platform users.
Step 5: Monitor and optimize
Track performance: Monitor campaign performance improvements after enabling conversion uploads.
Adjust data mapping: Optimize field mappings based on match rate feedback.
Scale to other platforms: Replicate successful setups across additional advertising platforms.
Regular maintenance: Periodically review and update your conversion upload configurations.
Monitor conversion upload performance
The following table describes some of the key metrics you can track in your conversion uploads.
Metric | Description | How to improve |
Match rate | Percentage of uploaded conversions matched to platform users | Include more customer identifiers, improve data quality |
Attribution accuracy | How well conversions are attributed to your campaigns | Ensure proper event deduplication, verify timestamp accuracy |
Campaign performance | Improvement in cost per acquisition and return on ad spend | Monitor optimization impact, adjust bidding strategies |
Data delivery | Successfully uploaded conversions against the total attempts | Check for API errors, validate data formatting |
Troubleshooting common issues
Low match rates: Add more customer identifiers like email and phone numbers.
Duplicate conversions: Implement proper event ID systems for deduplication.
Attribution gaps: Verify conversion windows and attribution models across platforms.
API errors: Check data formatting requirements and authentication status.
Best practices for conversion uploads
Data quality optimization
Complete customer profiles: Include as many identifying fields as possible.
Accurate timestamps: Ensure conversion timestamps reflect actual occurrence times.
Consistent formatting: Standardize data formats across all platforms.
Regular validation: Periodically audit conversion data for accuracy and completeness.
Privacy and security
Minimize data sharing: Only share necessary data fields with each platform.
Regular access reviews: Periodically review and update platform access permissions.
Data governance: Implement policies for conversion data collection and sharing.
Customer transparency: Inform customers about how their conversion data is used.
Performance optimization
Platform-specific tuning: Customize conversion uploads for each platform’s unique requirements.
Incremental testing: Test conversion uploads on small campaign segments before full implementation.
Cross-platform coordination: Ensure consistent measurement and attribution across platforms.
Continuous monitoring: Regularly review performance metrics and optimize configurations.
Next steps
After implementing conversion uploads with Activate:
Expand platform coverage: Set up conversion uploads for additional advertising platforms.
Advanced attribution: Explore multi-touch attribution and incrementality testing options.
Audience building: Use conversion data to create custom and lookalike audiences.
Campaign optimization: Leverage improved data for automated bidding and campaign strategies.
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