Do you know the difference?
Custom events and custom conversions confuse too many advertisers. They either mistake one for the other or they use the two interchangeably.
Both require the pixel or conversions APIConversions API provides a direct connection between your conversion results and Meta to be used for ad set optimization and reporting. Examples include both web and offline events. By using a Conversions API, you can send Meta a more complete picture of conversion activity to help improve your results. More and help you define conversionsA conversion is counted whenever a website visitor performs an action that fires a standard event, custom event, or custom conversion. Examples of conversions include purchases, leads, content views, add to cart, and registrations. More that are used for reporting and optimizationThe Performance Goal is chosen within the ad set and determines optimization and delivery. How you optimize impacts who sees your ad. Meta will show your ad to people most likely to perform your desired action. More. But the similarities stop there.
Custom events require code and allow you to freely define actions beyond standard events using custom triggers.
I have custom eventsConversion events tracked by the pixel, app SDK, or API that are outside of standard events. These tend to be created to fit the publisher's needs when a pre-defined standard event will not. More that fire based on things like
1. Amount of time spent on a page
2. Scroll depth down a page
3. Watched an embedded YouTube video
Beyond using these actions for optimization and reporting, you can also create website custom audiencesA website custom audience matches people who visit your website with people on Facebook. You can then create ads to show to that audience. More based on this activity.
Custom conversions don’t require code and are built within the Events Manager interface. They rely on URL or parameter rules, which limits what you can create. You can’t create custom audiences based on them.
You should use both.
Use custom events to capture all people who performed a specific action beyond predefined standard events. Use custom conversionsCustom conversions let you create rules for events or URLs so that you can better track and optimize for specific actions with Facebook ads. More to isolate segments of people who performed those events based on parameters. That could mean only those who watched a specific video or spent more than a minute on a certain page.
