Conversion API Set Up
Prerequisites
Ads API Access - New Applications
- The primary requirement of Conversion API is having a Developer Account and Ads API Access. The process is outlined in the Ads API Getting Started guide. Please note the following:
- When applying for a Developer Account, apply for one of our subscription plans for instant approval.
- Note: As a best practice we highly recommend using your official company X handle to create a developer account and apply to have Ads API access. If the developer account is associated with a developer handle, there is no way to transfer those credentials, if needed. It is best to house under a company account for continual management and utilize Multi-user login, as needed. Otherwise at minimum, the account should be set up with non-default settings (header image, avatar, bio description, and bio URL) and use Two-Factor Authentication.
- Make sure to have the correct App ID ready for your Ads API Application. The App ID can be found in the Developer Console under Projects & Apps. Example: 16489123
- Request access to the Ads API by reaching out to your X representative.
Ads API Access - Existing Applications
- If you already have an actively used Ads API application, both the application and existing access tokens may be used for the Conversion API.
Access Tokens
- User Access Tokens for the user handle owning the Ads API application can be generated and retrieved directly from the Developer Console. This is called your “personal access token” because it is intended to be used for your own X handle. Overall information about authentication and the Developer Console can be found here.
- User Access Tokens for user handles other than the handle owning the Ads API application must be generated with a 3-legged OAuth flow. Options for generating the Access Token with 3-legged OAuth include:
- Any user tokens used with the Conversion API must be for users with AD_MANAGER or ACCOUNT_ADMIN access level, which can be checked via the authenticated_user_access endpoint.
- Note: the tokens themselves (after creation per above) can be shared to users without the AD_MANAGER or ACCOUNT_ADMIN access level for usage.
Steps
Creating the Conversion API event
To use the Conversion API, you need to create a new conversion event in Ads Manager or use an existing event already created and used with the X Pixel. If you hope to do deduplication between pixel and conversion API events, you need to use the existing event you created for Pixel.Option 1: Using an Existing Conversion Event in Ads Manager
If you’d like to use an existing event that you’re already using with the X pixel, that is possible and you’ll need to take the Event ID from that event. If you use both pixel and Conversion API for the same event, ensure to use the deduplication key in both Pixel code snippet and Conversion API request (asconversion_id) to deduplicate events between Pixel and Conversion API for the same event. See section d. Testing Events and Deduplication for more information.
Option 2: Creating a New Conversion Event in Ads Manager:
It’s important to have an Event Source created in the Events Manager before you create an event. To verify if you have an Event Source (X Pixel) added to your account, go to Events Manager and see if you have X Pixel on your left menu. If you don’t have an Event source added yet, please follow the steps below to create an Event source.- Go to ads.x.com
- Navigate to Tools section on the top left and click Events Manager
- Select Add event source on the top right to Add an event source if you do not have aad X pixel event source on your left sidebar yet
- The ID of X pixel event source is your Pixel ID
- Inside the X pixel event source, select Add events on the right side
- Select Install with Conversion API
- You will see the Pixel ID and Event ID of this event that will be used in the API
- The ID of the event is your Event ID
- Click Save and you will have your conversion event created and ready to go
Preparing Identifiers for Conversion Events
We currently need at least one identifier to be passed such as Click ID (twclid), email address, or phone number. If using IP address or user agent, a second identifier must be sent for proper conversion matching.
Passing more identifiers will yield a higher conversion matching rate.
1. Prepare X Click ID Identifier
It’s recommended to always include Click ID in the conversion request The Click ID should be parsed out of the query string parameter twclid when it is available after the user navigates to the destination website. Basic JavaScript code example:- Always parse the twclid value when it is present in the URL query parameters.
- Store the data alongside relevant form fields or conversion event information.
2. Prepare Email Identifier
Supported customer matching fields may be sent but should be normalized and, when required, hashed to protect privacy. The information must be hashed using SHA256, without salt. For example, for an email address test@x.com, it should be sent to us in a hashed format: d360d510a224510f373931ce2d6215a799f5a9c1cef221b0149b6b6b50cced62.3. Prepare Phone Identifier
The phone number should be passed in using E164 Standard and the information must be hashed using SHA256, without salt. For example, for a US phone number: +11234567890, it should be sent to us in a hashed format: 1fa6b8d986d9b9cd01bf36951815158bbde9f520c0567c835dfe34783d0a4231.4. Prepare IP Address Identifier
The IP Address is required to be passed in conjunction with another identifier (twclid, email address, phone number or user agent). No hashing is required for this identifier. This value is written in dotted-decimal notation, with four numbers separated by periods. As an example, a user’s IP Address may be 8.25.197.25.5. Prepare User Agent Identifier
The User Agent is required to be passed in conjunction with another identifier (twclid, email address, phone number or IP address). No hashing is required for this identifier. This identifier allows the server to identify the application, operating system, vendor, and/or version of the requesting user agent. For example, this value can be passed as Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/127.0.0.0 Safari/537.36.Constructing the conversion event request
POST: version/measurement/conversions/:pixel_id
Send conversion events for a particular ad account. The response code should be checked for success (HTTP 200 OK). It is recommended to have a retry mechanism and basic logging in place in case of error codes are returned.
For detailed information about the endpoint’s URL and POST body parameters, please see the API Reference section.
Example Request (formatted for readability)
Example Response
Rate Limit
The rate limit will be 60,000 events per account, per 15 minute interval. Note that your server code may be required to implement logic outside of this request call, including:- Instrumenting user actions (logging) to be able to send correct conversion data per event
- Any necessary logic to filter out conversion events of users that have exercised relevant privacy choices - for example, if they have opted out of tracking or the sale of their personal information on the advertiser website
- Integration with event triggers and pages as to capture events and send conversions
Testing Events and Deduplication
Testing Events
When your event has successfully received conversion events, within 12 to 24 hours the status of the ‘Single event web tag’ should show TRACKING upon the Conversion Tracking page of the Ads Manager. It will not impact in-flight campaigns to send conversions via the Conversion API. You may also check the analytics results of your conversion event per tag ID by:- Ads Manager data export (Analytics for Website Conversion Tracking help page)
- Exporting data via the Ads API (segmentation_type=CONVERSION_TAGS)
Duplication between Pixel and Conversion API
If you hope to deduplicate conversions between Pixel and Conversion API requests, we have conversion_id as the deduplication key. The deduplication only happens at the event level. In other words, to deduplicate between pixel and CAPI requests, an advertiser has to use the same event in both pixel and CAPI requests, in addition to using the same conversion_id. Deduplication can only happen to events that are received within a 48h time frameConversion Tracking (Overview)
Summary
Conversion tracking enables you to measure the number of X users that perform a desired action after viewing and engaging with your ads on X. It will provide you the capability to measure which of your campaigns drive actions such as site visits, sign ups, and purchases. This provides advertisers with the off-X measurement capabilities to understand the performance of their direct-response ads so that they can cost-effectively acquire customers. Using a conversion tag, advertisers can track user conversions and tie them back to ad campaigns on X. This gives them the visibility to optimize their campaigns to meet their cost-per-acquisition (CPA) goals. There are a variety of website actions that an advertiser can measure with conversion tracking. They can select one or more, in accordance with the action(s) they are looking to drive with their ad campaign:- Site visit: User visits a landing page on an advertiser’s site
- Purchase: User completes a purchase of a product or service on the advertiser’s site
- Download: User downloads a file, such as a white paper or software package, from the advertiser’s site
- Sign up: User signs up for the advertiser’s service, newsletter, or email communication
- Custom: This is a catch-all category for a custom action that does not fall into one of the categories above
FAQ
How does the conversion tracking tag work?
How does the conversion tracking tag work?
First, an advertiser creates a conversion tag, which is a snippet of code provided by X, and places it on their website. The tag is now ready to measure the conversion when a user completes the given action.Users are then exposed to the advertiser’s ad on the X client, which leads them to the advertiser’s website and action which they have tagged. If the user completes that action during the attribution window(s) specified by the advertisers during tag setup, the tag recognizes that the user has previously interacted with a X ad. The tag then “fires,” or sends a notification to X’s servers so that the conversion can be attributed to the ad which generated conversion.
Is there a way within the campaign setup process that allows the user to select which tracking pixels are relevant for that campaign?
Is there a way within the campaign setup process that allows the user to select which tracking pixels are relevant for that campaign?
No, our product is not set up to attach specific conversion tags to specific campaigns. Rather, once a tag is set up, the system automatically keeps track of which ad drove to conversions on a certain tag.
What are some ideas for effective DR creatives and strategies that will effectively drive conversions?
What are some ideas for effective DR creatives and strategies that will effectively drive conversions?
While each client’s goals, situation, and strategies are different, here are some ideas that have worked for clients who participated in the conversion tracking alpha or beta:Creative:
- Offers: Pair a discount, promotion, or free shipping offer with the Promoted Tweet to garner more interest in the action
- Sweepstakes and contests: Especially for well-known brands, sweepstakes and contests drove conversions
- Tweet copy experimentation: Testing all caps vs lower case (FREE vs free or NOW vs now)
- Deadlines: Offer a deadline to encourage people to take immediate action (Offer Expires December 12!)
- Adding compelling photos: It is worthwhile to test whether visually compelling photos to Tweet creative are effective in driving conversions; results may vary or be specific to client offering.
- @handle targeting and interest category targeting: Tight alignment of the Tweet copy and @handles to the intended audience of the Tweet drove conversions
- Using niche but high volume keywords: In the concert space, using keywords related to the artist/musician (e.g. their name) proved effective.
- Tailored audiences: Clients using TA web and conversion tracking together drove lower CPAs than control groups using other targeting
Troubleshooting and Support for Conversion API
For questions about error codes after calling the API, please see the section below. For all the other questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to your Twitter representative and we will work on resolving them as soon as possible.Error Handling and Explanation
A single request will only be successful when there are zero errors for all conversions contained within it. In the case of any error within an individual conversion, the endpoint will emit a list of all applicable errors.X Ads API Error Codes Overview
Here is an overall comprehensive list of error codes in Ads API: https://developer.x.com/en/docs/twitter-ads-api/response-codes Successful Conversion API responses are indicated with a 200-series HTTP code and a JSON-based payload containing the object requested.When there is a 500-series HTTP code, it’s related to a server issue instead of your request or account set up. Please check the X API status page or the developer community forum in case others are having similar issues.
When there is a 400-series HTTP code, the common cases are
- 400 Bad Request (request doesn’t fit standards)
- 401 Unauthorized (authentication issues)
- 403 Forbidden (API access issues associated with that Developer Account)
- 404 Not Found (URL or params might not be correct for the endpoint)
Conversion API error codes
400 Bad Request Scenarios
JSON Error Code Example
Request:
POST '/11/measurement/conversions/o6dkt' --data '{"conversions":[{"conversion_time": "2022-06-16T01:14:00.603Z", "event_id":"o6dkt", "identifiers": [{"twclid": "23opevjt88psuo13lu8d020qkn"}]}]}' --header 'Content-Type: application/json
Error message:
{"errors":[{"code":"INVALID_PARAMETER","message":"event_id (o6dkt) is not a single event tag (SET)","parameter":"event_id"}],"request":{"params":{"account_id":"18ce552mlaq"}}}
Request:
twurl_ads -X POST '/11/measurement/conversions/o6dkt' --data '{"conversions":[{"conversion_time": "2022-06-16T01:14:00.603Z", "event_id":"o6dl3", "identifiers": [{"twclid": ""}]}]}' --header 'Content-Type: application/json'
Error message:
{"errors":[{"code":"INVALID_PARAMETER","message":"At least one user identifier must be provided","parameter":""}],"request":{"params":{"account_id":"18ce552mlaq"}}}
Request:
twurl_ads -X POST '/11/measurement/conversions/o6dkt' --data '{"conversions":[{"conversion_time": "2022-06-16T01:14:00.603Z", "event_id":"o6dl3", "identifiers": [{"hashed_email": "abc"}]}]}' --header 'Content-Type: application/json'
Error message:
{"errors":[{"code":"INVALID_PARAMETER","message":"hashed_email (abc) is not a valid SHA-256 hash","parameter":"hashed_email"}],"request":{"params":{"account_id":"18ce552mlaq"}}}
Request:
twurl_ads -X POST '/11/measurement/conversions/o6dkt' --data '{"conversions":[{"conversion_time": "2022-06-16T01:14:00.603", "event_id":"o6dl3", "identifiers": [{"twclid": "23opevjt88psuo13lu8d020qkn"}]}]}' --header 'Content-Type: application/json'
Error message:
{"errors":[{"code":"INVALID_PARAMETER","message":"Expected Time in yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ss.SSSZ, got \"2022-06-16T01:14:00.603\" for conversion_time","parameter":"conversion_time"}],"request":{"params":{"account_id":"18ce552mlaq"}}}
401 Unauthorized
Reason: Authentication credentials missing or incorrect Solution: Follow the authentication steps in the Set Up documentation using one of the 3 authentication methods: User Access Tokens for user handles other than the handle owning the Ads API application must be generated with a 3-legged OAuth flow. Options for generating the Access Token with 3-legged OAuth include- Command Line with Web-based Authorization via twurl utility
- Command Line with PIN-based Authorization
- Custom web flow implementing the 3-legged OAuth pattern
403 Access Forbidden
404 Not Found
JSON Error Code Example
Request:
twurl_ads -X POST '/11/measurement/conversions/o8z6j' --data '{"conversions":[{"conversion_time": "2022-06-16T01:14:00.603Z", "event_id":"abc", "identifiers": [{"twclid": "23opevjt88psuo13lu8d020qkn"}]}]}' --header 'Content-Type: application/json'
Error message:
{"errors":[{"code":"NOT_FOUND","message":"event_id (abc) does not belong to provided account","parameter":"event_id"},{"code":"INVALID_PARAMETER","message":"event_id (abc) is not a single event tag (SET)","parameter":"event_id"}],"request":{"params":{"account_id":"18ce55gze09"}}}
API reference index
For the complete API reference, select an endpoint from the list:Web Conversions
Web Conversions
POST version/measurement/conversions/:pixel_id
Send website conversion events for a single Event Tag ID.
The response code should be checked for success (HTTP 200 OK). It is recommended to have a retry mechanism and basic logging in place in case error codes are returned.
The rate limit will be 100,000 request per 15 minute interval per account (each request allows 500 events).
Resource URL
https://ads-api.x.com/12/measurement/conversions/:pixel_id
Request URL Parameters
conversions object
identifiers object
contents object
Response Parameters
Example Request
Example Request
Web Event Tags
GET accounts/:account_id/web_event_tags
Retrieve details for some or all web event tags associated with the current account.
Resource URL
https://ads-api.x.com/12/accounts/:account_id/web_event_tags
Parameters
Example Request
GET https://ads-api.x.com/12/accounts/18ce54d4x5t/web_event_tags?web_event_tag_ids=o3bk1
Example Response
GET accounts/:account_id/web_event_tags/:web_event_tag_id
Retrieve a specific web event tag associated with the current account.Resource URL
https://ads-api.x.com/12/accounts/:account_id/web_event_tags/:web_event_tag_id
Parameters
Example Request
GET https://ads-api.x.com/12/accounts/18ce54d4x5t/web_event_tags/o3bk1
Example Response
POST accounts/:account_id/web_event_tags
Create a new web event tag associated with the current account.Resource URL
https://ads-api.x.com/12/accounts/:account_id/web_event_tags
Parameters
Example Request
POST https://ads-api.x.com/12/accounts/18ce54d4x5t/web_event_tags?click_window=7&name=web event tag&retargeting_enabled=false&type=SITE_VISIT&view_through_window=7
Example Response
PUT accounts/:account_id/web_event_tags/:web_event_tag_id
Update a web event tag associated with the current account.Resource URL
https://ads-api.x.com/12/accounts/:account_id/web_event_tags/:web_event_tag_id
Parameters
Example Request
PUT https://ads-api.x.com/12/accounts/18ce54d4x5t/web_event_tags/o3bk1?type=DOWNLOAD
Example Response
DELETE accounts/:account_id/web_event_tags/:web_event_tag_id
Delete a specific web event tag associated to the current account.Resource URL
https://ads-api.x.com/12/accounts/:account_id/web_event_tags/:web_event_tag_id
Parameters
Example Request
DELETE https://ads-api.x.com/12/accounts/18ce54d4x5t/web_event_tags/o3bk1