The Facebook Conversions API is designed as a response to the phasing out of third-party tracking during the next two years across leading browsers. While current browser and device defaults may block data, the Conversions API would forgo the pixel and pass data back through a client server to the ad platform to honor the user’s privacy tools. While the current pixel sends data immediately, the Conversions API enables you to choose what data is shared, and when. This change enhances data-driven marketing by allowing brands more visibility into their audience’s interactions within the consumer experience.

But what does this attribution change mean for brands who have relied on the Facebook pixel as a data source? In the short term, brands should begin to adopt the Conversions API, allowing it to run as an additional data source to complement the pixel. This approach will reveal efficiencies (primarily cost per action) the Conversions API brings to an advertiser’s data. Brands within verticals that share sensitive data (Financial Services/Healthcare, etc.) may opt to remove the Facebook pixel when implementing the Conversions API to maintain control over what data is sent to Facebook.

There are several critical prerequisites that must occur before implementation, including approval with legal teams, onboarding development team, testing, etc., that must occur before the Conversions API can be used as a data source, so it is imperative that teams begin thinking about the API and working the new integration into their 2021 planning and goals.

Source: About Conversions API (Facebook)

Resources for developershttps://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/conversions-api