Tracking Website Sales in Facebook via Google Tag Manager

Table of Contents

Deploy Facebook default pixel code on your website via Google Tag Manager
Add data layer on the ‘order confirmation’ page which push sales data from your shopping cart
Pull sales data from the data layer via a data layer variable
Send ‘Purchase’ Facebook event to Facebook along with the sales data
Test the Facebook pixels
Add the purchase columns to your Facebook report

In this article I will show you, how to track the sales generated on your website by Facebook users in Facebook via Google Tag Manager

Following is the process in a nutshell:

Step-1: Deploy Facebook default pixel code on your website via GTM

Step-2: Add data layer on the order confirmation page which pull sales data from your shopping cart.

Step-3: Pull sales data from the data layer via a data layer variable.

Step-4: Send ‘Purchase’ Facebook event to Facebook along with the sales data.

Step-5: Test the Facebook pixels

Step-6: Add the purchase columns to your Facebook report.

Step #1: Deploy Facebook default pixel code on your website via Google Tag Manager

I have explained this step in great detail in this article: Learn to set up Facebook Tracking via Google Tag Manager

Step #2: Add data layer on the ‘order confirmation’ page which push sales data from your shopping cart

If you are already using a data layer to measure product purchase via enhanced ecommerce tracking then this step is optional.

Otherwise add the following data layer code in the head section (<head>…</head>) of your ‘order confirmation’ page, above the GTM container code:

<script type=”text/javascript”>

dataLayer = [{

‘revenue’: 24.35

}];

</script>

Ask your developer to pull the sales data from your shopping cart on page load.

He is going to add some server side script to the data layer in order to complete this task.

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Step #3: Pull sales data from the data layer via a data layer variable

Create a new data layer variable in GTM and name it ‘Product Revenue’.

Use following similar configuration:

This data layer variable is meant to pull sales data from your order confirmation page.

Note: The data layer variable name used in your data layer may be something other than ‘revenue’. If that is the case then use that data layer variable name.

Step #4: Send ‘Purchase’ Facebook event to Facebook along with the sales data

#1 Create a new custom HTML tag in GTM and name it ‘Sending Website Sales generated by Facebook users to Facebook’.

#2 Add following code in the HTML text box:

<script>

fbq(‘track’, ‘Purchase’, {

value: {{Product Revenue}},

currency: ‘USD’

});

</script>

The whole set up may look like the one below:

#3 Click on ‘Advance Settings’ and then click on ‘Tag Sequencing’:

#4 Select the checkbox named ‘Fire a tag before Sending Website Sales generated by Facebook users to Facebook fires’ and then select ‘Facebook default pixel code’ in the ‘Setup Tag’:

Here ‘Facebook default pixel code’ is the tag I created to fire Facebook pixel code via GTM.

You can find more details about creating this tag from this article ‘Learn to set up Facebook default pixel code via Google Tag Manager’

Through ‘tag sequencing’ feature of GTM, I am making sure that the Facebook ‘Purchase’ event is fired after the Facebook default pixel code has fired.

If you try to fire the Facebook ‘Purchase’ event before the Facebook default pixel code is fired then the event will not be triggered.

#5 Select the checkbox ‘Don’t fire Sending Website Sales generated by Facebook users to Facebook if Facebook default pixel code fails’.

The whole set up may look like the one below:

#6 Fire this tag only on the order confirmation page:

#7 Test whether this tag fire on the order confirmation page. If it does then publish the container.

Step #5: Test the Facebook pixels

Navigate to the ‘order confirmation’ page and then with the help of the ‘Facebook Pixel Helper chrome extension’ test whether or not the ‘Facebook default pixels’ and ‘Purchase pixels’ are firing and what sales value is being sent to Facebook:

Note: If the ‘Facebook default pixels’ and/or ‘purchase pixels’ are not firing on the ‘order confirmation page’ then the sales data won’t pass to Facebook.

Step #6: Add the purchase columns to your Facebook report

#1 Navigate to your Facebook Adverts Manager page, click on the ‘Performance’ drop down menu and then select ‘Customise Columns’:

#2 Type ‘Purchase’ in the search box and then select the following three check boxes:

Purchase (Facebook Pixels)
Cost Per Purchase (Facebook Pixels)
Purchase Conversion Value (Facebook Pixels)

Here,

Purchase (Facebook Pixels) => number of purchases

Cost Per Purchase (Facebook Pixels) => average cost of each purchase

Purchase Conversion Value (Facebook Pixels) => the total value of purchase

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