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Optimize your Campaigns Perfectly with TikTok pixel and Event API

TikTok Pixel & Event API are vital for online businesses. Pixel tracks user actions, optimizing ads for better targeting and measuring ad performance. Event  API enhances data accuracy by directly sending info to TikTok, ensuring seamless tracking, improved insights, and effective ad optimization. Sustain & grow your online business with these powerful tools.

15 March, 2024

TikTok Pixel and Event API all Basics to Advance

Why TikTok pixel and Event API is most important for TikTok ads?

TikTok Pixel and Event API were tools provided by TikTok for advertisers to track and measure the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns on the platform. Keep in mind that there may have been updates or changes to these features since then.

TikTok Pixel:

Conversion Tracking: The TikTok Pixel, a code snippet strategically embedded on your website, meticulously monitors user actions such as purchases, signups, and more. This furnishes invaluable insights into the efficacy of your TikTok ads in driving desired outcome data.

Audience Targeting: By comprehending customer behavior on your website, the TikTok Pixel empowers you to craft targeted ad campaigns, reaching individuals more likely to exhibit interest in your products or services.

Re-engagement: Leveraging the TikTok Pixel, you can effectively retarget and re-market individuals who have previously interacted with your website. This enables the delivery of relevant ads, serving as reminders about your offers.

Remarketing: TikTok Pixel facilitates effective remarketing by presenting personalized ads on the TikTok platform. Users encounter ads for products they previously viewed, fostering brand recall and driving sales by targeting users at various stages of the buying journey.

TikTok Event API:

Overcoming Data Limitations: In response to escalating privacy concerns and browser restrictions, the TikTok Event API emerges as a robust solution, providing a reliable means to collect conversion data. It circumvents browser limitations by transmitting conversion information directly from your server to TikTok.

Ensuring Data Accuracy: The Event API ensures a secure and controlled data collection method, mitigating the impact of ad blockers or disabled cookies that may impede pixel tracking.

Broader Conversion Data: Extending beyond website conversions, the Event API facilitates the transmission of diverse data types, including app activity, in-store purchases, or phone calls. This offers a more holistic view of your campaign’s effectiveness.

 

Maximizing Benefits through Integration:

While each tool serves distinct purposes, their synergy offers unparalleled advantages:

Comprehensive Data: The combination of TikTok Pixel and Event API yields a comprehensive understanding of your ad performance, encompassing both website-specific and broader conversion activities.

Enhanced Targeting: The richer data set allows for the creation of more precise audience segments, leading to more effective ad targeting and improved campaign results.

Optimized Campaigns: Armed with insights into how ads influence conversions across various touchpoints, advertisers can make informed, data-driven decisions to optimize campaigns for maximum impact.

Advanced Remarketing: TikTok Event API elevates remarketing efforts by providing accurate conversion data, overcoming potential blockers, and enabling tracking of app and offline sales. This results in reaching the right audience with relevant ads, ultimately boosting campaign performance and conversions.

The TikTok Pixel and Event API, when used in tandem, are pivotal tools that empower advertisers to measure, target, and optimize TikTok ad campaigns effectively, contributing to a more robust return on investment (ROI).

Warning! Warning! Warning letter for all entrepreneurs about TikTok Pixel and Event API.

Remember,

Many people set up the TikTok Pixel and Event API by installing various plugins on the website, but this is not the correct rule and hare happen many important data mismatches. For these reasons, TikTok can’t get the right customer behavior and information and can’t optimize ad campaigns, which is why the ad campaign may get zero results. The correct method for this is of course to set up in a very advanced way through “Google Tag Manager (GTM)”.

TikTok Standard Events and Custom Events with Parameters, Event Deduplication, Advanced Matching for Web.

Standard Events:

Below is a table of standard events that are currently supported with our web integration tools such as Event Builder, the TikTok Pixel, or Events API. With any of the standard events, you can send parameters, and additional information about the visitor’s actions, such as the total price of an order or product name and category, etc. 

Standard Event

Description

Recommended parameters

Event Codes

Add Payment Info

When a visitor adds their payment information at checkout.

 

‘AddPaymentInfo’

Add to Cart

When a visitor adds an item to the cart.

content_type, quantity, description, content_id, currency, value

‘Add To Cart’

Add to Wishlist

When a visitor adds an item to the wishlist.

 

‘Add To Wishlist’

Click Button

When a visitor taps a button. TikTok recommends measuring website buttons important to your business, such as social media buttons.

 

‘Click Button’

Complete Payment

When a visitor makes a payment. TikTok recommends using this event when placing an order and making a payment are the same.

Content_type, quantity, description, content_id, currency, value

‘Complete Payment’

Complete Registration

When a visitor signs up for something such as account registration.

 

‘Complete Registration’

Contact

When a visitor contacts you.

 

‘Contact’

Download

When a visitor downloads something from your website.

 

‘Download’

Initiate Checkout

When a visitor proceeds to checkout.

 

‘Initiate Checkout’

Place an Order

When a visitor places an order. TikTok recommends using this event when placing an order and making a payment are not the same.

content_type, quantity, description, content_id, currency, value

‘PlaceAnOrder’

Search

When a visitor searches.

query

‘Search’

Submit Form

When a visitor submits a form.

 

‘SubmitForm’

Subscribe

When a visitor subscribes on your website including follows, content, or paid subscriptions.

 

‘Subscribe’

View Content

When a visitor views a specific page. TikTok recommends measuring pages important to your business such as product comparison, announcement, or release pages.

content_type, quantity, description, content_id, currency, value

‘ViewContent’

Note: By default, the pixel base code will always include page view events which measure when a person lands on any of your web pages.

Custom Events:

Custom events with parameters can provide valuable insights for tracking and optimizing TikTok ads performance. Here’s a table outlining some powerful custom events along with their parameters:

Event Name

Description

Parameters

Example

View Content

User views a specific piece of content

– content_id (required): Unique ID of the viewed content <br> – content_type (optional): Type of content (e.g., video, image)

User views a video ad with content_id: “abc123” and content_type: “video”

Add to Wishlist

User adds an item to their wishlist

– item_id (required): Unique ID of the added item <br> – item_name (optional): Name of the added item

User adds a product to their wishlist with item_id: “xyz987”

Start Checkout

User initiates the checkout process

– order_id (optional): Unique ID of the order

User starts checkout for an order

Purchase

User completes a purchase

– order_value (required): Total value of the purchase <br> – currency (optional): Currency code (e.g., USD, EUR)

User completes a purchase with order_value: 100 and currency: “USD”

Search

User searches for a specific term

– search_query (required): Searched term

User searches for “summer dresses”

View Category

User views a specific product category

– category_id (required): Unique ID of the viewed category <br> – category_name (optional): Name of the viewed category

User views the “electronics” category with category_id: “123”

Add to Cart

User adds an item to their shopping cart

– item_id (required): Unique ID of the added item <br> – item_quantity (optional): Quantity of the added item

User adds a product to their cart with item_id: “pqr456” and item_quantity: 2

Level Up

User completes a specific level in a game

– level_number (required): Number of the completed level

User completes level 5 in a game

Complete Registration

User registers for an account

 

User successfully registers for an account

Events Deduplication for TikTok pixel and Events API 

Event Deduplication:

Event Deduplication is necessary for advertisers utilizing both the TikTok Pixel and Events API to prevent the sharing of duplicate event data, ensuring accurate reporting of conversions on their websites. When TikTok identifies overlapping events that are exact duplicates, we retain and enhance the initial event to prevent double counting. This process ensures precise measurement and reporting, aiding advertisers in effectively measuring, optimizing, and targeting their TikTok ads.

To determine if event deduplication is required, please review the following scenarios:

Deduplication is not required if an advertiser shares different events separately between the Pixel and the Events API, without event overlap.    

 For example, sharing Add To Cart events through the Pixel, and Complete Payment events through the Events API. Deduplication is required if an advertiser shares the same events through the Pixel and the Events API, with event overlap. For example, sharing Complete Payment events through both Pixel and the Events API.

About Advanced Matching for Web

Advanced Matching is available via TikTok Business Tools to enable you to send customer information such as email, phone number, or customer IDs to better match website events with people on TikTok.

Using Advanced Matching will enable you to:

Measure more conversions: TikTok can match more of the conversions that happen on your website to people on TikTok. This helps you better understand the impact of your ads on website conversion.

Boost campaign optimization: Power campaign bidding models to amplify your conversion events.

Expand your reach: Build bigger audiences to reach website and app customers on the TikTok platform.

Implementing Advanced Matching:

There are two ways to enable Advanced Matching: Manual or Automatic. TikTok recommends advertisers use both Manual and Automatic Advanced Matching at the same time, if possible, as this setting maximizes Advanced Matching’s full performance. If you operate within a more regulated or sensitive industry, such as financial services or healthcare, consider using Manual Advanced Matching instead of Auto Advanced Matching.

​Manual Advanced Matching:

​Manual Advanced Matching is passing customer information to TikTok from your website. This can be implemented using code for each event on your website, or if you’re using a partner integration, you can enable Manual Advanced Matching in the data-sharing settings of the partner platform. With this option, you have the flexibility to configure what information and for which event you want to pass to TikTok.

Automatic Advanced Matching :

​Automatic Advanced Matching is when advertisers instruct TikTok to automatically identify form fields on pages where Pixel is installed and to hash and collect email and phone numbers entered on those pages for measurement, optimization, and targeting of your campaigns. With this option, the pixel will scan your website for recognizable form fields containing customer information, like email and phone, which is then captured securely and safely via an industry-standard hashing algorithm (SHA-256). TikTok recommends the pixel be implemented on all of your web pages for Automatic Advanced Matching to be more effective.

 

Manual Advanced Matching

Automatic Advanced Matching

TikTok Pixel

Available (requires code)

Available via settings in Events Manager

Partner integrations

Available via partner platform

Available via settings in Events Manager

Events API

Available (requires code)

Not available

Advanced Matching is also required for leveraging Video Shopping Ads retargeting and for including unattributed events in Website Traffic Audiences.

Domain Verification with TikTok Event API.

In the context of TikTok advertising, domain verification is the process of confirming that you own and have control over the website domain where you plan to use the TikTok Event API. This involves adding a specific code snippet to your website’s code or uploading a verification file to your server.

Why is domain verification necessary with the TikTok Event API?

There are several reasons why TikTok requires domain verification for the Event API:

  • Enhanced security and data integrity: Verification helps prevent unauthorized parties from injecting malicious code or manipulating conversion data on your website. This safeguards both you and your users.
  • Improved measurement and attribution: By verifying your domain, TikTok can accurately associate conversion events with your specific website and ad campaigns. This leads to more reliable and insightful data for campaign optimization.
  • Compliance with evolving privacy regulations: As data privacy regulations become stricter, TikTok needs to ensure it is collecting data from legitimate sources and with proper consent. Domain verification helps them comply with these regulations.

What happens if you don’t verify your domain?

While it’s not mandatory at the moment, TikTok is phasing out pixel-based conversion tracking and encouraging advertisers to switch to the Event API. If you don’t verify your domain, you might face: 

  • Loss of access to conversion data: You may no longer be able to track conversions (like purchases or sign-ups) happening on your website through TikTok ads.

Limited campaign optimization capabilities: Without accurate conversion data, you won’t be able to effectively optimize your TikTok ad campaigns for desired outcomes.

Domain validation is crucial to effectively using the TikTok Event API. A lot of important data gets lost if domain verification is not done. It ensures data security, improves measurement accuracy, and helps comply with evolving privacy regulations.

What is TikTok Pixel and Event API?

TikTok Pixel:

The TikTok Pixel and Event API are essential tools for advertisers looking to maximize the effectiveness of their marketing efforts on the TikTok platform. The TikTok Pixel is a piece of code that advertisers place on their website, allowing them to track user interactions and conversions that result from TikTok ad clicks. This includes actions such as completing a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or other predefined goals. 

TikTok Event API:

The Event API complements the Pixel by enabling advertisers to send Event data directly to TikTok’s servers, providing a more reliable and accurate way to track and measure campaign performance. Together, these tools empower advertisers to optimize ad delivery, understand their audience better, and make data-driven decisions to achieve their advertising objectives on TikTok.

How Does TikTok Pixel and Event API Work?

TikTok Pixel:

TikTok Pixel operates as a crucial tool for advertisers seeking to enhance their campaigns on the platform. By integrating a small piece of code onto their website, advertisers enable the TikTok Pixel to track user interactions and events triggered by TikTok ads. This code captures essential data, such as page views and conversions, providing advertisers with valuable insights into the performance of their TikTok campaigns. The TikTok Pixel facilitates a deeper understanding of user behavior, allowing advertisers to refine their strategies and create targeted audiences for future campaigns. 

Event API:

The Event API bypasses browser limitations by establishing a direct connection between your server and TikTok’s servers. This allows you to securely send website activity data directly from your database to TikTok.

The Event API offers several advantages. It’s resistant to ad blockers and browser restrictions, ensuring more accurate conversion tracking. This provides a clearer picture of how your TikTok ads influence user actions on your website, ultimately leading to better campaign decisions and improved return on ad spend.

Why need TikTok Pixel and Event API for a sustainable business?

A sustainable business on TikTok requires a deep understanding of how your advertising efforts translate to real-world results. Here’s why TikTok Pixel and Event API are crucial for achieving this:

Accurate Measurement: Pixel tracks website actions triggered by your TikTok ads. However, browser limitations and ad blockers can hinder its accuracy. Event API bridges this gap by directly sending the data from your server to TikTok, providing a more reliable picture of ad performance.

Improved Campaign Optimization: With accurate data, you can see which ads are driving actual conversions. This allows you to refine your campaigns, focusing resources on strategies that yield the best results.

Effective Targeting: By understanding user behavior after clicking your ad, you can create targeted audiences based on their actions. This ensures your ads reach people most likely to convert, maximizing your return on ad spend.

Future-Proofing: The advertising landscape is constantly evolving. By utilizing both Pixel and Event API, you ensure your business remains adaptable. The API offers a more robust data transfer method, preparing you for potential changes in browser tracking capabilities.

TikTok Pixel and Event API work together to provide a clear picture of your ad campaign’s effectiveness. This data empowers you to make informed decisions, optimize your strategy, and ultimately build a sustainable business model on the TikTok platform.

Features of TikTok Pixel and Event API.


Feature


TikTok Pixel


TikTok Conversion API (Events API)

Data Transfer Method

Browser-based

Server-to-server

Data Privacy

Relies on cookies, susceptible to privacy settings and ad blockers

Secure, data transferred directly between servers

Data Accuracy

Prone to underreporting due to browser limitations

Captures more conversions due to bypassing browser restrictions

Real-time Updates

Limited, data updates based on user browsing behavior

Faster data syncing, closer to real-time insights

Customization

Limited event tracking options

Highly customizable, track various user actions

Technical Setup

Easier to implement, requires code snippet on the website

Requires developer resources for server-side integration

FAQs

Frequently asked questions by clients about the Facebook Pixel and Conversion API.

Yes, we can set up pixel and conversion API for any kind of website through CMS (WordPress, Shopify, Wix, BigCommerce, Squarespace, etc.) and custom-made, but for custom-made websites, we need a little help from your website developer to enable the data layer.  However, if you want to set up pixel and conversion API on websites made by CMS other than WordPress, Shopify, Wix, BigCommerce, Squarespace, etc. we can do it.

Using both TikTok Pixel and Event API is recommended for optimal campaign data. Pixel tracks website behavior for a broader user journey view and Event API Offers more accurate data directly from your server, overcoming browser limitations. This combined approach provides a comprehensive picture for better ad targeting and campaign optimization. TikTok also implements automatic deduplication to avoid duplicate event tracking.

Seeing results with TikTok Event API depends on factors like goals. Simpler actions like website visits might show results in 2–3 days. Complex conversions involving deeper engagement could take a week or longer. Monitor data consistently and optimize campaigns for better results.

Yes, you can set up TikTok Event API (CAPI) without the TikTok Event API uses server-side code to directly send conversion data to TikTok, bypassing browser limitations. Pixel setup focuses on client-side tracking. While recommended for a comprehensive approach, CAPI offers an alternative for accurate conversion tracking, But it’s better to set up both TikTok Pixel and Event API.

Still, now, stape.io & Google Cloud Platform are the most popular for server-side tracking. You can use any of them but mind it both are premium. You have to purchase their server on a monthly/request basis.

The person who will set up your TikTok pixel and Event API needs to pay money and buy a cloud server.

  1. stape.io See pricing
  2. Google Cloud See pricing 

Platform are the most popular for server-side tracking. There are many more servers that you find convenient.

We use Google Tag Manager (GTM) because Google Tag Manager (GTM) simplifies TikTok Pixel and Event API implementation by centralizing code management. It ensures easy updates, reduces reliance on developers, and provides a streamlined approach for tracking and optimizing TikTok campaigns, enhancing efficiency and flexibility.

I need your….. 

  1. Google Tag Manager (publisher access).
  2. Website Backend – editor access for data layer enable (if your website is custom-made, we don’t need Website Backend access but need a little help from your website’s experienced developer to enable the data layer). 
  3. Stape.io Access.
  4. TikTok Event Manager Access.

Simply bring a list of the goals or queries you wish to cover. Other than a desire to learn and get better, no more preparation is required.

Yes, we will fully support you if you face any issues with TikTok Pixel and Event API. We are always ready to provide 24/7 hours support to our clients and our clients are very satisfied with our support.

Final Words

We hope this article sheds some light on TikTok pixel and Event API differences for you. If you need help setting up or using TikTok pixel and Event API, please don’t hesitate to contact with our support. We’re here to help you get the most out of this great tool.

Conclusion

We hope this guide has helped you understand what TikTok Pixel & Events API is, why we should use it, and how it works. If you need any further information, don’t hesitate to contact us.