The Conversions API is a Meta business tool that creates a direct connection between your marketing data and the Meta technologies that optimize ad performance. The Conversions API gives you more ROI from your Meta advertising budget by allowing you to send conversion events to the Meta Ads Manager.
How to connect CAPI with Manychat
Log in to Facebook Business Manager and then go to the Events Manager section at business.facebook.com/events_manager2.
In the dropdown menu on the left, choose the business page you’d like to use CAPI with:
Next, click Connect Data Sources for that page:
Choose the Messaging option:
Select the channel to share data from business chats and click Start integration:
Choose Direct integrations in the next window:
In the next window, you will see a list of parameters. Make sure all your settings align with the parameters on the screen below and click Continue:
Confirm your setting by clicking Confirm Setup:
Click Finish:
Then, go to Settings and locate your Dataset ID. Copy your Dataset ID from this page and paste it into the Manychat interface.
Open the Settings again to set up direct integration, and click Generate access token:
Open the Manychat settings > Instagram > Ad Optimization. Paste the Dataset ID and Access Token and select Enable Ad Optimizations:
⚠️ Important note: To successfully connect your Manychat account, the Conversion API token must be linked to the same Facebook or Instagram account as your Manychat account. This means both accounts must share the same Instagram account ID.
For example, if you have the @creatorig Instagram account connected to Manychat and try to connect a token linked to @creatorig2, the credentials will be considered invalid, and the connection will not be established.
Creating a Conversion event in Manychat
💡 Note: The steps to this guide are the same for Facebook and Instagram.
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After connecting CAPI by following the steps in the previous section, navigate to the Automation section, select an existing automation, or create a new one that you will be using for advertising.
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For your trigger, select the Instagram Ads trigger. If this option isn’t available, please select the User sends a message trigger:
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After creating a flow, determine what part of the automation you’d like to mark as a conversion, such as when the user submits their email or purchases a product.
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After that point in the automation, add an action node and select + Action > Ads Optimizations > Send event to Meta Conversions API:
- Next, select the Channel and Conversion type for this action:
Congratulations! You’ve set up a conversion event that will be sent from Manychat to your Ads Manager, which will help improve your ads campaign and optimize your ROI!
Creating a paid campaign in Meta Ads Manager with CAPI
After completing the steps above, navigate to Meta Ads Manager to create your Instagram ad. Select the Conversion location as message apps and choose a call to action button that says Send message, which will initiate a conversation with the user in Instagram DMs:
⚠️ Please note that with the current objectives in Ads Manager, the Instagram ads trigger is only available for Engagement campaigns.
With Instagram Ads trigger
In the Message template section, select the Partner app option. Then, click the Select flow button to open the setup pop-up window.
In the following window, go to the Select message flow section to configure your settings.
From the dropdown list, choose Manychat as the Partner app. Next, select the specific automation in the Message flow section.
Once everything is configured, click Finish and proceed to publish your Instagram ad.
🔗 For a full synopsis on the Instagram Ads Trigger, please read the full article here.
With Keyword trigger
In the Message template section, select the Start Conversations option. Then, edit the greeting to pertain to your business.
⚠️ Important: Make sure your questions and responses match the keywords that you’re using for your Manychat automation. This will ensure your automation gets triggered.
Once you connect your Greeting and Responses to a Manychat flow using a keyword, you are ready to launch your Ad Campaign by clicking Publish.
💡 Important note: You do not need to connect CAPI to the campaign by including a pixel or any information in the Conversion section of Ads Manager. Conversions from CAPI will be automatically sent to your Ads Manager.
Once your campaign is live and running, you will see conversions tracked in your Ads Manager underneath columns such as Meta Leads or Meta Purchases depending on which conversion type you chose in your action.
💡 We strongly recommend adding additional messages or actions to your flow, as demonstrated in our example, to keep the conversation going after the initial message.
Below is a sample that we used to generate leads from a freebie online course:
We hope this helps, and if you have any issues setting up CAPI with your Manychat account, please contact our Support Team.