Do I still need the Meta Pixel if I use the Conversions API?

Yes. Meta designs CAPI to run alongside the Pixel, not replace it. The Pixel provides real-time browser events, while CAPI recovers events the browser loses to ad blockers, iOS tracking prompts, or cookie restrictions, and Meta matches the two together for the most complete picture.

Does Adship set up the Conversions API for me?

Not today. Adship does not offer CAPI setup as a feature. If you need server-side tracking, follow Meta's own Conversions API documentation or a partner integration, and make sure your Meta Pixel and its standard events are configured correctly first.

How does Meta avoid double-counting Pixel and CAPI events?

Through deduplication. Meta's documentation says it tries to deduplicate identical events sent through the Pixel and the Conversions API by matching a shared event_id value sent with both the browser and server copy of the same event, generally keeping whichever arrives first.

What is a good event match quality score?

Meta scores event match quality from 0 to 10 based on the customer information parameters you send and how many events successfully match to a Meta account. There is no single published good cutoff from Meta, but sending more of its high and medium priority parameters, like email and phone, raises the score.

Advertising Glossary

CAPI

Conversions API (CAPI)

What is CAPI?

The Conversions API, commonly abbreviated CAPI, is Meta's own name for its server-to-server tracking connection. Meta's developer documentation describes it directly: it is designed to create a connection between an advertiser's marketing data, such as website events, app events, business messaging events, and offline conversions, from an advertiser's server, website platform, mobile app, or CRM to Meta systems that optimize ad targeting, decrease cost per result, and measure outcomes. That is the core distinction from the Meta Pixel: the Pixel fires from a visitor's browser using JavaScript, where ad blockers, iOS App Tracking Transparency, and cookie restrictions can stop an event from ever reaching Meta, while CAPI sends the same kind of event straight from the advertiser's own server, bypassing the browser entirely. Meta designs the two to run together, matching events from both sources against the same customer action. When both fire for the same event, deduplication avoids counting it twice: Meta's documentation says it tries to deduplicate identical events sent through the Pixel and the Conversions API, matching a shared event_id value an advertiser sends with both the browser and server copy of the same event, and generally preferring whichever copy arrives first when the two do not differ meaningfully. How well a server event matches back to a real Meta account is scored as event match quality, from 0 to 10, based on the customer information parameters, like email or phone, always hashed, sent with that event and the share of events that successfully match. Any advertiser already sending website or app events through a Meta Pixel who wants to recover signal lost to browser-side blocking is the practical audience for CAPI; it is a data-plumbing layer, not a creative or targeting feature.

Example

A store already has the Meta Pixel installed and firing a browser-side Purchase event at checkout. To add CAPI, its developer sends a matching server-side Purchase event from the order-confirmation step in the backend, and both the browser and server events carry the identical event_id value, for example order_48213. Meta's deduplication logic sees two Purchase events sharing that event_id and keeps one, so the order is not double-counted in reporting. The server event also carries the customer's hashed email and phone number as customer information parameters, which Meta uses to calculate event match quality: the more of Meta's recommended parameters the server event includes, and the higher their quality, the closer that event's match quality score sits to the top of Meta's 0 to 10 scale, and the more of that server-reported purchase Meta can confidently attribute back to an ad.

Meta Conversions API Reference

Platform / Segment	Value	Note
Event Match Quality scale	0 to 10	Meta Business Help Center, About event match quality
Match quality data window	Last 48 hours	Meta recalculates EMQ on a rolling basis
Deduplication key	event_id	Shared between the Pixel and server event for the same action
EMQ action source	Website	Meta states EMQ is available for website events sent through the Conversions API with the action source parameter set to Website

Event Match Quality scale0 to 10

Meta Business Help Center, About event match quality

Match quality data windowLast 48 hours

Meta recalculates EMQ on a rolling basis

Deduplication keyevent_id

Shared between the Pixel and server event for the same action

EMQ action sourceWebsite

Meta states EMQ is available for website events sent through the Conversions API with the action source parameter set to Website

Sourced from Meta's own developer documentation and Business Help Center, not third-party benchmarks.

Optimization Tips

1
Send the Pixel and CAPI together, not CAPI alone. Meta designs the Conversions API as a redundant partner to the browser Pixel, not a replacement, so dropping the Pixel removes real-time browser signal that CAPI does not fully replicate on its own.
2
Generate one event_id per real-world action and send that same value on both the browser and server copy of the event. Meta's own documentation is explicit that advertisers who never send the same event twice through both paths do not need to set up deduplication at all, so this only matters once both integrations are live.
3
Send more of Meta's recommended customer information parameters, not just email. Meta's event match quality guidance lists email and click ID as high priority, with phone number, external ID, and browser ID as medium priority, and every additional matched parameter can lift the score.
4
Check event match quality in Events Manager regularly rather than once at setup. Meta calculates the score from a rolling 48-hour window, so a broken hashing function or a dropped parameter shows up as a falling score within two days, not months later.
5
If your team is not ready to build a server-side integration, do not skip tracking entirely. Adship does not offer CAPI setup as a feature today; a correctly configured Meta Pixel with its standard events is the right starting point, and Meta's own Pixel Helper tool is the fastest way to confirm it is firing before adding server-side tracking on top.