Facebook ads API // passing fbp parameters to build the target Custom Audiences

Question

I want to make retargeting audiences in facebook

Facebook writes in its documentation that i need to hash and send the emails and phone numbers. link

Also Facebook has its fbp identifier (which means browser id), that we keep collecting. link

So can i send the fbp ids to facebook ads manager or any other identifier and make custom audience, without sending emails and phone numbers?

Answer 1

What worked for us is to pass the fbp to the ads manager through API connection

as it stated here https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/conversions-api/using-the-api you have to use your application and verify it at FB developer centre.

In event_name you can pass any, e.g. "Purchase", "Cart" etc.

'fbc' is not necessary

curl -X POST \
  -F 'data=[
       {
         "event_name": "PageView",
         "event_time": 1611843336,
         "user_data": {
           "fbc": "fb.1.1554763741205.AbCdEfGhIjKlMnOpQrStUvWxYz1234567890",
           "fbp": "fb.1.1558571054389.1098115397",
           "em": "309a0a5c3e211326ae75ca18196d301a9bdbd1a882a4d2569511033da23f0abd"
         }
       }
     ]' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v9.0/<PIXEL_ID>/events

Answer 2

Here's the full documentation for fbp and fbc Parameters.

It is sent with the fbp parameter to the conversions API. It is not considered an external_id. You also should NOT hash it.

Answer 3

definition of gclid by Google: "Google Click ID (GCLID) is a parameter passed in the URL with ad clicks, to identify the campaign and other attributes of the click associated with the ad for ad tracking and campaign attribution." The same applies for FB and TikTok (and others platforms using click ids), meaning if you send this click id value back to the platform (via FB CAPI or other S2S solution), they will be able to attribute that event to the correct campaign/ad and if not, conversion will not be attributed.

So i will say it is important, although it is not required by the documentation (because you can have traffic without fbclid). But if you have it, be sure to send it and you will be able to create audience without sending email or phone number for that traffic.

external_id - unique user identifier, should not be your actual user id or any other user personal data and it should be the same on every event. It just informs Facebook / Meta that those events are done by the same user.

Here is text explaining in detail what are click ids (including fbclid) and why they are important: https://floyk.com/en/post/how-does-fb-google-tiktok-click-ids-works-and-why-is-important