Question from Reddit:
Hey everyone,
I’m trying to figure out the best way to automate a reporting flow for my sales funnel that starts with Facebook Ads and ends with Stripe purchases. Basically, I want the conversions to show up properly inside Facebook Ads Manager so I can measure ROAS and optimize campaigns.
Here’s the flow I’m working with: 1. Facebook Ad → Sales Page 2. User selects a plan on the sales page 3. Redirect to Stripe Checkout 4. Purchase completed on Stripe 5. Purchase data sent back to Facebook Ads Manager (as a conversion event)
My questions are: • What’s the best way to pass the event data from Stripe back to Facebook Ads Manager? (Pixel, Conversions API, or a mix?) • Has anyone set up a similar automation, and if so, what tools did you use? (Zapier, Make, custom server-side script, etc.) • How do you deal with attribution so that the Facebook ad click is properly linked to the Stripe checkout purchase?
I want to avoid broken attribution and make sure Ads Manager sees the purchases correctly — not just the checkout starts.
Would love to hear how you guys have set this up, or if you have any resources/tutorials to point me in the right direction.
Thanks in advance! 🚀
Answer from Nabil:
The short answer is:
The best way to achieve reliable purchase attribution from Stripe Checkout back to Facebook Ads Manager is through a server-side implementation using the Facebook Conversions API (CAPI), which is vastly superior to relying solely on the browser-based Pixel.
The most effective solution involves combining the Stripe API (specifically, a webhook listener for the checkout.session.completed event), the Facebook Conversions API, and a dedicated server-side environment like Stape or Google Cloud Platform (GCP), with your website’s Google Tag Manager (GTM) container sending the initial Facebook Click ID (fbc) and Browser ID (fbp).
This combination ensures the purchase is tracked accurately, even if the user closes the browser or has ad blockers, directly linking the Stripe transaction data to the initial ad click.
The long answer is:
Your challenge is a very common one, particularly with third-party payment processors like Stripe Checkout, where the redirect nature of the transaction can easily break client-side tracking, leading to high-quality conversions being misattributed or lost entirely, resulting in inaccurate ROAS reporting.
While you should keep the Facebook Pixel installed on your sales and thank you pages to provide a baseline for client-side events like PageView and ViewContent, the reliability of the Facebook Conversions API (CAPI) is necessary for the crucial Purchase event.
The flow you should implement involves a server-side solution to connect the Stripe API directly to the Facebook Conversions API.
First, you use your website’s Google Tag Manager (GTM) container to capture the user’s Facebook Click ID (fbc) and Browser ID (fbp) from the URL and cookies, respectively.
This GTM setup should pass these two critical identifiers to your server-side environment (Stape or GCP) or your own backend when the user clicks the “Redirect to Stripe Checkout” button (using an event like add_to_cart or initiate_checkout).
The server temporarily stores this session data linked to a user identifier (like an internal session ID or a hashed email address).
Second, you set up a Stripe Webhook to send an instant notification to your server-side environment whenever a purchase is successfully completed via the checkout.session.completed event.
This webhook delivers the full, secure transaction details, which are 100% reliable.
Third, your server-side environment receives the Stripe webhook, retrieves the corresponding fbc and fbp identifiers that were stored in the first step, and uses this complete dataset to construct a highly enriched Purchase event payload.
This payload is then sent directly to the Facebook Conversions API.
This process uses the server as a middleman to definitively link the ad click (from the fbc and fbp) with the guaranteed Stripe purchase record (from the webhook).
Using a platform like Stape or GCP with a server-side GTM container makes this integration much cleaner and more manageable than building a custom script from scratch, offering a resilient and comprehensive solution for maximizing your ROAS accuracy by ensuring the conversion is never missed.
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