How to connect & use Meta Pixel integration?

🧠 What is Meta Pixel?

The Meta Pixel is a small piece of code from Meta (Facebook & Instagram) that helps you track user actions on your pages. It tells you who visited your event or organizer page, what they did (viewed, added a ticket to their cart, initiated checkout, purchased), and lets you run smarter, more efficient paid campaigns.

💡 Why It Matters?

Many event organizers are running paid ads on Meta but lose money because they’re flying blind. With the Meta Pixel + Shotgun integration, you can:

• Track performance, see which ads actually drive ticket sales (not just clicks).
• Retarget visitors who saw your ads and/or events but didn’t buy.
• Build a lookalike audience of people similar to your buyers.
• Optimize ad budget to reach the fans most likely to convert, based on real results
   

⚙️ How It Works ?

Meta pixels are created from the Meta Business Console, once connected with your Shotgun account:

1. A fan visits your events pages or organizer page
2. The Meta Pixel tracks that visit and sends it to Meta
3. When the fan takes an action (e.g., buys a ticket), the information is also sent to Meta

Shotgun automatically tracks the following events, no coding required:

• Difference between AddToCart and InitiateCheckout
  
  

🚀 How to set it up?

Step 1 – Get your Meta Pixel ID

1. Go to your Meta Business Manager

2. In the top left, click 'Connect data.'

   

3. Select 'Web', then click 'Next.'

   

4. Click ‘Create new dataset’, then click ‘Next.’

   

5. Name your new dataset and click 'Create'.

   

6. Choose the Install code manually button

   

✅ That’s it, your pixel is created! You get your Meta Pixel ID (it’s a 15–16 digit number)

Step 2 – Add it to Shotgun

1. Go to your Smartboard
2. Navigate to Settings > Integrations
3. Paste your Meta Pixel ID into the relevant field

✅ It’s now automatically installed on your organizer page and all your published event pages

Step 3 – Verify on your event page

1. Download Meta Pixel Helper ****
2. ⚠️ Make sure your adblocker is disabled (if any).
3. Go to a published event page and accepts marketing cookies.
4. You should see several pixels loaded: Shotguns internal pixels and yours. Your pixel ID should be included in the list.

• Example of test

  

  On this example, 228330789828136 and 263872769370644 are Shotgun’s internal pixels and 553752665793647 is the organizer’s pixel.

  

(optional) Step 4 - Add Meta Conversion API Token

To improve tracking (even with adblockers or privacy limitations like iOS), you can also paste your Meta Conversion API Access Token into Shotgun settings.

This ensures higher accuracy for campaign performance tracking and future-proofing against browser and privacy changes.

See here: How To: Get Access Token

✋ Limitations

• You can’t see exact user identities, only aggregated behavioral data
• Meta Pixel is a web-only technology and thus, it is not implemented on the Shotgun app
• User must accept marketing cookies via the Cookiebot banner to load Meta Pixel
• Adblockers usually prevent browsers from loading Pixels, but can be bypassed using Conversion API (see Step 4 above)
• Meta Pixel doesn’t work retroactively: it only starts tracking after it’s installed
• A Pixel ID is not unique to one event – one ID covers all your pages
• Pixels cannot be loaded within widget iFrames

❓ FAQ & Troubleshooting

• Does it work for cohosts?

  Yes, Meta Pixels of any cohost (editor, viewer, merch dealer) are added to event pages as well
  
  

• I'm seeing other pixels that aren't mine

  On any events we have:

  1. Shotgun pixels
  2. Organizer pixel (if setup)
  3. Cohost pixel (if at least one exists with pixel setup)

  All those pixels will receive the same data

  

• Can I setup a specific Meta Pixel for each event?

  Unfortunately, Shotgun supports a unique Meta Pixel per organiser for all events.

  You can still run custom, event-specific campaigns using the data that is automatically passed into the Pixel:

  • shotgun_event_id
  • shotgun_event_name

  This means: you can segment users in Meta Ads Manager using these properties, even with a single Pixel.

  Option 1: Creating Event-Specific Audiences:

  1. Retrieve the id of your event from the url of the Smartboard when going to the event overview: https://smartboard.shotgun.live/events/{event_id}
  2. Go to your Pixel > Custom Audiences
  3. Choose Website traffic
  4. Set up a rule like: People who triggered a “PageView” event AND shotgun_event_id = {event_id}

  👇 Example Setup

  Let’s say you have three events:

  • Event A → “Techno Marathon”
  • Event B → “Afro Fusion Night”
  • Event C → “Housy Friday”

  You can create three Custom Audiences based on:

  • shotgun_event_id = {event_A}
  • shotgun_event_id = {event_B}
  • shotgun_event_id = {event_C}

  Then, run separate ad sets for each — targeting or excluding based on their behavior.

   

  Option 2: Creating a Custom Conversion on Meta Ads Manager: Creating a custom conversion lets you track purchases for a specific event, even if you’re using one shared Pixel.

  1. Retrieve your event ID

     Go to the Smartboard event page and copy the event ID from the URL:

     https://smartboard.shotgun.live/events/{event_id}

  2. Open Meta Events Manager

     Go to Events Manager and select the relevant Pixel.

  3. Create a Custom Conversion

     • Click on “Custom Conversions” in the left-hand menu
     • Click “Create Custom Conversion”

  4. Define your conversion rule

     • Choose your Pixel as the data source

     • Under “Conversion Event”, select PageView

     • Add a condition:

       shotgun_event_id equals{event_id}

• Can I add several pixels to the same event or account ?

  It's not possible to add 2 pixel ids to the same Shotgun account and therefore to the same event. However, if you add a co-organizer to the event, their pixel will also track it.

  Another option is to encapsulate a 2nd Meta pixel in a GTM

• The Trafic datas in Meta Ads manager do not match the ones i see in the Smartboard

  Meta Pixels usually report way more link clicks than the accurate traffic data accessible from the Smartboard. This is for various reasons:

  1. Definition mismatch

     1. Meta link clicks = any click on an ad (including image clicks, "see more," likes, shares, not just the link to your landing page).
     2. Smartboard traffic analytics = only the sessions where the user actually loaded the destination page with UTM parameters.

     → Immediate inflation: many "link clicks" never even reach the website.

  2. Page load drop-off

     1. Users click but bounce before the page fully loads (slow website, redirects, broken links, etc.).
     2. Smartboard traffic analytics only fires after the page finishes loading + the tracking script executes itself.

     → You lose everyone who abandons during load.

  3. Multiple clicks / duplicates

     1. Meta counts every single click, even from the same person in the same session.
     2. Smartboard traffic analytics deduplicate based on sessions.

  4. Fake / invalid clicks (Meta bot traffic)

     1. Meta tries to filter invalid clicks, but low-quality placements (Audience Network, low-tier apps, click farms) can generate junk.
     2. These junk clicks never actually reach your event page.

  Since Meta optimizes for clicks, it’s common to see their reported click numbers inflated — 5 to 8 times higher than the actual traffic measured on Shotgun.

  What's the forward-optimized view?

  If you're willing to know the true conversions or business value, trust Shotgun data over Meta-reported clicks.

  Relying on Meta's inflated click numbers can overstate engagement and mislead your performance optimizations.

  Still, even if absolute values are often incorrect, sharing data with Meta using the Pixel is relevant to help Meta improve itself, and optimize ads over time!

• Some events (e.g. addtocart, purchase) are tracked on Shotgun but not showing in Meta

  • Events triggered from the Shotgun mobile app and your widget are not tracked by the Meta Pixel, which explains most of the discrepancy.
  • Additionally, cookie rejection or ad blockers can prevent event from being sent to Meta. → To reduce these gaps, we recommend implementing the Meta Conversion API, which allows server-side tracking and improves reliability.

• The purchase event is triggered on the purchase confirmation page, even if the event is free.

• Each order has its own value, currency and transaction ID.

• A purchase event corresponds to a transaction whether the number of tickets is 1 or more and regardless of the final value.