The short version
An ad platform's pixel is a script that runs in your visitor's browser. When someone fills in your form, the pixel tells Meta, TikTok or OpenAI. If the browser blocks the pixel, the platform never hears about that lead.
A Conversions API is the server-side route to the same platform. Signal Beam uses both:
- A visitor does something that matters: views a page, submits a form, buys, or clicks a button you've mapped.
- Signal Beam's script on your site gives that conversion an event ID.
- The platform's pixel sends it from the browser, with that ID.
- Our server sends the same conversion to the platform's Conversions API, with the same ID.
- When both copies arrive, the platform can keep one. When the pixel was blocked, the server copy still counts.
Why the server copy matters
Meta, TikTok and OpenAI decide who sees your ads partly from the conversions they're told about. A conversion they never receive is one they can't learn from, and one that's missing from your reports. A second, server-side route gives them more of the conversions that really happened.
We don't promise a number. How many conversions a pixel misses depends on your visitors' browsers, extensions and choices, and we haven't measured it across customers.
What Signal Beam sends
| What | Why the platform wants it |
|---|---|
| Event name, page address and time | What happened, and where |
| Value and currency, for purchases | Reporting and value-based bidding |
| The event ID | Removing the duplicate when both copies arrive |
Click and browser IDs, such as Meta's fbc and fbp | Tying the conversion to the ad click |
| IP address and browser details | Matching the conversion to a person on the platform |
| Email and phone from a form, hashed | Matching, without sending the raw values |
Emails and phone numbers are normalised and hashed with SHA-256 on our server before they go to an ad platform. Message boxes and other free text stay on your page: we send what's needed to identify the lead, nothing more.
Consent comes first
If your site needs consent before tracking, turn on consent mode. Until the visitor agrees, no pixel loads, nothing is stored in their browser, and nothing is sent to us or to an ad platform. A form submitted before they choose waits, and is sent only if they agree. If they agree and later change their mind, the ad pixels' cookies are removed.
Signal Beam reads the visitor's choice from common consent banners, including ones that use Google Consent Mode v2. Your notices and your banner's settings remain your responsibility.
Good to know
- If a browser blocks Signal Beam's own script, nothing is sent from that page. The server copy helps when the platform's pixel is blocked, not when everything is.
- A visitor's first page view can reach Meta without a browser ID, because Meta's pixel hasn't set its cookie yet. Later events carry it.
- TikTok page views come from the pixel only. Leads, purchases and mapped clicks go from both.
- Platforms' duplicate reports can take a while. On a new or quiet pixel, Meta's deduplication screen may take days to fill in.
- Changing your consent setting takes up to a minute to reach visitors' browsers.