How to Connect a Meta Pixel to Your Product Catalog

Catalog ads need to know which of your products a person looked at, added to cart or bought. The pixel reports those actions; the connection tells Meta which catalog the reported product IDs belong to. Without it, Meta can’t match product interactions on your website to products in your catalog, and Advantage+ catalog ads can’t show people your most relevant products. An app works the same way through the app SDK.

What must your pixel send first?

Requirement	Detail from Meta
ViewContent	Fires when someone views a product
AddToCart	Fires when someone adds a product to cart
Purchase	Fires when someone buys
content_ids or contents	The product’s id, or its item_group_id, from your catalog

The parameter is content_ids, with an s, even for one product. If you use contents instead, each object needs an id and a quantity. Meta’s developer documentation adds that content_type should be product when you send product IDs and product_group when you send group IDs.

An AddToCart event with product IDs looks like this:

fbq('track', 'AddToCart', { content_ids: ['1234', '1853', '9386'] });

These requirements cover product catalogs and several other types; hotels, flights, destinations, autos and real estate use different events and parameters.

What else do you need?

• A catalog in Commerce Manager with your products in it.
• Full control of both the catalog and the pixel or app.
• The catalog and pixel in, or shared with, the same business portfolio.

How do you connect the pixel?

1. Go to Commerce Manager and select your catalog.
2. Open the Catalog tab and go to Events.
3. Click Manage connections.
4. Under Datasets, find your pixel’s dataset ID, or your app’s Meta SDK ID.
5. Turn on the switch below Connection and click Save.

You can come back to the same screen to disconnect it at any time.

How do you check the connection is working?

Commerce Manager shows a catalog match rate: the share of content IDs from your events that match products in the catalog. Meta recommends keeping it above 75%, and ideally above 90%. After you connect, it can take up to 48 hours to update, and it covers the last 28 days of data.

1. In your catalog, open the Catalog tab and go to Events.
2. Click View next to the connected dataset.
3. Read the match rate in the top left, and click an event, such as Purchase, for its own rate.
4. Open Critical issues and warnings, and click How to fix on any issue.

FAQ

Why can’t I see my pixel under Manage connections?

Meta says to check that you have full control of the pixel or app, and that it sits in, or is shared with, the same business portfolio as the catalog. Fix either one and the dataset should appear in the list.

What does “No recent inventory events” mean?

If you see it below Status for your pixel or app on the Manage connections screen, Meta’s advice is to use the test events tool in Events Manager. Confirm Meta is receiving the required events, then check they carry content IDs that match your catalog.

Why are event counts lower here than in Events Manager?

Commerce Manager only counts events that can be matched to products in this catalog. Meta also notes that connecting several catalogs to one dataset can lower each catalog’s match rate, and recommends keeping all products in one catalog.