Your Instagram ads are under-reporting sales. Here is why, and the fix.
You ran ads, you got orders, and Ads Manager shows half of them. That gap is the browser Pixel failing, and Meta optimising your campaign on incomplete data. The Conversions API sends purchases from the server instead. SitesPlaced stores now have it built in.
What actually goes wrong with the Pixel
The Meta Pixel is a script in the buyer’s browser. It fires when the thank-you page loads. Every one of these breaks it: an ad blocker, Safari and iOS tracking restrictions, a buyer on a slow connection who closes the tab after paying, a UPI app that returns to the store late. None of those stop the order. All of them stop the event.
For a small store the damage is double. Your reported cost per purchase looks worse than it is, so you cut a campaign that was working. And Meta’s delivery system learns from the purchases it can see, so it gets better at finding the buyers it could track and worse at finding the ones it could not.
What the Conversions API does
Instead of asking the browser, your store’s server tells Meta directly: this order happened, this much, this currency. The server always knows, because it recorded the order. To stop double counting when the Pixel also fires, both events carry the same event ID and Meta keeps one.
- Pixel on the storefront for page views, add-to-cart and the browser-side purchase.
- Server-side Purchase from the order record, with the order ID as the event ID.
- Deduplication so a purchase the Pixel did catch is not counted twice.
- Retries if Meta is slow, so a failed send is delivered later rather than lost.
How it works on SitesPlaced
Paste your Pixel ID and a Conversions API access token from Meta Events Manager into your store settings. That is the whole setup. From then on, every order placed on the store, whether paid by UPI, card or cash on delivery, produces a server-side Purchase event with the order’s value and currency, deduplicated against the Pixel by order ID and retried automatically if delivery fails.
This is part of the ₹499/month Ecommerce plan, alongside your custom domain, AI copy and analytics. There is no app to install and no per-event fee. On Shopify the same capability is usually a paid app on top of the plan; see the cost comparison.
Who should switch it on
Anyone spending money on Instagram or Facebook ads for their store. If you are not running ads yet, the free plan’s Razorpay, COD and shipping integrations are the place to start; turn on the Conversions API the week you launch your first campaign, so the first data Meta learns from is complete.
Stop paying for ads you can’t measure.
Build your store free, then switch on Pixel + Conversions API on the ₹499 plan when you start advertising.
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