Marketing & Adtech · Conversion Tracking
Pixel Fox
A Shopify app that keeps conversion tracking working when the browser will not: multiple pixels per store, server-side events, and deduplication so nothing is counted twice.
- Focus
- SAAS, SHOPIFY, MICRO-SAAS
- Delivered
- 06 Jan 2025
- Location
- Stockholm, Sweden
Outcome
4% more conversions recovered by moving events to Facebook's Conversions API, deduplicated against the pixel.
The problem it solves
Conversion tracking on Shopify degraded quietly. Browser-side pixels are blocked by extensions, by privacy modes and by the browsers themselves, and none of that surfaces as a failure. A merchant sees under-reported conversions, campaigns that look worse than they are, and optimisation decisions made on numbers that are simply short.
The second problem is structural: a store running several brands, agencies or ad accounts needs more than one pixel, and needs to control which products report to which.
What we built
A published Shopify app that addresses both:
- Server-side event delivery through the Conversions API, which recovers 4% more conversions by reporting from the store’s backend rather than from a browser an ad blocker controls.
- Deduplication between server and browser events, so a purchase that both paths report is still counted once.
- Multiple pixels per store, with a master and a backup, for merchants running more than one brand or ad account.
- Pixel targeting assignable per product collection, so a multi-brand catalogue reports to the right account without splitting the store.
It was published to the Shopify App Store, installed and configured by merchants without our involvement, which is its own design constraint. Anything requiring a support conversation to set up would not survive contact with self-serve installation.
How a merchant sets it up
Everything is self-serve from the listing. A merchant connects a master pixel and, optionally, a backup, then assigns pixels to product collections so a multi-brand catalogue reports each brand to its own ad account. No code is added to the theme and nothing is configured on our side.
Every event carries an ID shared between the browser and the server path. When both arrive, Facebook keeps one; when the browser event is blocked, the server event stands alone. That is the whole deduplication rule, and it is what lets the recovered conversions be added to the count rather than double-counted.
Technologies
What we built it with
- Integrations
- Shopify
- Conversions API
How we built it
Moved conversion tracking off the browser entirely, so ad blockers stop being part of the merchant's attribution problem. A browser-side pixel is the easiest thing to block, and a large share of a store's buyers block it. The merchant does not see an error; they see campaigns that look unprofitable and a number that quietly disagrees with their own order list. Pixel Fox sends events from the server through Facebook's Conversions API, where a blocker never sees them, and deduplicates against whatever the browser did manage to send so a single purchase is never counted twice. The result is attribution that reflects what the store actually sold.
In the client's words
“A real share of our conversion data was disappearing into ad blockers, and the numbers in Ads Manager stopped agreeing with what the stores were actually selling. Robust Devs moved the tracking off the browser and onto the Conversions API, and handled deduplication properly, so one purchase is counted once. Merchants get attribution that matches their own order list.”
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