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Sonar Optimize: Data Enrichment for Meta

Sonar sends enriched first-party customer and conversion data to your marketing platforms to improve targeting and boost campaign ROI

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Written by Yirmi Rubin

Overview

If you're advertising on Meta, Sonar Optimize connects Triple Whale directly to Meta, sending enriched, first-party data about your customers so it can optimize your campaigns more effectively. Running Sonar Optimize alongside your Meta Pixel gives Meta a fuller picture of who's visiting your site and converting, which typically means better ad targeting, more accurate reporting inside Meta, and improved campaign performance overall.

How Sonar Optimize Works

Your Triple Pixel already tracks every visit, interaction, and conversion on your site, and recognizes returning visitors. Sonar Optimize takes those events and enriches them with extra first-party data from your other connected sources, like Shopify, BigCommerce [Beta], or WooCommerce [Beta], before sending them to Meta.

If Meta's own pixel already picked up an event, Sonar Optimize tags its version so Meta knows it's the same event. This way, Meta combines both versions into one complete record instead of counting it twice.

Using a headless storefront, BigCommerce, or WooCommerce?

These setups need a developer to implement Sonar Optimize. See:

Setting up Sonar Optimize

Setting up Sonar Optimize is a two-part process: connecting your Meta account, then configuring how data flows into it. Here's the full walkthrough, start to finish.

Before you connect

Two things are worth sorting out first.

Log into Meta. If you log into your Meta account in the same browser you're using for setup, you'll skip Meta's login screen entirely and just see a quick "Continue as [your name]?" prompt when you get there.

Check for a conflicting tracking source. If you're already sending server-side events to this same Meta pixel from somewhere else, resolve that first, or you'll end up with duplicate or conflicting data. If that other source is Shopify's built-in Facebook & Instagram data sharing, you likely don't need to turn it off completely, just switch it to Conservative:

  1. Go to Shopify Admin → Sales channels → Facebook & Instagram → Settings

  2. Scroll to Share data and click Change

  3. If it's set to Maximum or Enhanced, switch it to Conservative

  4. Click Save

That keeps Shopify's browser-side tracking active while stopping it from sending duplicate server-side events. Sonar Optimize's own deduplication handles the overlap, so there's no need to switch Share data off entirely, unless Triple Whale support tells you to for a specific known checkout-redirect bug. If your other tracking source is a different third-party tool instead of Shopify's native integration, turn that one off. Sonar Optimize can handle both browser and server tracking on its own.

Connecting your account

With that sorted, here's the full connection flow to link your Meta Ad Account for the first time:

  1. Go to Data → Sonar Enrichment

  2. Click on the Integrations tab

    1. Tip: If you see a warning here about the Web Pixel Extension or Theme App Embed, check that both are enabled under Settings → Pixel Settings → Pixel Installation. You can still connect Meta without them, but skipping this step breaks event ID matching between your browser and server events, causing duplicate or missing conversions and lower Event Match Quality.

      1. If you have an alternative Pixel installation (such as Headless), select that option to skip this step.

  3. In the Sonar Optimize section, find Meta and click Connect

  4. Click through the Connect Meta confirmation window

  5. On Meta's screen, click Continue

    1. (or log in, if not logged into Meta account already)

  6. Choose your Attribution Window

    1. Recommended default: 7 day after clicking ad OR 1 day after viewing ad

  7. Check the Meta Business account(s) you want connected

  8. Click Save

This connects your Meta Ad Account — a one-time prerequisite. The next step configures how data actually flows through the integration.

Setting up your Meta CAPI configuration

Once your Meta Ad Account is connected, head back to your Sonar Overview page

Two Navigation Paths to Sonar Overview Page

  • Marketing Acquisition → Sonar Optimize: Ad Enrichment

  • Data → Sonar Enrichment → Integrations

Once at the Sonar Overview page, take a look at the Meta card.

What you see depends on where you left off:

  • If this is your first time configuring the Meta CAPI integration, the card shows a Set Up button, and clicking it launches Triple Whale's Meta CAPI Wizard below.

  • If you've already been through that wizard once, the card shows a View button instead, which skips straight past the wizard and takes you directly to your Meta Conversions API (CAPI) dashboard for review and edits — in that case, skip ahead to "Reviewing and updating your configuration" below.

The wizard walks through five steps:

  1. Connect Meta & Enable Pixel

    1. Confirm your Meta connection, choose your Meta Pixel Destination, and confirm Enable Triple Pixel Theme App Embed (required) and Enable the Triple Pixel Web Pixel Extension (recommended) are both on. Click Save and Continue.

  2. Send events for enrichment

    1. Toggle which Standard Events send to Meta: Page View, View Content, Search, Add to Cart, Initiate Checkout, Add Payment Info, Purchase, Signup, plus Sonar's enrichment events (New Customer Purchase, Return Customer Purchase, Initial Subscription Order, Attribution Passback). Click Save and Continue.

  3. Attribution Settings

    1. Set your Product Identifier (default: Product ID), turn on Attribution Metadata, choose your Attribution Model (default: Last Click), and pick your Time Window (default: Lifetime). Click Save and Continue.

  4. Profit Optimization

    1. Turn this on if you want Meta optimizing toward your actual margin rather than raw order count; it passes a profit figure (net_revenue) with each purchase event. Make sure your cost settings are configured first, or Meta won't have accurate margin data to work from. Click Save and Continue.

  5. Exclude events for enrichment

    1. Check Exclude recurring subscription purchases (recommended, since those aren't new-customer wins), exclude orders by tag, or exclude specific sales channels with + Add Sales Channel. Click Done.

A Meta Setup confirmation appears ("Your Meta configuration is now complete"), and you land on the Meta CAPI Overview dashboard, showing your connection Status, Conversion Accuracy, Event Success Rate, and Event Match Quality (EMQ) chart.

Reviewing and updating your configuration

Once your CAPI integration is live, you can return to it anytime through either of these paths:

  • Data → Sonar Enrichment → Integrations tab → Meta row → View

  • Marketing Acquisition → Sonar Optimize: Ad Enrichment → Meta Conversions API (CAPI) card → View (next to Settings)

Both paths land on the exact same Meta Conversions API (CAPI) dashboard, organized into Delivery Overview and Integration Settings tabs.

Integration Settings mirrors the wizard's configuration options for ongoing edits:

Connection Overview shows your connected Meta Pixel, its Pixel Connected status, and your Meta Business Manager, with a Disconnect option if you ever need it.

Standard Events lets you choose which events send to Meta: View Content, Search, Add to Cart, Initiate Checkout, Add Payment Info, Purchase, and Sign-up. We recommend leaving all of these on.

Custom Events is where you turn on Sonar's built-in events, like New Customer Purchase, Return Customer Purchase, Initial Subscription Order, and Attribution Feedback, or build your own with + Add Custom Event.

Attribution Settings covers your Attribution Window, Product identifier (default: Product ID), Attribution Model to send Metadata (default: Last Click), and Lifetime Value window (default: Lifetime). This section also controls Meta's attribution passback setting — for a full walkthrough of configuring that, see Quick Start Guide: Set Up Meta Custom Attribution & Attribution Passback.

Turn on Profit Optimization if you want Meta optimizing toward your actual margin rather than raw order count. It passes a profit figure (net_revenue) along with each purchase event — for a full walkthrough of configuring that, see Optimize Meta Campaigns for Profit Margin (Profit Optimization).

Finally, Exclude orders from Meta Optimization lets you check Exclude First Recurring subscription purchases (recommended, since those aren't new-customer wins), exclude orders by tag, or add specific channels to exclude with + Add Sales Channel (AMAZON and WHOLESALE are excluded by default).

Delivery overview

Go to Sonar Settings and click View Details to open your Delivery Overview. It breaks down enriched events by type over whatever time frame you choose.

Finding your data in Meta

  1. Open your Events Manager page in Meta

  2. Find your connected pixel

  3. Click the Overview tab to see incoming events and your Event Match Quality score

  4. Click into Event Match Quality for deduplication rates and sample data

What to expect

Once Sonar Optimize is running, most accounts see lower cost per acquisition (CPA), stronger return on ad spend (ROAS), and Meta reporting that lines up more closely with what you see in Triple Whale. Track this over time on the Pixel attribution dashboard, which graphs Pixel ROAS and Pixel CPA.

Troubleshooting

My Pixel/Dataset isn't showing up when I try to connect

  1. Check that your Meta business account is connected to the pixel you're trying to use

  2. Check that your personal Meta profile has Full control: Manage events dataset access to that pixel (see Meta's help center for details)

  3. Open your Meta integration and click Disconnect

  4. Click Connect again

  5. On the Meta login screen, click Edit previous settings

  6. Choose the Meta business account with access to your pixel and click Next

  7. Select Opt in to All Current and Future Pages

  8. Confirm Manage Your Business is checked, then click Save

  9. Go back to your attribution settings and pick the pixel you want Triple Whale reporting on

I'm seeing a Conversion API Conflict warning

This means Meta is getting server-side events for the same pixel from more than one place.

  • Using Shopify's built-in Facebook & Instagram integration? Check that Share data is set to Conservative: go to Shopify Admin → Sales channels → Facebook & Instagram → Settings, and click Change if it isn't already.

  • Using a different third-party tool? Turn that one off. Sonar Optimize will handle both browser and server tracking for you.

Want to exclude certain forms from being tracked?

  • Add data-triple-pixel-exclusion="true" to any form field you want left out

  • Use this for forms that aren't real conversions, like newsletter signups or login forms

  • Note: this only affects what's sent through the Conversions API. Your regular pixel tracking, attribution, and reporting are unaffected

FAQ

What events does Sonar Optimize send to Meta?

The standard ones: Page View, View Content, Search, Signup, Add to Cart, Purchase, Initiate Checkout, and Add Payment Info. You can also send custom events and pass along Triple Whale-attributed orders.

How is this different from Shopify's built-in Meta integration?

Both send the same conversions to Meta. Sonar Optimize adds the ability to connect anonymous site visits to returning customers and full customer profiles, which means better audience targeting, lookalikes, and fewer duplicate events reported. Sonar Optimize also works on headless stores and custom landing pages, including sites using Google Tag Manager for their Meta Pixel (this needs extra Triple Pixel setup).

I already use another tool that sends data to Meta. Should I still turn on Sonar Optimize?

Generally, we don't recommend two services sending server-side events to the same Meta pixel, since Meta may see duplicate or conflicting data. The one exception is Shopify's built-in Facebook & Instagram integration, which works alongside Sonar Optimize as long as it's set to Conservative (see the setup steps above). For any other third-party tool, turn one off before connecting Sonar Optimize.

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