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Sonar Custom Events for Meta

Enhance your Meta campaigns with precise targeting and optimization using Sonar Custom Events

Chaim Davies avatar
Written by Chaim Davies
Updated this week

Sonar Custom Events for Meta

Triple Whale's Sonar offers two types of custom events for Meta: pre-built Custom Events and User-Defined Custom Events. Both allow you to send targeted purchase data from Sonar to Meta via CAPI for precise campaign optimization.

Pre-Built Custom Events

Sonar provides three specialized purchase events tracked by Triple Whale and sent to Meta through CAPI:

  • New Customer Purchase

  • Returning Customer Purchase

  • Initial Subscription Purchase

These events focus on specific customer actions, providing deeper insights than standard purchase events.

User-Defined Custom Events

Personalized purchase events you create using semantic definitions and comparators, fully customizable based on your business requirements.

Examples:

  • High-AOV purchases (orders over $100)

  • Specific product/category purchases

  • Orders with certain item quantities

  • Purchases using specific discount codes

  • Orders from particular traffic sources

Important Note: All Sonar Custom Events are unique to Sonar and don't require deduplication, meaning they won't interfere with existing CAPI setups.

Key Benefits

  • Optimize Ad Spend: Focus on high-value actions like acquiring new customers or re-engaging returning ones

  • Enhanced Targeting: Access granular data for precise audience segmentation

  • Improved Conversion Tracking: Monitor essential events like first-time purchases or subscriptions

  • Increased ROI: Target customers more effectively for better retention and lifetime value

  • Flexible Implementation: Create multiple custom events and easily manage them

Setup Process

1. Configure Events in Sonar

Pre-Built Events:

  • Access Sonar Dashboard in Triple Whale

  • Navigate to CAPI settings

  • Enable desired events (New Customer Purchase, Returning Customer Purchase, Initial Subscription Purchase)

    • For Initial Subscription Purchases, provide the order tag that indicates an order is an initial subscription to help Sonar identify the relevant purchase events

User-Defined Events:

  • Navigate to Sonar META CAPI setup → Custom Events section → Click "+" button

  • Event Name: Enter descriptive name (letters, numbers, underscores, dashes only)

  • Event Criteria Builder:

    • Primary Action: Made a Purchase

    • Available Conditions: Product Name, Product ID, Order Tag, Order Price, Number of Items, Discount Code, Source

    • Comparators:

      • Numeric fields: Greater than, less than, equals, between

      • Text fields: Contains, equals, starts with, ends with

  • Click "Create" → Event appears in custom events list

2. Approve Events in Meta Events Manager

Once Sonar sends custom events, they appear in Meta Events Manager and require approval before campaign use.

Approving Custom Events in Meta

  1. Click the Data sources icon in the left menu of the page.

  2. Select the name and ID of your data.

  3. Click the Settings tab at the top of the page.

  4. Scroll down to Data restrictions.

  5. In the Manage custom event blocking section, click Review.

  6. In the Action required tab, select all the custom events you want to confirm or block. Note: You may not be able to confirm custom events that Meta has detected may contain potentially prohibited information.

  7. Click Next.

  8. Select Confirm the custom event or Block the custom event.

  9. Click Review. A message will appear on screen if you’ve successfully confirmed or blocked custom events.

  10. Click Done.

3. Using Events in Meta Campaigns

Optimizing Your Campaigns for a Custom Performance Goal

To use one of your Sonar custom events as a custom performance goal in your Meta ad campaign:

  • In the campaign setup flow, on the conversion screen, select Website as your conversion location

  • Select your performance goal

  • Select the dataset (Pixel) that is connected to Sonar and receiving your custom events

  • In the Conversion Event drop down, select your Sonar custom conversion

Creating Custom Audiences from your Sonar Custom Events

You can also create custom audiences from the customers who complete your Sonar custom events. To create a custom audience:

  • Go to Audiences in your Meta Business Account

  • Click Create Audience

  • From the Source dropdown, select the Pixel/Dataset that is receiving your Sonar custom events

  • In the Events dropdown, select the Sonar custom event that you would like to use for building your segment

  • Give the audience a name and description and save your Audience

  • You can now use this audience for targeting or exclusion

4. Monitoring Performance

Sonar Delivery Overview

Visit your Sonar Meta dashboard to confirm that events are being sent:

Meta Events Manager

In your Meta Events manager, look for the event you have configured to ensure that Meta is receiving events and review for any alerts or issues:

Best Practices for Sonar User-Defined Custom Events

  • Naming: Use clear, descriptive names (e.g., "Orders_Over_150", "New_Customer_Purchase")

  • Criteria: Start broad, refine based on performance data

  • Strategy: Create separate campaigns for different events, build high-value lookalike audiences

Example User-Defined Configurations

  • High-AOV-Purchase: Order Price > $100

  • Premium Product Sale: Product Name contains "Premium"

  • Bulk-Order-Purchase: Number of Items > 5

  • VIP-Customer-Purchase: Order Tag contains "VIP"

Troubleshooting

  • Event Not Appearing: Verify enabled status, check qualifying orders exist, allow 24-48 hours

  • Low Volume: Review criteria restrictiveness, consider broadening conditions, analyze order data

Conclusion

Sonar Custom Events provide powerful tools to enhance Meta advertising efforts. By focusing on specific customer actions through both pre-built and user-defined events, you gain deeper insights and can optimize campaigns more effectively. Whether targeting new customers, engaging returning ones, boosting subscriptions, or creating highly specific purchase criteria, Sonar's custom events offer the precision and flexibility needed for maximum advertising efficiency and ROI.

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