Meta Custom Conversions: Tracking Actions Without New Code

This guide uses the Meta Business Help Center: About custom conversions for web, Best practices for custom conversion setup, Use custom conversions to filter events, Use custom conversions to log standard events without code, Edit custom conversions, Delete custom conversions, Share custom conversions, Remove ad accounts or partners from custom conversions and Create a custom conversion for offline events. Checked on 8 November 2026. Meta changes these pages often, so check them before you rely on a detail.

What a custom conversion is

Meta describes custom conversions as rules for events: "When you create these rules, you can measure more specific customer actions." Its example filters all purchases down to purchases of women's shoes over $40. You can then pick the custom conversion as a performance goal in Ads Manager, so Meta shows your ads to people most likely to take that action.

Meta lists four uses:

• Filter events. Add rules to standard events, custom events or All URL Traffic, for example to count only purchases of a certain colour or price.
• Set up standard events without additional code. If the Meta Pixel base code is on your site, URL rules can log an action without adding event code.
• Performance goals. Select the custom conversion as the goal when you create an ad in Ads Manager.
• Control what you share with partners. Share a single custom conversion instead of your whole data source.

The help page covers website events. Meta says custom conversions "aren't available for app events at this time". Offline events have their own setup, covered under offline events below.

Custom conversions sit on top of the events your site already sends. How the Pixel and Conversions API send those events, and how to stop counting them twice, is in our Meta Pixel and Conversions API guide.

Two ways to use one

	Filter an existing event	All URL traffic with URL rules
What you need on the site	The Pixel plus the standard or custom events you want to filter	The Pixel base code (its page view event)
Conversion event	A standard event such as Purchase, or a custom event	All URL traffic
Rules	URL rules and event parameter rules	URL rules
Standard event category for optimization	Not needed for a standard event; needed for a custom event	Needed

All URL traffic is built from page view events, which the Pixel base code includes automatically. Meta explains the catch: it logs visits to any page with the page view event, "However, we won't know which web page your page view event corresponds to." The URL rules tell Meta which page means a customer action. The standard event category you choose tells it which kind of action to optimize for.

How rules work

URL rules

A URL rule can be contains, doesn't contain or equals. Meta is strict about equals: it only counts a conversion when the URL matches exactly. If someone lands on a version with anything extra, "for example, UTM parameters, http vs. https, or even an extra "/" at the end", the conversion is not counted. Meta suggests using contains with "the minimum portion of the URL needed to distinguish this page from any other pages on your website". If you do use equals, paste the full URL, including https://www.

For a custom conversion based on All URL traffic, the page must have the Pixel base code with the page view event on it. Meta points to Meta Ads Data Advisor to confirm that.

Parameter rules

When you filter an event, you can make rules on the parameters already sent with that event, such as value or content_id. If the parameter you need isn't available, Meta says to update your Pixel or Conversions API setup so the event sends it.

And, or

• Several values in one parameter rule work as "or". Purchase with content_id Product A, Product B and Product C counts a purchase of A, B or C.
• Separate rules work as "and". Three rules (content_id equals A, equals B, equals C) count only when all three happen.

Meta advises using as few rules as you need: "The fewer rules you add, the larger your audience size."

Conversion value

You can give a custom conversion a fixed value, which lets you see return on ad spend in reports. Enter it as a whole number with no other characters (10 for a $10 ticket). Use it only if the events in the custom conversion don't already carry a value.

How to create a custom conversion

Before you start, set up the Meta Pixel on your website, and for filtering, the standard or custom events you want to filter. You can only select an event you have already set up. Then:

1. Go to Meta Events Manager and click Custom conversions in the menu.
2. Click Create custom conversion.
3. Enter a name and, if you like, a description.
4. Select the data source.
5. Select the conversion event: a standard event, a custom event, or All URL traffic.
6. If you chose All URL traffic or a custom event, check the standard event category under Choose a standard event for optimization. Meta recommends one; to change it, pick the standard event closest to the action.
7. Set up your URL or parameter rules. Click + to add more.
8. Optionally tick Enter a conversion value and enter a whole number.
9. Click Create.

Activating it and reading the results

A new custom conversion needs to be triggered once. Meta's instructions: after you create it, go to the page of your website it refers to, then check the Custom conversions tab in Events Manager. It has worked when the status is Active.

The same tab shows how many times Meta has received the custom conversion. Meta's own example adds that it can be used for performance goals "Once we've received this custom conversion enough times". Counts can differ between Ads Manager, Ads Reporting and Events Manager; Meta has a separate help page on why.

Limits and what you can't change

• 100 per ad account. "The maximum number of custom conversions per ad account is 100", but you can delete ones you don't need and create new ones.
• Rules can't be edited. You can edit the name, description and conversion value. To change a rule, create a new custom conversion.
• A changed value applies from then on. Future conversions are attributed with the edited value instead of the original, which affects your ad reporting.
• No optimization for dynamic product ads. Meta says to use standard events to optimize them. You can still use custom conversions to set up and measure Advantage+ catalog ads.
• Who can manage them. If the custom conversion was made with an ad account inside a business portfolio, people with access to the portfolio can view or manage it from both places. People with access only to the ad account can only manage those created by that ad account.

Deleting and automatic archiving

When you delete a custom conversion, Meta stops matching and updating it. You can no longer see it in ads reporting or use it to optimize current or future campaigns. Ad sets optimized for it keep delivering, but "may start to perform poorly", so change how those ad sets are optimized before you delete it. To delete one: Events Manager, Custom conversions, select it, Manage, More options next to Rename, Delete.

Meta also archives custom conversions on its own: "custom conversions are automatically archived if they're inactive or we don't receive them in 2 years." An archived custom conversion disappears from Events Manager, but past campaign reporting for it stays in Ads Manager. There is no restore button. To bring it back, create a new custom conversion with the same rules.

Sharing with other ad accounts and partners

Sharing is done from the Custom conversions tab: select the custom conversion, click Share and choose who gets it. Meta's rules:

• A custom conversion made in a personal ad account that isn't part of a business portfolio can't be shared.
• If the ad account is in a business portfolio, the custom conversion is added to the portfolio automatically. You can then share it with ad accounts in the same portfolio and with other business portfolios.
• To share one that's part of a business portfolio, you need full control of that portfolio.
• For a partner to use it, the partner must have access to the dataset the custom conversion uses.

You can remove an ad account or partner again under Share. After that they can't use the custom conversion for future ads or measurement. In Ads Manager they still see past attributed activity but nothing new, and in Events Manager they see neither past nor future activity. If you add them back, it starts working for them again.

This matters when an agency runs your ads: sharing one custom conversion gives it the action you care about without handing over the whole dataset. Our guide to Meta business verification covers who holds full control of a business portfolio.

Offline events

Custom conversions also work for offline events, such as sales you upload to a dataset. You need at least one dataset first. Meta notes that a custom conversion "will only be applied to data that you upload after you create the custom conversion", not to data already uploaded.

Custom conversion or an event in code?

This part is our own suggestion, not Meta's wording.

• A thank-you page with its own URL is the easy case. A contains rule on that path, with Lead or Purchase as the category, gets you measurement and a performance goal without touching the site's code.
• A form that only shows a message in place, without loading a new page, gives a URL rule nothing to match. That action needs an event sent from the page or the server.
• Narrowing down an event you already send (one product line, orders over a value) is what parameter rules are for, as long as the event carries the parameter.
• Leads from a Meta instant form never visit your site, so a website custom conversion won't see them. See our Meta lead ads guide for how those are tracked.

Before you set up anything, check that the event or page fires where you think it does, and keep the custom conversion count well under 100 by deleting ones you no longer use. Once campaigns are running, our Facebook and Instagram ads guide covers objectives and how Ads Manager is organised.

FAQ

Do I need to add code to use custom conversions?

Not if the Meta Pixel base code is already on your site. A custom conversion using All URL traffic with URL rules logs an action from page visits alone. Filtering by parameters needs events that already send those parameters.

How many custom conversions can an ad account have?

100. You can delete ones you don't want and create new ones.

Why isn't my custom conversion counting?

A common cause Meta names is a URL equals rule: any difference such as UTM parameters, http instead of https, or a trailing slash means no conversion. Meta suggests URL contains with the shortest part of the URL that identifies the page. For All URL traffic, the page also needs the Pixel base code with the page view event.

Can I change the rules of a custom conversion?

No. You can edit the name, description and conversion value only. For different rules, create a new custom conversion.

What happens to an unused custom conversion?

Meta archives custom conversions that are inactive or not received for 2 years. They leave Events Manager, but past reporting stays in Ads Manager. To use one again, create a new custom conversion with the same rules.

Can custom conversions track app events?

Not at the moment, according to Meta. Custom conversions work with website events and, through a dataset, with offline events.

Custom conversions work best when your website gives each completed action its own page and sends clean events. We build sites that do this as part of our website development work. See all our services, or browse more guides.