When you run ads on Meta, the ad setup asks which event counts as a result. Check Cherry sends three events to Meta, and picking the right one decides whether your ad reports anything at all. This article covers what each event means, when it fires, and where the pixel runs.
Where the pixel runs
The Meta Pixel runs on every page your clients see: online booking, including the reservation link you send to a client, plus proposals and the client portal.
It does not run for you or your staff. When you are signed in to your account, the pixel does not load, so your own visits and the bookings you create for clients are never sent to Meta.
Events the pixel tracks
| Event | When it fires | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| PageView | On every page a client views | Someone visited |
| Lead | When a client provides their information, such as an email address | Someone showed interest, whether or not they finish booking |
| Purchase | When a client completes a booking, through online booking or by approving a proposal. The booking total is included. | A booking happened, and how much it was worth |
PageView is Meta's standard visit event. It fires each time a client loads a page, so one client moving through several pages sends several PageViews.
Lead fires as soon as a client gets as far as entering their contact information. They don't need to sign or pay. A client who enters an email and then leaves still counts as a Lead, which makes it a good measure of inquiries but not of actual bookings.
Purchase fires once the booking is complete: the client has finished online booking or approved a proposal, and has reached the page that follows. A client who closes the tab before that page loads may not register as a Purchase.
Purchase is tied to the booking, not to a payment. The value sent is the full booking total including tax, not the amount paid at checkout, and later payments on the same booking do not send another Purchase.
Choosing a conversion event
You can use the reservation link as your ad's destination. Pick Purchase as the conversion event to track bookings, or Lead if you want to track inquiries.
Most businesses optimize for Purchase, since it reflects actual revenue. Lead is worth considering if you're just starting out and don't get enough bookings yet for Meta to learn from. It fires more often, so Meta gets more data to work with, but some of those Leads will never turn into bookings.
If you're not seeing events
If events aren't showing up in Meta, these are the most common reasons:
- You or a staff member made the booking. The pixel does not load for anyone signed in to your account, so only bookings your clients complete themselves are sent.
- There haven't been any conversions that came through Meta yet.
- The ad is optimizing for an event Check Cherry doesn't send, such as Complete Registration.
- The client left before reaching the step that fires the event. Lead needs their information entered, and Purchase needs the booking completed.
- The client's browser or an ad blocker prevented the pixel from loading. This is outside our control and means Meta will always undercount slightly.
- Meta can take some time to show new events in your reports, so a booking from a few minutes ago may not appear yet.
To check whether the pixel is firing, sign out of your account, then open one of your online booking pages with Meta's Pixel Helper browser extension installed, or use the Test Events tab in Meta Events Manager. Either one shows you the events as they happen. Signing out matters because the pixel does not load while you are signed in.
If none of those fit, send us a message in chat (the chat bubble in the lower right) and we'll take a look at your account.