Facebook Ads supports several types of conversion tracking:
Standard Events (Purchases, Leads, etc.)
Pixel Custom Events
Custom Conversions
They do not behave the same way in Catchr, especially regarding:
How are they returned as fields
Their segmentation capabilities
Their usability in reporting tools like Looker Studio
This article explains these differences and helps you choose the right option.
Standard Events are predefined Facebook events, such as:
Purchase
Lead
CompleteRegistration
AddToCart
These events follow Facebook’s naming and structure standards.
Standard Events are returned as classic, dedicated fields.
Examples:
Purchases
Leads
Add to Cart
These fields behave like any other Facebook Ads metric.
Fully segmentable
Standard Events can be segmented by:
Campaign
Ad set
Ad
And most other Facebook Ads dimensions
They can be used directly in:
Tables
Scorecards
Blended data
Calculated fields
Standard Events are not affected by the Pixel Action limitation.
Pixel Custom Events are events manually sent via:
Meta Pixel
Conversions API
Examples (made up):
BookingCompleted
QuoteRequested
SubscriptionStarted
These events are fully custom and not part of Facebook’s standard event list.
Pixel Custom Events are exposed using two fields:
Pixel Action Name
Pixel Action Value
Pixel Action Name
→ Contains the custom event name
Pixel Action Value
→ Contains the metric value (count or value)
Important limitation (Facebook limitation)
Pixel Action Value can only be segmented by Pixel Action Name.
This means:
No segmentation by Campaign
No segmentation by Ad set
No segmentation by Ad
This limitation comes directly from Facebook, not from Catchr.
A common setup:
Create a Scorecard
Use Pixel Action Value as the metric
Apply a filter on Pixel Action Name (e.g. BookingCompleted)
This allows global monitoring of a custom event, but without campaign-level analysis.
Custom Conversions are defined in Meta based on:
Standard Events
Pixel Custom Events
URL rules and conditions
They are designed for reporting and optimization.
Each Custom Conversion is returned as a dedicated metric field.
Example:
A Custom Conversion named “Booking”
Returned as:
Booking - Custom Conversion
Fully segmentable
Custom Conversions can be segmented by:
Campaign
Ad set
Ad
Most other Facebook Ads dimensions
They behave like standard conversion metrics in reports.
Feature | Standard Events | Pixel Custom Events | Custom Conversions |
Returned as a dedicated field |
|
|
|
Uses Pixel Action fields |
|
|
|
Segmentable by Campaign / Ad set / Ad |
|
|
|
Easy to use in dashboards |
|
|
|
Limitation source |
Always use Standard Events when available
Prefer Custom Conversions over Pixel Custom Events when possible
Use Pixel Custom Events only when:
A Custom Conversion cannot be created
You only need global totals (no breakdown)
Creating a Custom Conversion on top of a Custom Event often greatly simplifies reporting.
If a Pixel Custom Event or a Custom Conversion does not appear in your Catchr report, this is usually due to one of the reasons below.
If a Custom Event or Custom Conversion was created recently, it may not appear immediately.
Possible causes:
The event or conversion has never been triggered
Facebook has not yet made it available through the API
What to check
Make sure the event or conversion has been triggered at least once
Wait a short delay after creation before checking again (24 hours)
This behavior is controlled by Meta, not by Catchr.
If a Custom Conversion was created after the Looker Studio data source, it will not appear automatically.
Solution
Open the Looker Studio data source
Click Refresh fields
The new Custom Conversion will then appear in the field list
Custom Conversions are only available when querying a single Facebook Ads account.
Meta’s API only returns fields that are common to all requested accounts.
Since Custom Conversions are account-specific, they are excluded from multi-account queries.
If your data source is created with multiple Facebook Ads accounts, Custom Conversions will not be returned
To access Custom Conversions, you must:
Create a data source with only one account
Make sure only one account is selected in the account selector
Custom
All limitations related to Pixel Custom Events are imposed by Facebook’s API.
Catchr exposes all available data exactly as Meta provides it.
