Custom Conversions - URL Contains OR URL Equals?
Updated: Aug 25, 2023
When creating Custom Conversions or Custom Audiences on Facebook, you are presented with several options for the URL field. When your website events meet a specific URL criteria, that will equate a “CONVERSION”. That URL criteria is set via three options:
URL contains
URL doesn’t contain
URL equals
What are Custom Conversions?
Custom Conversions let you track/optimize your Facebook ads for All URL Traffic (determined by using PageView standard events, which is your Facebook pixel base code) and Custom Events. By creating a Custom Conversion and choosing a Standard Event category similar to the action/conversion you want to track/optimize for, Facebook will show your ads (Conversion campaigns using this Custom Conversion) to people most likely to perform that event (i.e. a Purchase Standard Event).
I look at Custom Conversions as a way to add Standard Events without adding additional code to my website. All I need for Custom Conversions is the BASE PIXEL CODE installed (with the default PageView event).
EXAMPLE CUSTOM CONVERSION:
Let’s create a Custom Conversion similar to setting up a Purchase standard event.
Select All URL Traffic as the Website Event
Set the URL rule for the purchase completion page of your website, such as: URL contains /thankyou.php
Best Practices for Custom Conversion Setup: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/2375212726097833
Custom Conversions URL Criteria
URL contains: the actual URL contains the following
URL doesn’t contain: the actual URL does not contain the following
URL equals: the actual URL is an exact match of the following
EXAMPLE:
URL contains: coursenvy-thank-you
OR
URL equals: www.coursenvy.com/coursenvy-thank-you (you don’t need http:// or https://)
Note that you wouldn’t include both as rules… it is one OR the other when creating Custom Conversions.
URL contains is typically used for category matching, such as setting the URL contains for the word used as a category in the URL, like website.com/CATEGORY/product-name. So a URL contains option on a shoe ecommerce website would be the brand “nike”. This will create a conversion for every user that goes to a URL that includes the word “nike”.
Sometimes tracking/dynamically generated URLs cause errors in the “URL equals” Custom Conversions, so I most often use the “URL contains” option for our clients. This works perfect for tracking conversions of people who landed on a specific website, but the site may have a long UTM tracking on it, for example: https://www.coursenvy.com/thanks?utm_source=fb-ad
A “URL equals” of “https://www.coursenvy.com/thanks” may not have tracked with the URL example above. But a “URL contains” of “thanks” would have tracked a conversion from the above URL.
Other Ways to Use Custom Conversions: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/780705975381000
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The URL equals option makes more sense to me when the goal is tracking one exact page, such as a completed order or a specific landing page. I was checking https://skincareproduct.co.uk/ while comparing how skincare ecommerce pages are organised, and it showed why precise URL rules can matter. A small difference in the condition could easily change which visits are counted as conversions.
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