As privacy regulations evolve and traditional tracking methods become unreliable, marketers struggle to accurately measure conversions and confidently attribute ad performance. Criteo's Conversions API solves this challenge by enabling server-side delivery of conversion data directly to Criteo, giving you complete ownership over your data pipeline and significantly improving event deliverability. In this guide, we'll show you how to set up the Criteo Conversions API so you can send conversions directly to Criteo, optimize your retargeting and prospecting campaigns, and increase your return on ad spend.
How to set up Criteo conversion API?
1. Connect to your data source
Start by creating a Hightouch account. Once you're logged in:
- Navigate to the Integrations, then Sources.
- Select the data source that contains your event and customer data. This could be a data warehouse like Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, or a database like Postgres or MySQL.
- Enter your configuration details, such as credentials and hostnames, to authenticate your data source.
Hightouch will validate your connection and give you access to the schema for building your data model.
2. Define your data model
Next, define the event data you want to send to Criteo. You can do this in three ways:
- SQL Editor: Write custom SQL to join and transform data for precise control.
- Table Selector: Choose pre-built tables and columns directly without needing SQL.
- Visual Audience Builder: Use a no-code interface to filter and segment your data based on behavior, properties, or timestamps.
This data model is the source of truth for what gets sent to Criteo. Typical fields include user identifiers (email, phone), event names (purchase, signup), and metadata (value, currency, timestamp).
3. Create a Criteo conversion destination
Now it’s time to connect Hightouch to Criteo:
- Go to the Integrations, then Destinations.
- Click Add Destination and select Criteo.
- Log in to Criteo to authorize the connection.
4. Send conversions to Criteo
Finally, you’ll configure your sync:
- Got to Activation, then Syncs.
- Click Add sync.
- Choose the model you created and your Criteo destination.
- Map the data fields in your model to Criteo expected parameters
- Run your sync.
What is the Criteo conversions API?
The Criteo Conversions API (also known as the Criteo Events API) is an alternative to traditional web pixels and JavaScript tags and a more accurate way to send conversion data back to Criteo. This direct, server-side approach allows you to leverage your 1st-party data and control exactly what user-completed events and associated values you send to Criteo so you can optimize your campaigns toward the outcomes that matter most to your business and avoid the deliverability issues caused by adblockers and browser restrictions.
Benefits of using Criteo conversion API
The Criteo Conversions API offers advertisers a more resilient and precise way to send event data to Criteo, enabling better campaign performance and measurement. Unlike browser-based tracking (e.g. traditional pixels), the Conversions API operates server-side, reducing data loss and enhancing targeting, even as privacy regulations tighten.
- Lower your Cost Per Result (CPR) by up to 13%: By reducing signal loss and giving Criteo a more complete view of user behavior, the Conversions API helps improve ad delivery optimization across Criteo's retargeting and prospecting network. It enables more accurate event matching and supplies better training signals to Criteo's algorithm, resulting in smarter bidding and targeting for both product retargeting and lookalike audience campaigns. Altogether, this leads to lower CPRs and allows your budget to go further when reaching high-intent shoppers across Criteo's commerce media network.
- Increase attributed purchase events by up to 19%: When tracking breaks due to ad blockers, iOS restrictions, or cookie limitations, Criteo may undercount conversions. The Conversions API solves this by sending events directly from your server, making them less likely to be blocked. You can also use deduplication to send both browser and server-side events. This ensures more conversions are accurately attributed to your Criteo campaigns and improves Criteo's optimization engine for both retargeting and customer acquisition efforts.
- Boost your Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): More complete and reliable conversion data enables Criteo to make better optimization decisions for your commerce campaigns and dynamic product advertising. This translates into sharper audience targeting and more efficient budget allocation toward high-performing product categories and customer segments. As a result, your campaigns deliver stronger performance, especially when optimizing for key actions like purchases, cart additions, or product catalog engagement.
- Unlock better measurement and attribution: With server-side tracking, you gain more control over what data you send to Criteo and how it is structured. You can include offline events like in-store purchases linked to online browsing, enrich conversion events with custom fields such as product margins, category performance, or customer lifetime value (LTV), and apply deduplication logic to avoid counting the same event twice. This flexibility improves your analytics and helps align Criteo optimization with real commerce business outcomes.
- Future-proof campaigns against privacy changes: As browser vendors and operating systems roll out stricter privacy features like third-party cookie blocking and App Tracking Transparency, traditional pixel-based tracking becomes less reliable. The Conversions API lets you maintain robust conversion tracking using first-party data delivered from your server, which is more resilient to these restrictions. That means you can continue measuring and optimizing your Criteo retargeting and prospecting campaigns even in a privacy-first digital landscape.
What's the difference between a pixel & the Criteo conversions API?
A traditional pixel runs on the user's browser or web application and sends conversion events back to Criteo automatically. Unlike a traditional pixel, the Criteo Conversions API allows you to send conversion data directly from your server to Criteo. Pixels are easy to implement but less reliable; conversion APIs are slightly harder to implement but much more reliable because they give you full control over the conversion signals you send back to Criteo.
Here's a quick table highlighting the difference between a traditional web pixel and the Criteo Conversions API:
| Feature | Traditional Pixel | Criteo Conversions API |
|---|---|---|
| Tracking Method | Track events using web script or mobile SDK | Track and store events in your data warehouse or another internal system (e.g., CRM or CDP) |
| Delivery Method | Events sent client-side via web script or mobile SDK | Events sent server-side via API from your server to Criteo |
| Reliability | Frequently blocked by ad blockers, cookie restrictions, & network interruptions | No interference from ad blockers, browsers, or operating systems |
| Supported Properties | Typically only supports website conversions | Supports both online & offline conversions |
| Privacy & Compliance | Limited control over what data you share with Criteo | Maintain complete control over exactly what data you share with Criteo to manage opt-out compliance |
| Benefits | Easy to implement | Better spend efficacy, more accurate attribution, & better consent management |
Why are companies switching to conversion APIs?
Ad blockers, browser restrictions, and operating system policies, such as Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) and App Tracking Transparency (ATT) from Apple, are making client-side tracking through traditional pixels increasingly unreliable. To combat this, nearly every major ad network is introducing new conversion APIs to support server-side events so advertisers can more reliably send their data to Criteo to optimize their campaigns.
- Offline conversion tracking: Track and upload offline conversions not captured through client-side tracking, such as in-store purchases linked to online product browsing, phone orders generated from retargeting campaigns, or subscription renewals influenced by dynamic product ads. This is especially valuable for omnichannel retailers using Criteo's commerce media platform to drive both online and offline conversions, enabling you to connect digital product advertising to real-world purchase behavior across all touchpoints.
- Advanced matching: Increase your event-match quality by enriching your conversion events with first-party customer attributes and additional third-party identifiers. Improve Criteo's ability to match conversion events to users by including data like email, phone number, and purchase history, as well as system identifiers like IP address or user-agent. This boosts your match rates and ensures more conversions are correctly attributed to your Criteo campaigns, particularly important for retargeting where precise user identification and attribution accuracy are critical for commerce success.
- Value-based bidding: Send conversion values to Criteo to unlock value-based bidding so the algorithm can bid more on high-value conversions and less on low-value ones. By including monetary values tied to each conversion, Criteo can optimize not just for quantity but also for value, improving your return on ad spend by bidding more aggressively for high-value products and premium customer segments within their commerce media network.
Criteo conversion API use cases
With the Criteo Conversions API, you can tailor your setup and bidding strategy to align with your commerce and retargeting objectives. Whether you're focused on driving more product sales, increasing revenue from retargeting campaigns, or maximizing profit from your Criteo advertising presence, the Criteo Conversions API gives you the flexibility to send the data Criteo needs to optimize campaigns across their commerce media network.
Optimize for conversion volume
To optimize for conversion volume, configure your setup to send conversion events without attaching revenue or monetary values. These events represent actions like purchases, subscriptions, or product interactions, which aim to increase quantity across Criteo's retargeting and prospecting campaigns. Use Criteo's volume-based bidding strategies to drive the highest conversions at the lowest cost per action among high-intent commerce audiences.
| Industry | Optimization Goal |
|---|---|
| Retail & E-commerce | Maximize the volume of purchase events on the website, in-app, and in-store |
| Media & Entertainment | Maximize the volume of subscription sign-ups |
| Financial Services | Maximize the volume of loan applications submitted |
| B2B SaaS | Maximize the volume of demo requests or product signups |
| Travel | Maximize the number of flights or rooms booked |
| Healthcare | Maximize the volume of health service signups |
| Education | Maximize the volume of enrollments for a course or event |
Optimize for conversion value
To optimize for conversion value, send the gross revenue associated with each conversion event, such as the order value or subscription fee. Criteo's value-based optimization will then aim to increase total revenue from your retargeting and prospecting campaigns rather than just the number of actions.
| Industry | Optimization Goal |
|---|---|
| Retail & E-commerce | Maximize the gross revenue value of each purchase |
| Media & Entertainment | Maximize the gross revenue from the first subscription payment (e.g., bid more for premium subscription signups) |
| Financial Services | Maximize the potential value of loan applications submitted (e.g., bid more on users with a higher likelihood of applying for large loan value) |
| B2B SaaS | Maximize the volume of qualified demo requests or product signups |
| Travel | Maximize the gross revenue value of flights or rooms booked |
| Healthcare | Maximize the gross revenue value of health service signups |
| Education | Maximize the gross revenue value of enrollments for a course or event signup (e.g., bid more for premium courses or packages to increase LTV) |
Optimize for financial outcome
To optimize for financial outcomes like profit or customer lifetime value, calculate and send the predicted financial value of each conversion. This could be estimated profit margins, post-cost revenue, or LTV from repeat customers acquired through retargeting. Then use Criteo's advanced optimization algorithms to align ad spend with real commerce business performance.
| Industry | Optimization Goal |
|---|---|
| Retail & E-commerce | Maximize the estimated profit of purchases by subtracting the estimated cost of goods sold, taxes, and fees (e.g., shipping) |
| Media & Entertainment | Maximize the estimated lifetime value of subscription purchases (e.g., bid more to convert users with a higher likelihood of retaining) |
| Financial Services | Maximize the predicted value of loan applications submitted (e.g., bid based on likelihood of loan approval and estimated interest value) |
| B2B SaaS | Maximize the predicted revenue value of demo requests or product signups (e.g., bid using intent data, lead scoring, and predicted ACV) |
| Travel | Maximize the estimated profit from flights or rooms booked by subtracting the cost of goods sold, taxes, and fees |
| Healthcare | Maximize the gross profit value or estimated lifetime value of health service signups |
| Education | Maximize the gross profit value or estimated lifetime value (if recurring) of a course or event signup (e.g., bid based on estimated profit margins from offering or likelihood to retain subscriber) |
What events does the Criteo conversions API support?
Criteo supports two types of events: standard events and custom events.
Standard events are predefined actions that Criteo provides by default for basic use cases across industries.
Custom events are not predefined by Criteo but can be configured to track user-completed events that are not covered underneath the standard events. Not every ad platform will support the same events or have the same naming convention. Additionally, it's always best to map your events back to standard events because the AI algorithms are trained on standard events and not custom ones.
Here's a table breakdown of the most common standard events and custom events that Criteo supports:
| Category | Event Type | Goal |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase Events | Purchase, Complete Registration, Donate, Place an Order | Track & optimize toward purchases |
| Checkout Flow Events | Add to Cart, Initiate Checkout, Add Payment Info | Track and optimize toward steps that lead to purchases |
| Engagement Events | Customize Product, Add to Wishlist, View Content, Search, Find Location, Click Button | Track and optimize engagement with key actions on your site or in your app |
| Lead Capture Events | Subscribe, Submit Application, Start Trial, Contact Captured, Lead Captured, Scheduled, Download, Submit Form | Track and optimize toward lead capture |
| Custom Events | Business- or industry-specific actions (e.g., Product Catalog Browsed, Retargeting Ad Clicked, Cross-sell Completed) | Track and optimize toward custom conversion events |
FAQS
Where can I access the Criteo Conversions API?
If you want to access Criteo's Conversions API, you'll need to reach out to Criteo directly to gain access.
How do I check if the Criteo Conversions API is working?
Check for successful API responses and verify that Criteo has successfully received your events. Then, run a campaign to see if your ads are being attributed to conversions. (Note: If you don't see any attributed conversions, there's a chance that the ad just isn't converting.)
What match rate should I expect from the Criteo Conversions API?
Your match rates can vary widely depending on the quality and coverage of unmatchable attributes that you collect and/or enrich for each event and send to Criteo. Sending additional identifiers like system attributes (e.g., IP address and user-agent), customer attributes (e.g., email and phone), and pseudonymous attributes (e.g., Click ID and Mobile Ad ID) can improve your match rates.
How often should I upload conversions?
Every ad platform has different recommendations, but the best practice is to upload your conversion events to Criteo daily to ensure you're providing the targeting algorithms with immediate feedback.
What data should I include when uploading conversion events?
Each conversion event you send should include consented attributes about your users to achieve the highest match rates and accuracy for maximum campaign effectiveness, attribution, and measurement. Here's a quick list of the most important data to upload with your conversion events:
- System Event Parameters: Required attributes that tell the system what happened (e.g., event name and ID) and when it happened (e.g., event date and time).
- Consent Parameters: Attributes that tell Criteo how to use the data and how the data should be processed to comply with regional requirements and customer data-sharing preferences.
- Customer Information Parameters: Additional customer attributes used to help the system match a conversion event back to their users and devices (e.g., email, phone, mobile ad IDs, and click IDs).
- Conversion Value Parameters: Monetary values (e.g., revenue, profit, LTV, etc.) assigned to conversion events that help Criteo bid more on high-value conversions and less on low-value ones.
How long does it take your conversion data to be available in Criteo?
The Criteo Conversions API will receive data instantly, but it may take at least 24 hours to be processed and made available in campaign performance reports.
Does the Criteo Conversions API have rate limits?
Rate limits always vary by ad platform, so you'll need to look through Criteo's documentation to understand the platform's intricacies.
