Best Practices for Event Tracking

To ensure accurate tracking, improved ad delivery, and better performance optimization, always install the pixel first, and add postback when possible. Using both tools together helps maximize data collection and enhances your campaign results. Tracking is created in NewsBreak's Event Management tab.

1. Always Start with a Pixel

Before anything else, set up the NewsBreak pixel on your website:

• Add the pixel to your website header
• You can use Google Tag Manager (GTM), Shopify, or a custom integration
• For new ad accounts, install the pixel as soon as you sign up—ideally before campaigns go live—to begin capturing page views and user interactions. This early data helps the system establish baseline behavior patterns, enabling more accurate optimization and event tracking once ads start running

➡️ Why it matters:
Installing the pixel early helps the ad platform begin collecting important signals (like page views and product views) that contribute to campaign learning and retargeting.

For more information on pixel set up, please refer to this guide.

 

2. Add Postback for More Accuracy

While the pixel is essential for broader data collection and retargeting, postback provides more accurate conversion data (e.g., purchases, signups). We highly recommend using both:

• Use the pixel to collect front-end data (page views, add to cart,purchase etc.) pageview/pageload is tracked by default when the base pixel is added to the header
• Use postback to track confirmed backend events like conversions

💡 Important: If you already have postback installed, you still need to install the pixel to improve the model performance and unlock remarketing capabilities.

 

3. Key Benefits of Using a Pixel

• Improved Optimization – Helps ad platforms better understand user behavior and optimize delivery.
• Retargeting – Enables you to retarget users without building an audience
• Analytics – Provides insight into user behavior across your site.
• Performance Lift – Advertisers who implement both pixel and postback often see higher return on ad spend (ROAS) and better event tracking quality.

Track the Full Funnel for Better Performance

To get the most out of your campaigns, it’s important to track all key events across your conversion funnel, not just the final action. This helps optimize performance, unlock better targeting, and provide deeper insights.

Recommended Event Flows by Industry:

• 🛍️ E-commerce: 
  • [Base Code] Page Load → View Content → Add to Cart → Initiate Checkout → Complete Payment
     
• 📊 Lead Generation: 
  • [Base Code] Page Load → Button Click → Form Submission → Contact or Final Action (e.g., Payment) 

Start with Final Conversions, But Don’t Stop There

It's okay to begin by tracking your final conversion event (like a purchase or form submission), but we strongly recommend sending all intermediate events as well. This gives the platform more context and improves optimization.

Include Extra Data with Conversion Events

Whenever possible, send additional parameters with your conversion events (such as product ID, value, or user type). This added data helps fine-tune targeting and reporting.

Send Event data from only NewsBreak or all traffic sources?

Whenever possible please send data from all traffic sources.This enables accurate cross-channel attribution and audience retargeting by allowing pixel events from multiple sources, ensuring you capture the full customer journey and optimize ROI.

Adding Extra Fields to Pixel & Postback Events (Optional but Recommended)

To improve campaign insights and audience targeting, you can include additional parameters with your conversion events. These extra fields help the system better understand the value and type of each conversion.

How to Add Extra Fields

For Pixel Events:

Include the extra values in the same object as your standard event data.
Example:

nbpix('event', 'place_an_order', {

  nb_value: 49.9,   // Order value

  nb_ar: 1,         // Example: age range

  nb_ge: 0          // Example: gender

});

For Postback Events:

Add the values directly as URL parameters: https://business.newsbreak.com/tracking/attribute?callback=xxx&event_type=place_an_order&nb_value=49.9&nb_ar=1&nb_ge=0

💡 Important Notes:

• Use the same parameter names (e.g., nb_value, nb_ar, nb_ge) across both Pixel and Postback to keep your data consistent.
• These extra fields are optional but valuable—they can support better optimization and reporting. 

Additional Parameters Reference Table:

Field Name	Parameter Name	Description/Format	Hashing Required
Email	nb_em	Trim any leading and trailing spaces. Convert all characters to lowercase Input: John_Smith@gmail.com Normalized format: john_smith@gmail.com Expected SHA256 output: 62a14e44f765419d10fea99367361a727c12365e2520f32218d505ed9aa0f62f	YES (please use SHA256 encoding for the hash)
Phone Number	nb_ph	Remove symbols, letters, and any leading zeros. Phone numbers must include a country code to be used for matching (e.g., the number 1 must precede a phone number in the United States). Always include the country code as part of your customers' phone numbers, even if all of your data is from the same country.   Example: Input: US phone number (650)555-1212 Normalized format: 16505551212 Expected SHA256 output: e323ec626319ca94ee8bff2e4c87cf613be6ea19919ed1364124e16807ab3176	YES
External_ID	ext_id	Any unique ID from the advertiser, such as loyalty membership IDs, user IDs, and external cookie IDs. You can send one or more external IDs for a given event. If an External ID is being sent via other channels, it should be in the same format as when sent via postback.	NO, but recommended

 

User Info Table: