Event and Conversion API
Also called ECAPI.
An industry standard for how a business sends events and conversions, leads and sales included, to ad platforms. It was written at the IAB Tech Lab with Google, Meta, TikTok, Walmart and others contributing, and version 1.0 was finalised in 2026.
Why it matters
Today every platform wants the same lead described its own way, so each one is a separate connection to build and maintain. Google announced in September 2026 that its Data Manager API follows the standard, which makes sending the same lead outcome to more than one platform less work.
What goes wrong
It is a shared starting point, not one identical payload. Each platform still maps the standard to its own format, with its own event IDs, timestamps, routing and consent fields, so the deduplication key Meta reads is still Meta's and the one Google reads is still Google's.
It also changes nothing about what goes in the value field. A standard makes the pipe cheaper to build; whether the number travelling down it says anything about the lead is a separate question.
How to check it on your own account
Ask whoever sends your conversions whether they use Google's Data Manager API and how they map one event to each platform. If you build it yourself, Google publishes its mapping from the standard to its own format in the Data Manager documentation.
Next to this
- Google Ads Data ManagerGoogle AdsNewGoogle's single route for bringing first-party data into its ad products: customer lists, offline conversions and enhanced conversions for leads.
- Conversions APIMetaMeta's server-to-server route for sending events, used alongside or instead of the browser pixel.
- TikTok Events APITikTokTikTok's server-to-server route for reporting events, including outcomes that happen in a CRM long after the click.
Where this comes up
How it applies in your trade
The same method, worked through for each kind of business: what a lead is worth, what is known on arrival and what to prepare.
The rest of this step
Measure this on your own data
The diagnostic reads a CRM export in your browser and reports your volume, your match rate and the spread between your leads against the thresholds in this glossary. Nothing is uploaded and no account is needed.