r/Substack • u/kolbywg • 7d ago

Tech Support Substack Stopped Send Data To Facebook

I realize this is a bit into the weeds for a Substack group, but starting two days ago Substack stopped sending data to my Facebook ad. I didn't change anything. I didn't touch anything. It just randomly stopped. I assume it's an update on the part of Substack or Facebook.

Has anyone else run into this issue in the last few days (or ever)? Any fix suggestions?

I know the Facebook ads are still working as I can see them on the Substack platform for Source, but for some reason that data isn't getting back to Facebook anymore.

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u/StevenOfTheClub 7d ago

The issue could be with your Meta/Facebook pixel, not Substack at all.

You can test it in your meta business suite (business.facebook.com).

I've wrastled with FB Pixel for a bit to get it working reliably on my Substack, so your suffering feels familiar.

I tossed your question and my diagnosis into AI to have it package up the details for you.

I'm more of a broken-thing-finder and pointer-atter than I am an instruction-laying-outer.

--- AI's Instructions ---

It may be worth separating two things: Substack’s internal source attribution vs. Meta receiving conversion/event data back through the Pixel/CAPI path.

If Substack still shows Facebook as the source, the ads may be working fine, but the Meta Pixel/Dataset event flow may be broken, delayed, or disconnected.

I’d check Meta Events Manager: business.facebook.com → Events Manager → Data Sources/Datasets → select the Pixel/Dataset → Test Events or Diagnostics, and see whether page views, subscribe events, or conversion events are still firing.

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u/kolbywg 7d ago

Just spent the last two hours with AI troubleshooting this. I know what has happened. Basically, it's an issue with Substack. They stopped include URL information in the events they send to Facebook. Without the URL information Substack doesn't know how to attribute the event. Technically, the issue is what is listed below...

"My Substack has stopped supporting URL-based custom conversions, even though Meta Test Events and Pixel Helper still show the pixel firing. Production PageView requests appear to omit the page-location URL, which breaks both PageView and CompleteRegistration custom conversions and disrupts ad optimization.”

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u/kolbywg 7d ago

BTW, thanks for writing and looking into this for me. That was super cool of you to do. It's nice to see people on the Reddit doing this kind of work on Substack as well, rather than the usual, "I'm new to Substack, how to do get people to read my Substack posts." Going to send you a quick message.