Facebook Marketing API Overview
- The Facebook Marketing API allows businesses to automate their advertising processes, including the creation of custom audiences, ad management, and insights extraction.
- Custom Audiences enable you to target specific groups of users based on data you already have.
Setting Up the Environment
- Make sure you have the Facebook SDK for PHP installed in your project. You can install it using Composer.
- Ensure you have the necessary access token with permissions to manage and create Custom Audiences.
composer require facebook/graph-sdk
Initialize the Facebook SDK
- Start by initializing the Facebook SDK with your app credentials. This involves setting your app id, app secret, and default access token.
- These credentials are necessary for authenticating requests to the Facebook API.
require 'vendor/autoload.php';
use Facebook\Facebook;
$fb = new Facebook([
'app_id' => 'YOUR_APP_ID',
'app_secret' => 'YOUR_APP_SECRET',
'default_graph_version' => 'v12.0',
'default_access_token' => 'YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN',
]);
Create a Custom Audience
- Use the SDK to interact with the API and create a custom audience. You will need the ad account ID and any required data for audience creation.
- Custom audiences require a "subtype", such as 'CUSTOM', and a "name" for identification.
try {
$response = $fb->post(
'/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/customaudiences',
[
'name' => 'My Custom Audience',
'subtype' => 'CUSTOM',
'description' => 'People who bought on my website'
]
);
$graphNode = $response->getGraphNode();
echo 'Created Audience ID: '. $graphNode['id'];
} catch(Facebook\Exceptions\FacebookResponseException $e) {
echo 'Graph returned an error: ' . $e->getMessage();
exit;
} catch(Facebook\Exceptions\FacebookSDKException $e) {
echo 'Facebook SDK returned an error: ' . $e->getMessage();
exit;
}
Upload User Data to Custom Audience
- Once the audience is created, you can add users by their email addresses, phone numbers, or other identifiers.
- Create a payload with the user data you want to add and execute the request.
try {
$data = [
'schema' => ['EMAIL'],
'data' => [
['example@example.com'],
['another@example.com']
],
];
$response = $fb->post(
'/<CUSTOM_AUDIENCE_ID>/users',
['payload' => json_encode($data)]
);
$graphNode = $response->getGraphNode();
echo 'Users added to Audience: ' . $graphNode['success'];
} catch(Facebook\Exceptions\FacebookResponseException $e) {
echo 'Graph returned an error: ' . $e->getMessage();
exit;
} catch(Facebook\Exceptions\FacebookSDKException $e) {
echo 'Facebook SDK returned an error: ' . $e->getMessage();
exit;
}
Best Practices
- Handle errors gracefully to understand what part of your request may have failed.
- Regularly verify your rate limits and API call usage to avoid interruptions.
- Make sure to comply with Facebook’s data and privacy policies when handling user data.
