Canal · Facebook
Facebook Links: Track Clicks and Sales
When someone clicks on an ad, Meta appends its own identifier to your URL and knows what happened next. Tuesday's post, the pinned comment, the link shared in a group: for those, the question is still open.
Meta's click identifier, as documented
Five points, as they read in Meta's developer documentation for advertisers. The last one is the one that matters here.
| The question | What the documentation says |
|---|---|
| On a Facebook or Instagram ad | “ClickID is a parameter generated by Meta and passed along with an advertiser’s website URL when a user clicks on an ad” |
| What it looks like in the URL | A parameter appended at the end, like ?fbclid=IwAR2F4-… — the example is from the original page |
| What is needed to use it | Read it from the URL or from the cookie set by the Meta pixel, format it as required, then send it with the Conversions API events |
| How long it is kept | Meta recommends setting its cookie “with an expiration period of 90 days” |
| Your own campaign parameters | They’re preserved: “the automatic association of ClickID has no impact on other custom tracking parameters you may have enabled” |
And what we didn’t find: no Meta documentation of an equivalent identifier for an organic post, a comment, or a group. We will therefore neither affirm that it exists nor that it doesn’t — we simply say we didn’t find it. No Facebook interface path is described on this page: the help pages tried on 12/09 were unavailable.
Checked on September 12, 2026 in Meta help, « ClickID et paramètres fbp et fbc » — the original page. Platforms change their rules: if what you see no longer matches, the source wins.
Two measures, two scopes
fbclid
- A parameter generated by Meta, appended to your URL on an ad click.
- To use it: the pixel or a server-side read, then the Conversions API.
- Its cookie is recommended “with an expiration period of 90 days.”
- Documented for ads. Nothing found for Tuesday’s organic post.
Subtraq
- A link under your name, pasted anywhere Facebook shows a URL.
- Nothing to install: no pixel, no tag on the site, no developer.
- The click, the lead, then the sale, tied to the link that brought them.
- Your campaign parameters keep passing through — Meta says they coexist.
Meta does a great job answering “what did my ad bring in?” This one is built to answer “what did my page bring in?” — the post, the comment, the group, held to the same standard as the ad.
In Subtraq
A Facebook line, and what sits under it
Facebook is the channel where organic and paid coexist. As long as only ads are tracked, the comparison is skewed from the start: ad spend gets credit for everything that can’t be attributed elsewhere. One link per place puts them both on equal footing.
With your domain on it, the address is readable before the click — link.yourbrand.com/offer — and its destination can be changed without editing the post. Useful when a post keeps circulating long after it was written, or when a group reshares it.
Instagram is a separate channel in the catalog, even under the same ad account: each has its own line, and the total doesn’t mix what comes from one with what comes from the other.
Channel: Facebook
When you create the link, you choose its channel — “where you’re going to publish it.” Facebook becomes a line in the overview, with its clicks, leads, and sales. Clicking the line shows the links it’s made of: a post, a group, a message, each with its own.
Three objections
“I already have the Meta pixel.”
“I don’t know whether my posts do anything.”
“An unknown link under my post drives people away.”
Frequently asked questions
What is the “fbclid” appended to my URLs?
Meta’s click identifier. Its documentation, recorded September 12, 2026, describes it as “a parameter generated by Meta and passed along with an advertiser’s website URL when a user clicks on an ad on Facebook and/or Instagram.” Meta uses it to attribute conversions from its ads.
Do I need a pixel or a developer to use a Subtraq link?
No. The link is a URL: you create it, you paste it, it redirects. Sale recognition is configured in Subtraq, not in your site’s code.
Can I tell apart a post, a group, and a message?
Not with the same link. Create one per place — Facebook channel for all three — and the overview puts them side by side under the channel line.
Does a Subtraq link work in a group or a comment?
It’s a URL like any other. We don’t describe the rules specific to groups or comments: we didn’t find them in Facebook’s help, and we won’t invent them.
Do Facebook and Instagram count together?
No. They are two separate channels in the catalog, even when the ad account is the same. Each has its own line, its clicks, and its sales.
I manage a client’s page: where does the data go?
Into their workspace, separate from all others — their links, their clicks, their sales, their report. You see everything; they see only theirs.
Put your posts on equal footing
Create one link per place you publish, paste it in, and the Facebook line fills itself. Tracking starts at the first click.
Create a free accountThe per-channel attribution model is explained on the attribution page.