Pixels and Tracking Tags

A tracking tag is the measurement tag an ad platform gives you to put on a website: the Meta Pixel, the TikTok Pixel, the Google tag, the LinkedIn Insight Tag, the Pinterest tag, the X Pixel or the OpenAI Ads pixel. It is what a site fires events to, what server-side conversions deduplicate against, and what conversion campaigns and website audiences point at. Zernio exposes every platform's tag under one platform-neutral API at /v1/accounts/{accountId}/tracking-tags, and can install any of them on a connected Shopify store or WordPress site without theme edits.

These are not the click-URL parameters an ad appends to its link (utm_*, {{ad.id}}), which several platforms also call "tracking tags". Those live on each ad: see the URL tracking tags pages for Meta, Google and LinkedIn.

The id model

Capability matrix

Yes means the platform's API allows it and Zernio implements it. No means the platform's API cannot do it: the next table gives the evidence. 501 means Zernio does not expose it for that platform. Both No and 501 answer 501 platform_not_supported, and the message says why and what to do instead, so you can surface it to a user as is.

No platform's API deletes a tag, so there is no DELETE on a tag. Retire a tag by uninstalling it from the site.

What the platforms cannot do

An operation a platform lacks answers:

{
  "error": "Updating a tracking tag is not supported for platform \"pinterestads\". Pinterest API v5 has no endpoint to edit a tag: its spec lists only POST and GET on /conversion_tags and GET on /conversion_tags/{id}, and PATCH or PUT on /conversion_tags/{id} answer 405 \"Method not allowed\" (code 5). Rename a tag or change its enhanced match settings in Pinterest Ads Manager (Conversions); enhanced match can be set when creating it.",
  "type": "invalid_request_error",
  "code": "platform_not_supported",
  "platform": "pinterestads"
}

List and read tags

GET /v1/accounts/{accountId}/tracking-tags lists every tag the connection can see, and ?adAccountId= scopes it to one ad account. The list view leaves out code and events; GET .../tracking-tags/{tagId} returns them.

import Zernio from '@zernio/node';

const zernio = new Zernio();

const { data } = await zernio.trackingtags.getTrackingTag({
  path: { accountId: '66b2e19d8c3f5a7e9d0b1c2d', tagId: '7412345678901234567' },
  query: { adAccountId: '7301234567890123456' }
});

Response (200), a TikTok Pixel:

{
  "platform": "tiktokads",
  "tag": {
    "id": "7412345678901234567",
    "siteTagId": "D00IKHRC77UE0J0RTNHG",
    "name": "Storefront pixel",
    "platform": "tiktokads",
    "kind": "pixel",
    "status": "active",
    "creationTime": 1804064400,
    "ownerAdAccountId": "7301234567890123456",
    "code": "<script>!function (w, d, t) {...}</script>",
    "events": [
      { "id": "1804567", "name": "Purchase", "type": "SHOPPING", "siteEvent": "purchase" }
    ]
  }
}

kind is pixel on Meta, TikTok, X and OpenAI, tag on Google and Pinterest and insight_tag on LinkedIn. status is active or inactive, lastFiredTime (Unix seconds, null when it never fired) and installed appear where the platform reports a last fire (Meta, LinkedIn, Pinterest, X), and ownerBusinessId is Meta's Business Manager owner.

Create and update

POST /v1/accounts/{accountId}/tracking-tags takes adAccountId and name, plus defaultEventType on OpenAI and automaticMatchingFields (enhanced match at creation) on Pinterest; other platforms answer 400 to automaticMatchingFields on a create. It answers 201 with the tag.

PATCH /v1/accounts/{accountId}/tracking-tags/{tagId} takes at least one of name, enableAutomaticMatching, automaticMatchingFields, firstPartyCookieStatus, enableFirstPartyCookies, dataUseSetting and autoTagging. Each platform accepts a subset and answers 400 naming the supported fields for the rest. Pinterest and OpenAI have no update at all (501).

Stats

GET /v1/accounts/{accountId}/tracking-tags/{tagId}/stats takes optional startTime and endTime (Unix seconds) and returns { platform, stats: { startTime, endTime, rows } }. Rows are the platform's own data, so read the keys you get:

Diagnostics

GET /v1/accounts/{accountId}/tracking-tags/{tagId}/diagnostics returns the platform's health checks for the tag as checks[] (key, title, description, result, actionUrl). Only Meta has them (Meta diagnostics); the others answer 501. TikTok and Google have no diagnostics API at all (evidence): read their stats instead.

Share with other ad accounts

GET, POST and DELETE on .../tracking-tags/{tagId}/shared-accounts list, add and remove the ad accounts a tag is shared with. The body of POST and the ?adAccountId= of DELETE name the ad account to share with or unshare from.

Google, Pinterest, X and OpenAI cannot share a tag (evidence).

Conversion events

.../tracking-tags/{tagId}/events manages a tag's conversion events on every platform. What an event is, and what a delete does, follows the platform:

The body takes name (required on create), the platform's own event type in type or a neutral siteEvent, and the optional fields in the table. A field the platform does not store answers 400 naming the ones it does. DELETE answers { platform, eventId, state }. Creating an event is not idempotent on TikTok, LinkedIn, X and OpenAI: never retry it blindly.

A few platform rules:

• TikTok returns no id on create and lists new events only every few hours, so a create can come back with id: "" and status: "pending"; list the events later to get the id. TikTok refuses to delete an event an ad group still uses.
• Pinterest allows 15 custom events per ad account, names of 1 to 100 letters, digits, _ or -, compared case-insensitively. The event id is its name, so an event cannot be renamed: create the new name and delete the old one. The events belong to the ad account, so every tag of that account lists the same ones. A site fires one with pintrk('track', '<name>'), and POST /v1/ads/conversions matches it by eventName.
• X click windows are 1, 7, 14, 30, 60 or 90 days and view windows 0, 1, 7, 14, 30, 60 or 90 days, no longer than the click window. A create defaults to 30 and 1 days with retargeting on, as Events Manager does.

siteEvent is Zernio's neutral storefront vocabulary, the same one the store installs speak: page_view, view_content, add_to_cart, search, initiate_checkout, add_payment_info and purchase.

const { data } = await zernio.trackingtags.createTrackingTagEvent({
  path: { accountId: '66b2e19d8c3f5a7e9d0b1c2f', tagId: 'cds_68e4f0a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8c9' },
  body: { name: 'Purchases', siteEvent: 'purchase' }
});

Response (201), an OpenAI event setting:

{
  "platform": "openaiads",
  "event": {
    "id": "ces_68e4f0c9d8e7",
    "name": "Purchases",
    "type": "order_created",
    "siteEvent": "purchase",
    "siteEventId": "order_created",
    "status": "active",
    "clickWindowDays": 30
  }
}

Users and partners

Meta pixels have people with access and partner businesses. Other platforms answer 501.

See Meta pixel users and partners for the tasks and the permission it needs.

Install on a store

POST /v1/accounts/{accountId}/tracking-tags/{tagId}/install with a connected store's storeAccountId puts the tag on the site, GET with ?storeAccountId= reads the install status and DELETE with ?storeAccountId= removes it. All three are idempotent.

• Shopify: Zernio's web pixel app extension fires one tag per platform from a single Zernio web pixel per store, mapping Shopify's customer events to each platform's events. See Shopify tracking pixels for the event mapping per platform.
• WordPress: one marked Custom HTML widget per tag with the platform's base code, read back to confirm the script survived. See WordPress tracking tags.

The install responses carry tagPlatform and siteTagId (the tag you asked about), installed and tags, every Zernio tag on the store across platforms.

Common errors

Related

• Meta Pixels, TikTok Pixel, Google tag, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Pinterest tag, X Pixel and OpenAI pixel: each platform's ids, operations and limits.
• Send conversions: server-side events that deduplicate against the browser events.
• Pixels & Tracking Tags reference: every field and response.