Full Answer

The integration works at the WooCommerce hook level, which means it fires on your server during order processing — completely independent of the customer's browser. This is what makes Events API fundamentally different from the TikTok Pixel: the browser is not involved in event delivery.

WooCommerce provides several action hooks where conversion tracking can fire. The most reliable for purchase tracking is woocommerce_order_status_completed, which fires when an order transitions to the completed status. Some implementations use woocommerce_thankyou for faster reporting, but this hook fires when the thank-you page loads in the browser, making it dependent on the customer actually reaching that page after payment gateway redirects.

The Events API payload for a CompletePayment event requires the Pixel ID, event type, event timestamp, and event properties including value, currency, content_type set to product, and a contents array with product IDs and quantities. For user matching, SHA256-hashed email or phone number enables TikTok to attribute the conversion to ad interactions.

Plugin-based implementation handles the mapping automatically. The plugin reads the WooCommerce order object, extracts product SKUs, prices, quantities, and customer email, constructs the TikTok-compliant JSON payload, and sends the POST request. Manual implementation requires writing this mapping in PHP — functional but fragile when WooCommerce updates change order object structures or when custom checkout flows modify the standard data model.