As described by Facebook, the Facebook Pixel is an analytics tool that allows you to measure the effectiveness of your advertising by understanding the actions people take on your website. It is a piece of JavaScript code that gets embedded into your website in order to monitor conversions as well as optimize content, build an audience, and retarget people who have previously taken action on your website.
How do you create and install a Facebook Pixel?
The Facebook Pixel needs to be created in Ads Manager and then the code needs to be added to your website. Now let’s go into more details on how to create and install the pixel.
Creating the Facebook Pixel:
- Go to Events Manager
- Click on Connect Data Sources
- Select Web as your new data source and click on Get Started
- Select Facebook Pixel and click on Connect
- Name your pixel and type in your website URL and then click on Continue
Now that you have created the pixel, you are ready to install it on your website. Here is how to manually do this:
- Go to Events Manager
- Choose the pixel you want to setup
- Click Continue Pixel Setup
- Select the option to Install code manually
- Copy the pixel base code
- Paste the base code in the header section of your website
Who should use a Facebook Pixel?
Facebook Pixel should be used by anyone who is running Facebook Ads for their business. Once the pixel is installed it will start collecting data that you can use to create audiences for your Facebook Ads. It works really well for anyone who needs to target specific audiences or even to retarget previous visitors on their website.
Benefits of using a Facebook Pixel
Installing a Facebook Pixel is not an easy task for most, but having one really does come with many benefits. Here are a few reasons why you need the Facebook Pixel:
Create Audiences
Getting to know your customers is a crucial step in creating successful Facebook Campaigns. The Facebook Pixel will help you define these audiences.
Facebook has 4 main audience types:
- Saved Audiences – this is where your commonly used targeting options will be saved to be used across multiple Facebook Campaigns
- Lookalike Audiences – this audience is created based on people who like your page, conversion pixels, and any existing custom audiences
- Custom Audiences – this audience is created based on people who have already taken action by showing an interest in your business or product
- Special Ad Audiences – this audience is created in order to reach new people who have similar online behavior as your most valuable customers
Track Conversions
Conversion tracking can be used to track the actions of your website visitors. Having a Facebook Pixel on your website will assist you to analyze the effectiveness of your conversion funnel and determine your ROI. Conversions are tracked using events that you set up on your Facebook Ads Campaigns. You can use tracked conversions to define your custom audiences.
There are 3 ways to track conversion with a Facebook Pixel:
- Custom Events – actions of your visitors that you have defined
- Standard Events – actions of your visitors that Facebook has defined for you
- Custom Conversions – actions of your visitors which are tracked automatically by the pixel
Increase in Sales
Once the Facebook Pixel is installed it will immediately get to work on gathering all the crucial information you need about your website visitors. This information can then be analyzed and used when creating your Facebook Campaigns. In order to have an increase in sales, it is important that your campaigns are built around the wants and needs of your target audience. The Facebook Pixel is the most effective tool you can use in order to create the right audience to send your ads to.
A Closer Look Into Facebook Remarketing
Facebook Remarketing is a form of advertising that is targeted at visitors that have been on your website before. The objective of the ads is to get those visitors back on your website in the hopes that they will make a conversion.
Facebook Remarketing Ads are built from within Ads Manager using a Custom Audience that is created by the Facebook Pixel set up on your website. The pixel will track the actions of the users on your website and create an audience out of the visitors that bounced. The Remarketing Ads will then pop up on your audience’s Facebook Pages for a certain number of days. These ads need to be targeted at the right audience or else they will not work so it is very important that any other form of advertising you have directed to your website is relevant because this will also play a part in building your Custom Audiences.
Facebook Pixel Helper
Google Chrome offers an extension called the Facebook Pixel Helper which you can download onto your computer. It is a troubleshooting tool that will tell you whether a website has a Facebook Pixel installed on it or not. It will also tell you how many pixel events are installed on the website and even give a more detailed overview which could show you errors, warnings, and successes.
Don’t have this nifty little tool yet? Add it here.
Is The Facebook Pixel A Necessary Tool In Digital Marketing?
Yes! It is the best tool you could use for creating Audiences for your Facebook Ads. Install yours today and see the results for yourself!
Want to find out more about all the awesome tools you can use in your digital marketing strategy? Check out our other blogs for some more information.
