What is the Facebook pixel and how can it help you grow your business?
If you are thinking of or planning future ads on Facebook. Installing the Facebook pixel today will help you or your Facebook ad manager build your audience pool and save you money.
What Is The Facebook Pixel (Meta Pixel)
The Facebook pixel is also called the Meta pixel because of the recent name change from Facebook to Meta. In this post, we will refer to the Meta pixel as the Facebook Pixel.
The Facebook pixel is a small piece of code that you can place on your website to track conversions, remarket to people who have already visited your site, create custom audiences, and build lookalike audiences.
When someone visits your site and takes an action (like buying something or signing up for a newsletter), the pixel tracks that activity and sends the information back to Facebook.
Is Facebook Pixel Free To Use?
Yes! The Facebook pixel is free to use.
You can create the Facebook pixel and use it without spending any money on Facebook advertising.
If you are not spending money on Facebook advertising the Facebook pixel can be used to build up your audience pool.
Your audience pool is Facebook's pool of visitors who have come to your site. These pools of visitors can be turned into custom audiences that can be remarketed too.
The earlier you can install the Facebook pixel the more people you can get into these custom audiences.
As you know marketing to people who have bought or heard from you is cheaper than finding new customers. This is especially true during Black Friday when ad cost go through the roof.
So if in the future you believe you MAY run Facebook ads, it doesn't hurt to have the Facebook pixel installed on your site to track website visitors to your site.
How Does The Facebook Pixel Work?
The Facebook pixel works by tracking the actions of users on your website and sending that information back to Facebook.
If you wish to have more than one pixel for your account, go for it. Just be sure to install only one of the Facebook pixels on your site. Multiple Facebook pixels installed on your site will not help your Facebook conversion tracking.
Example Of The Facebook Pixel In Action
Have you ever been to a website and then within hours you are seeing ads for that exact product you were viewing hours ago?
This is the Facebook Pixel in action.
Without the Facebook pixel, you could run ads to your site, but because there is no tracking code installed on your site. You would not see any conversion metrics.
What Can You Track With The Facebook Pixel
Facebook allows you to track a wide variety of "Standard events" with the Facebook pixel.
Below are some of the standard events that the Facebook Pixel can track.
1. AddToCart: Tracks when items are added to a shopping cart
2. CompleteRegistration: Tracks when a registration form is completed
3. Contact: Tracks when someone contacts you through your website
4. CustomizeProduct: Tracks when someone customizes a product on your website
5. Donate: Tracks when someone donates to your website
6. FindLocation: Tracks when someone looks for a location on your website
7. Schedule: Tracks when someone schedules an appointment on your website
8. StartTrial: Tracks when someone starts a trial on your website
9. SubmitApplication: Tracks when someone applies to your website
10. Subscribe: Tracks when someone subscribes to something on your website
11. ViewContent: Tracks when someone views content on your website
The Facebook Pixel And Standard Events
Each of these standard events can be used as the conversion event, to create a remarketing audience or lookalike audiences.
Conversion Events
You can use standard events to determine the conversion event outcome your ad set should optimize towards. Below we choose to have our ad set optimize our Facebook ads to purchase.
Remarketing Audience
Using the example above...
I selected purchase for my conversion event. There may be people who add to cart or view content but don't checkout.
I can create custom audiences for these people and show people in these list Facebook ads.
If you want to learn how to create Custom Audiences you can do that here.
As you can imagine having the Facebook pixel installed earlier in the year allows for a larger audience pool when you need it most.
Lookalike Audiences
I used pixel events for add to cart and view content to create custom audiences.
These remarketing audiences have converted well.
I can now create lookalike audiences to target more people who look like these people.
To learn more about Lookalike Audiences I've created a guide.
Getting Started With The Facebook Pixel
To set up your Facebook pixel and begin tracking your Facebook ad campaigns you need to go to your Facebook business settings.
Create A Facebook Pixel
If you haven't created your Facebook pixel yet you can open this post where we walk you through creating and connecting the Facebook pixel with your Facebook Business Manager.
Installing The Facebook Pixel With Facebook Events Manager
Once you've created your Facebook pixel you are going to select the "Open in Events Manager" button in the upper right corner.
From the Facebook events manager, you will get step-by-step instructions for installing your Facebook pixel if you have not done so already.
Select the blue "Continue Pixel Setup" button.
We want to connect the Facebook pixel or Meta pixel as it is now called.
Once you've selected the Meta pixel option you can either install the code manually or follow the steps to install with a partner.
Manually Installing the Facebook Pixel
First, copy your base header code and install this right before the closing, </head>
Turn on automatic advanced matching.
Automatic advanced matching provides us with data that will allow Facebook to show our Facebook ads to relevant target audiences.
We need all the information and data sources on our website traffic we can get.
Next, open the event setup tool.
Enter your website URL.
From the event setup tool, you can set up tracking for actions on a specific page
For example, tracking everyone who selects the button to view content on "How To Scale Facebook Ads Sustainably."
Once I've chosen the button I can choose the standard event I would like to track.
Once I've set up all my events I can "finish setup".
The Facebook events manager is also where you can manage your conversion API connection if you've decided to use this instead of the "Meta pixel".
Other Ways To Install Facebook Tracking Pixel
Installing manually is only one way to set up your Meta pixel. Depending on the tools you use you may be able to install it with your pixel ID or via tag manager.
What is your Facebook pixel ID? 3rd Part Setup
In some cases, you may need your Facebook pixel ID to set up your Facebook pixel. This can occur within your online store preferences and is your platform attempting to make the Facebook pixel set up easier.
Your pixel ID is a string of numbers that uniquely identifies your pixel. You can find your ID in your Business Settings under 'Data Sources > Pixels'.
Google Tag Manager Setup
Most tools that marketers use require some form of code installed for tracking purposes. GTM allows marketers to set up one tracking code then from within GTM they can paste new codes and have them applied to the site without a developer.
If you use Google Tag Manager (GTM) you can also set up your Facebook pixel using your tag manager.
Installing The Facebook Pixel Helper To Make Sure Your Pixel Is Firing
Now that you have created your Facebook Pixel and installed it on your site. The next step is to make sure that it is firing correctly.
"Firing" means that every time standard and custom events happen the Facebook Pixel is sending this customer data back to the Facebook Ads Manager to be tracked.
The best way to test if your pixel is firing is by using the Facebook Pixel Helper.
The Facebook Pixel Helper is a Google Chrome browser extension that allows you to see whether your Facebook pixel is working correctly.
It also allows you to debug what events are being fired and troubleshoot any issues with your Facebook pixel.
Installing The Facebook Pixel Helper
1. Go to the Chrome Web Store and search for "Facebook Pixel Helper".
2. Click "Add to Chrome"
3. Click "Add extension" in the pop-up window.
4. The extension will now show up as a little icon in the top right-hand corner of your browser.
5. You can click the puzzle piece in the upper right-hand corner of your browser to pin the extension, making it easier to find and use in the future.
Using The Facebook Pixel Helper
1. Navigate to the website where you have installed your Facebook pixel.
2. Click on the FB extension icon in your browser.
3. A small pop-up window will appear showing how many pixels were found on the page and whether they have fired any events.
4. Click on the "Events" tab to see a list of all the events that were fired.
5. If you see any errors, click on the "Warnings" tab to find out more information about what could be causing them.
Troubleshooting Facebook Pixel Issues
1. Check that your Facebook pixel works on all the pages of your website.
2. Make sure that you are using the most recent version of the Facebook pixel code.
3. Test if your events are firing correctly by using the extension
4. Check for any warnings or errors in the extension
5. If you are still having issues, contact Facebook for more support.
Launch Your First Facebook Ad
The Facebook Pixel is now installed on your site. This is the first step to eventually running Facebook ads.
Remember you do not need to spend money on Facebook ads to create your pixel. It is simply there to track users to the site and allow for the creation of remarketing audiences in the future. Making the Facebook pixel an easy first step to do before running Facebook ads.
If you are ready to take the next step and create your Facebook ads but have not yet set up your ad account or connected your FB business page you can learn how to do that in our guide to getting started with a new ad account.
If you have done all of the above and are ready to start running Facebook ads. You can read our post on running ads in the Facebook Ads Manager.
As always if you would like to connect with me and brainstorm Facebook ad ideas feel free to schedule a call.
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