One of the first things I heard about when I  got started with Facebook Advertising was this ‘Facebook Pixel.’ I had no clue what it was or how it worked, but I knew it was important.

In this article my goal is to share with you everything I’ve learned about the Facebook Pixel as quickly as possible so you can take action right away!

What is a Facebook Pixel?

According to Facebook, it’s “an analytics tool that allows you to measure the effectiveness of your advertising by understanding the actions people take on your website.”

I typically describe it as a short piece of code that is placed inside your website. It sends key information back to Facebook such as: every time a user lands on a specific page, or when a user clicks a button, where the user is from etc.

It does this by leaving a cookie-like code in the browser. Similar to how Google Analytics works, however the major difference being is that you can then remarket to all of these users through Facebook's Advertising Platform.

Facebook Pixel Setup

Initial Facebook Pixel Creation

1. Go to the Facebook Events Manager
2. Select your Business Page from the top left account dropdown.
3. Click 'Add New Data Source' and select 'Facebook Pixel' from the dropdown.
4. Add a name for your Pixel. Ex: “Your Website Name’s Amazing Pixel”
5. Enter your URL for easy set up options.
6. Click continue.

That's it! You’ve just created your Facebook Pixel. Now all you have to do is integrate it onto your website and put it to work.

Side Note: There may be a future situation where you require multiple Facebook Pixels for your business. For example: Your primary website pixel, a pixel for a separate landing page, etc. In this case you will need to make sure you’ve set up a Facebook Business Manager first. Although in most cases one Facebook Pixel per Facebook Page is recommended.

Facebook Pixel Integration On WebFlow

Once you’ve set up your Pixel on Facebook’s end, you're ready to instal it on your WebFlow site in only 4 simple steps!

Yet another way the WebFlow team has out done themselves, is by making it easier than ever to instal your Facebook Pixel on your website. All you need is the Pixel ID and you're good to go. No more messing around with manually installing code on your website. 

1. Open the Facebook Events Manager, select your Page (top left dropdown), and you should now see your newly created Facebook Pixel listed. Along with a ‘Pixel ID.’ Copy the Pixel ID for the following steps.

2. From your WebFlow dashboard, access the ‘Project Settings’ for the website you want to place your Pixel on.
3. Select ‘Integrations’ from the options bar at the top.
4. Scroll down to the section titled ‘Facebook Pixel,’ and simply paste your Pixel tracking ID in the box below.
   

And that's all there is to it. For more information on installing the Pixel specifically onto your WebFlow website, check out this article here.

At this point, you can test the Pixel either within the Facebook Events Manager or from the Chrome browser extension.

Facebook Integration On Other Platforms

If you’re setting up your Pixel on any other platform other than WebFlow, Facebook has a built in step by step walk-through. 

Once again, from the Facebook Events Manager, select your account (top left), and then click your Pixel. 

In the top right corner, click the dropdown menu labeled ‘Set Up.’ Select ‘Instal Pixel.’ A pop up window will appear as shown below.

As you can see, you can install through either an Integration (Compatible with: Shopify, Woocomerce, Squarespace, Wix and more), by manually install the code on your website yourself, or lastly by emailing the instructions to your web developer to do it themselves.

There’s no right or wrong way to do it, as each method ultimately results in the same outcome. The main thing is to make sure it has been installed properly and works!

Facebook Pixel Integration On Shopify

Follow the exact same steps listed above as you would to instal the Pixel on a WebFlow website. All you will need is the Pixel ID which can be located from the main page of your Facebook Events Manager.

From your Shopify store dashboard. Open the menu, scroll down and select the ‘Preferences’ option.

Then scroll down the page until you see the section labeled ‘Facebook Pixel.’

Simply paste in your Pixel ID and you’re good to go!

Facebook Pixel Test - Chrome Extension

After you have created your Facebook Pixel, you want to make sure it works. The easiest way I’ve found to do this is by using the Facebook Pixel Helper. It’s an easy-to-use troubleshooting tool that validates Pixel implementation.

You can find here: Facebook Pixel Helper

Putting the Facebook Pixel to Work

Once you’ve created and installed your Pixel, the first thing you want to do is give it some time to begin collecting data. Every time the Pixel is triggered it logs the hit as an ‘event.’ 

In order to get the best performance from Facebook's machine learning algorithm, you need to provide the system with enough data.

My recommendation would be to accumulate at least a few thousand website visits at the bare minimum before using the Pixel data to run remarketing campaigns on Facebook.

Facebook will also let you know if you do not have enough data built up on your Pixel at the time of an audience creation using Pixel data.

6 Ways To Use A Facebook Pixel

1. Tracking how many leads, registrations, and sales you got from your ads.

One of the major differences between traditional advertising (such as TV, Radio, or Newspaper Ads) and modern online advertising (Social media advertising, Google Ads etc.) is the ability to track, monitor and report the performance of every single campaign. 

It’s very difficult to measure the success of a specific radio or TV Ad as the only information you’re really given is the total number of listeners / viewers. You can measure the overall brand lift or increase in revenue from a traditional marketing campaign, but how do you say for certain the TV Ad made the difference compared to the radio Ad they heard.

Online Ads paint a much more vivid picture. Your goal is much more precise and you can track users online throughout their entire experience on your website. You now have the ability to attribute a specific number of leads, sales, etc to the total cost of your campaign!

2. Knowing how much revenue those sales generated.

As summarized above, the Facebook Pixel is the link that allows business owners around the world to have access to rich advertising data from someone who clicks your ad, to filling out a form on your website and all the costs involved.

3. Creating audiences for retargeting campaigns.

You can create a custom audience (for targeting your warm audience) that uses the data from your pixel. You can retarget users who simply landed on your website, or more advanced segments such as people who have abandoned a cart on your ecommerce site.

4. Generating Lookalike audiences in seconds

Lookalike audiences are audiences that Facebook generates based off of data from your Pixel. Lookalike audiences are not the same people your Pixel has tracked but rather people around the globe that Facebook has determined match the types of people that have already landed on your site. 

This is extremely powerful when it comes to scaling your business online down the road.

5. Getting Facebook to optimize for conversions instead of just traffic or reach

In order to create an advertising campaign on Facebook that is optimized for conversions. Facebook needs to know what a conversion even means to you. 

For example, perhaps you want to run a campaign on Facebook and a conversion event to you is when someone adds a product to their shopping cart. Although maybe a conversion for someone else is when a discovery call is scheduled or a form is filled.

Advanced Facebook Pixel functionality allows you to identify various custom conversion events throughout your website.

6. Running Dynamic Product Ads

If you have an ecommerce business, dynamic product ads can be extremely powerful. Have you ever been shopping on Amazon, and then later on while browsing social media, you see an ad for the exact product you were looking at on Amazon?

This is exactly what a dynamic product ad is. Using the power of a Facebook Pixel, you can remarketing specific products to only the people who have viewed the product in question. Dynamic meaning unique Ad creative for each product is generated.

Obviously remarketing a product to someone who has already viewed it and shown interest will convert much better than displaying to that same person something they’ve never seen or heard of. Which is why a huge company like Amazon spends millions of dollars per year on them.

Summary

It is without a doubt that online advertising is here to stay. The number of business advertising on social media is only growing year by year so it is up to you as a small business owner to make sure you’re doing everything you can to capitalize.

This means taking advantage of the benefits that social media advertising has to offer such as reaching your exact ideal audience and also a way better return on every single advertising dollar you spend.

Setting up and installing a Facebook Pixel means you’re one step closer to a successful / more effective Facebook Advertising campaign!

If you have any further questions, or would like me to set up your Pixel for you, do not hesitate to reach out.