Facebook Pixel: What is it and why use it?

The Facebook Pixel is an essential tool for any digital marketer looking to optimize their advertising campaigns and better understand their audience’s behavior.

This information is crucial to effectively track conversions, optimize ads, build custom audiences for future campaigns and remarketing, and gain deep insights into how users interact with your website.

In this article, we explain what the Facebook Pixel is, why it is an indispensable tool for marketers and how you can implement it to transform your online advertising strategies.

What is Facebook Pixel?

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 works through a code that you install on the pages of your website.

Once installed, the pixel tracks and records certain actions performed by users on your site, known as “events”. These events can be anything from viewing a page to making a purchase.

Do you want to maximize the return on your Facebook campaigns? Our agency is an expert in the use of the Facebook Pixel and we are ready to help you take advantage of its full potential. Contact us!

Why do you need to configure the Facebook Pixel?

Setting up the Facebook Pixel is crucial to any digital marketing strategy using Facebook for several key reasons:

Conversion tracking

The Pixel allows you to track how users interact with your website after clicking on your Facebook ads. This is essential to understand which ads are generating purchases, downloads, registrations or other valuable actions for your business.

2. Ad Optimization

With the information gathered by the Pixel, you can optimize your ad campaigns to be shown to the people most likely to take the desired action, such as buying a product or signing up for a service.

3. Creation of personalized audiences and retargeting.

You can use Pixel data to create custom audiences based on user behavior on your website, allowing you to specifically target people who have shown interest in your products or services.

This is particularly effective for retargeting campaigns, where you can target users who visited your site, but did not complete an action.

4. Accurate ROI measurement

The Pixel provides detailed data that helps you understand the ROI of your advertising campaigns, allowing you to evaluate their effectiveness and make adjustments based on real data.

5. Obtaining insights on user behavior

By tracking how users interact with your site, you can gain valuable insights into their behavior. This information may be used to improve the user experience on your website and to inform other marketing and product decisions.

6. Adjustment of marketing strategies

With the data obtained, you can adjust your marketing strategies to focus on what works, eliminating or modifying tactics that are not effective.

Standard Facebook Pixel events

Standard events are essential to measure and optimize your Facebook ad campaigns. Here are some of the most common standard events:

1. ViewContent: This is recorded when a user visits a page on your website, such as a specific product page. It is useful to measure interest in certain pages or products.

2. Search: It is activated when a user performs a search on your website. This event is relevant to understand what users are looking for and how to adjust your offer or content strategy.

3. AddToCart: It is registered when a user adds a product to their shopping cart. It is crucial for understanding purchase interest and for retargeting strategies.

4. AddToWishlist: Similar to the AddToCart event, but is used when a user adds a product to their wishlist.

5. InitiateCheckout: Fires when a user starts the checkout process. It is an important indicator of purchase intent.

6. AddPaymentInfo: Logged when a user adds payment information. This event is a strong indicator that the user is close to finalizing a purchase.

7. Purchase: Perhaps the most important event, it is triggered when a purchase is completed. It is vital to measure the ROI of your advertising campaigns.

8. Lead: Used when a user shows interest in your product or service, such as by subscribing to a newsletter or filling out a contact form.

9. CompleteRegistration: This event is logged when a user completes a registration form on your site, such as for a user account or a subscription.

These events enable detailed segmentation and analysis of user actions on your website, helping you to fine-tune your advertising campaigns to meet your objectives.

How to use the Facebook Pixel?

Using Facebook Pixel effectively is key to improving your digital marketing campaigns. Here are several steps and strategies to get the most out of this tool:

Installation and configuration

• Start by installing the Facebook Pixel on your website. This usually involves copying and pasting the pixel code into the header of your website or using a plugin if you are using a content management system (CMS) such as WordPress.

• Make sure the pixel is correctly configured to track the events that are most relevant to your business.

2. Standard and customized event tracking

• Set up standard events (such as “Purchase”, “Add to cart”, “Content display”) that align with your business objectives.

• Consider creating custom events to track specific actions unique to your website that are not covered by standard events.

3. Creation of Custom Audiences:

• Use the pixel data to create custom audiences based on user behavior on your website. For example, you could target users who visited a specific product page, but did not make a purchase.

• These custom audiences can be used for retargeting campaigns, increasing the probability of conversion.

4. Optimization of campaigns for conversion

• Adjust your ad campaigns to focus on achieving specific conversions that the pixel is tracking.

• Use Facebook’s ad delivery optimization feature to show your ads to people who are most likely to take the desired action.

5. Data analysis and adjustments

• Regularly review the data collected by the pixel to understand how users interact with your website and respond to your ads.

• Use these insights to make informed adjustments to your ad campaigns, such as modifying ad copy, audience targeting or bidding strategy.

6. A/B Testing

• Perform A/B tests with different versions of your ads to see which one performs better. Use the pixel to measure the success of each variant in terms of conversions and other relevant events.

7. Remarketing

• Implement remarketing strategies to re-engage users who have interacted with your site, but have not completed a desired action.

8. Data privacy compliance:

• Make sure you comply with data privacy laws such as GDPR by informing your website visitors about the use of cookies and pixel tracking, and obtaining their consent where necessary.

How to create a Facebook pixel?

Creating a Facebook Pixel is a relatively simple process and is done through the Facebook Ads Manager. Here I explain the steps to do it:

1. Access the Facebook Ads Manager:

• Log in to your Facebook account and access the Ads Manager.
• If you do not yet have an ad account, you will need to create one.

Go to the event manager:

• Within the Ads Manager, find and select the ‘Event Manager’ option.

3. Create a new pixel:

• In the Event Manager, select the option to create a new pixel.

• Click on ‘Connect data’ and then select ‘Web’.

4. Name your pixel:

• Assign a name to your pixel. It is advisable to choose a name that clearly represents your business or the website where the pixel will be used.
• You must also enter the URL of your website to verify that the pixel is pointing to the correct site.

5. Configure the pixel:

Facebook will offer you several options to install the pixel code on your website. These include:

• Manual installation of the code yourself.
• Use of a tag manager or plugin if your site is on a platform such as WordPress.
• Send instructions to a web developer if you are not comfortable with the technical installation.

6. Installation of the pixel code:

• If you choose to install the code yourself, copy the pixel code that Facebook provides.
• Paste this code into the header of your website, making sure it appears on all pages.

7. Verify the installation of the pixel:

• After installing the pixel, use the ‘Facebook Pixel Helper’ browser extension or similar tools to verify that the pixel is active and working properly on your website.

8. Configure events:

• Once the pixel is installed, you can set up specific events that you want to track, such as ‘purchases’, ‘add to cart’ or ‘page view’.

9. Checking and testing:

• Perform some tests to make sure that the pixel is tracking events correctly. You can do this by visiting your website and performing some of the actions that the pixel should track, then verify the data in the Event Manager.

Creating and properly configuring a Facebook Pixel is essential to maximize the performance of your Facebook advertising campaigns, as it allows you to track, analyze and optimize your ads based on user behavior on your website.

Examples of Facebook Pixel

Examples of how Facebook Pixel is used cover several common scenarios in digital marketing, demonstrating its versatility and power to optimize ad campaigns. Here are some practical examples:

E-commerce Conversion Tracking:

An online store installs Facebook Pixel to track purchases. When a customer completes a purchase, the ‘Purchase’ event is triggered, allowing the store to measure the effectiveness of its ads based on actual sales generated.

Retargeting campaigns:

A travel website uses the Pixel to identify users who have searched for flights but have not completed a booking. It then launches a retargeting campaign on Facebook specifically targeting these users, showing them personalized ads promoting flight deals.

Ad Optimization for Lead Generation:

A service company uses the Pixel to track the ‘Lead’ event each time a user completes an inquiry form.

This information helps them optimize their ads to reach users who are more likely to convert into leads.

Content Interaction Measurement:

A blog installs the Pixel to track how many users visit their posts after clicking on Facebook ads.

This helps them understand which topics are most appealing to their audience and adjust their content strategy.

Customer Behavior Analysis:

An online fashion store uses the ‘ViewContent’ event to see what products visitors are viewing.

They use this data to create custom audiences and display ads related to users’ specific interests.

Increased Event Registrations:

An organization promoting an event uses the Pixel to track registrations. They analyze data to understand which ads and which messages are most effective in driving enrollments.

Optimizing Campaigns for Add to Cart

An online retailer sets up the ‘AddToCart’ event to identify users who add products to their cart, but do not complete the purchase. They then create retargeting campaigns to incentivize these users to return and complete their purchases.

These examples illustrate how Facebook Pixel can be used in a variety of situations to track and improve the performance of advertising campaigns, providing valuable insights into user behavior and helping to make informed decisions about marketing strategy.