A Facebook Pixel, or Meta Pixel as of February 2022, is an important tool that can be utilised to track customer actions online involving your brand. Through this data collection, ad strategies can be formulated to target specific audiences and increase conversion rates with digital marketing. We discuss how to install a Facebook pixel and how to use it to track customer interaction with your website, conversions, and harness retargeting campaigns to improve sales.
What is the Facebook Pixel, and How Does it Work?
If you’ve recently patronised an online store selling items like customised jewellery without buying anything, you may have noticed sponsored jewellery ads popping up while browsing through Instagram or Facebook. You may think this is strange, as you haven’t mentioned being interested in said items apart from that one quick browse. However, these ads look appealing, reminding you of your initial interest. This draws you to click on them and proceed with a purchase.
Embedded into your website, this piece of code drops a tracking cookie on visitors who convert from Facebook or Instagram ads or find your website organically. This cookie tracks the actions they take on your website and their behaviour on any subsequent visits. Not only does this apply to those who have converted and completed a purchase, but to those who have shown interest as well. Discover which items drive the most traffic, conversions, or actions, such as scroll time and the number of clicks taken.
Through this data collection, you can determine your customers’ purchasing behaviour and decide on potential retargeting strategies. By building specific target audiences for future ad campaigns and utilising Facebook’s ad optimisation, you can ensure that your ads are highly targeted and shown to those who have previously converted or visited your website.
Getting Started
Secure a Domain
You will first need a domain, which can be a pre-existing one registered elsewhere, from an existing Google Domains account or newly purchased from Google Domains. Although not required, a custom domain name gives you control over how your brand is presented online and makes it easier for people to find and remember your website.
Pixel Creation and Implementation
Once you’ve generated your Meta Pixel on Facebook, add it manually to your website code by yourself or with the help of a developer. Alternatively, the pixel can be set up easily without interfering with the code for websites hosted on Facebook integration partners like WordPress or Squarespace.
Only one pixel should be used for each website, and its base code should be added to all the pages. Set up standard events for special pages such as ‘add-to-basket’ or ‘purchase’ to measure important actions. Custom events collect specialised data on the number of clicks or visits to specific product pages to gauge interest and behaviour.
A dedicated notice should also be added to your website so your visitors can consent to have their data collected, as per Facebook’s Business Tools Terms.
Targeting and Retargeting
By tracking standard and custom events, you can build a custom audience for future ad campaigns to target previous visitors to your site based on their actions. For example, if a customer has added a specific product to their cart without completing their purchase, they will see your product ad on Instagram or Facebook. By basing the data on visitors in your custom audience, a lookalike audience can also be created to expand your potential customer base and ensure that your adverts are displayed to as many people that are likely to convert as possible.
How Does the Facebook Pixel Empower Social Media Marketing?
By implementing the Facebook Pixel on your website, you effectively improve customer tracking and receive customised behaviour and purchasing analytics of your target audience. With this information and results from previous ad campaigns, you can reach the right people through conversion optimisation across devices and social media platforms. As more conversions happen over time, Facebook improves its algorithm and how adverts are delivered to the right audience. Not only is this a way to remind previous visitors to the site to return and complete their purchase, but it is also an incredibly successful way of reaching new audiences and driving sales.
Installing a Facebook Pixel on your website is, without a doubt, the future of targeted social media marketing.
With the increased consumption of social media in our daily lives, staying relevant and gaining exposure online is more important than ever for brand recognition and promoting sales.