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What is a Facebook Pixel and Why is it Important?

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Social media has completely revolutionized the business world by creating great opportunities for marketers to promote their products or services to a large audience. One of the most popular marketing platforms is Facebook, with 1.84 billion users visiting the social network every day.

The good thing with Facebook is that you can even advertise on Instagram and Messenger, which generates better ROI. However, if you want to create better marketing campaigns, you should track the activities of your site’s visitors. This is where a Facebook pixel comes in. Read on to gain more insights.

What Is a Facebook Pixel?

A Facebook pixel is a javascript code that you add to your web pages to collect data concerning your customers. It helps you track the effectiveness of your Facebook Ads. You will thus know what better works for your target audience to increase ad relevance.

The pixel works by triggering cookies to track users’ interaction with your website and Facebook Ads. The Pixel interprets customers’ actions as events. They could be anything from scroll depth, time spent on your pages, page views, or even purchases.

How to Use a Facebook Pixel on Your Website

To add a pixel to your site, go to Facebook Business Manager. On the menu, select pixels. Name your pixel, add your website URL, then click create. From here, you have a chance to either manually install the pixel or connect to a partner platform. Facebook will give you the code, which you should copy and paste to your website’s header.

Next, enable automatic advanced matching to allow Facebook to provide more accurate tracking. It achieves this by using customers’ information already present on your site, like their email addresses and phone numbers. Now select the type of events you want to track for your business.

Evaluate whether your newly added pixel communicates with your website by sending test traffic. If you successfully set it up, you should get a notification that the pixel is now active on your site. You might need to include pixel notices to inform your site visitors that you are collecting data through cookies.

How Do I Know I’m Getting the Most Out of My Facebook Pixel?

After installing the Facebook Pixel, it sets you apart from your competitors, and you should begin to see better returns from your Facebook marketing. However, if you fail to install the pixel correctly, you might not be able to gather the data you need to grow your business. The success of your marketing campaign will depend on what you choose to do with the data collected from the Facebook pixel. You will get the most out of the pixel if you use the data in the following ways.

Build a Custom Audience

When a customer views your ad, proceeds to your landing page, and buys your products or services, the Facebook Pixel records a report of this action and sends the details to your Ads Manager. You will thus know the exact type of people interested in your brand.

You can create a custom audience with such information and reach out to them again with relevant ads. Thus, the Facebook Pixel ensures that you focus Facebook marketing efforts on the right target audience, who are more likely to take the desired action.

Conversion Tracking

When you install a pixel to your site, be sure to also add Event Tracking to understand better how customers interact with your site and Facebook ads. You will therefore know the rate of conversions on your website as a result of your Facebook Ads. The Facebook Pixel will even let you know which specific campaign brings in higher conversions.

In case there is a specific event that you are interested in tracking, you can set up custom conversions to refine your ads strategy. Also, you will know the various pages people visit using different devices. For instance, you might notice that your website visitors click your ads through a mobile device and later makes purchases using a desktop. From this information, it’s clear that you need to optimize your website’s mobile friendliness to improve experiences.

Retargeting

The Facebook Pixel will also show you other customers who have shown interest in your products although they didn’t purchase. It gives you information about people who viewed your ad, visited your page but later canceled purchases. You can therefore show target ads to such people.

For instance, you can send a Retargeting Ad to site visitors who abandoned a shopping cart promoting the exact item they showed interest in. It increases the chances of closing a deal and keeps your brand fresh in potential clients’ minds. When a customer sees a retargeting ad, there is a 70% possibility of purchasing your products over your competitors.

Create Look Alike Audience

A Facebook Pixel also allows you to group people with similar interests, likes, or demographics. After experimenting with a few custom audiences, you can now reach out to a new audience, those who exhibit identical behaviors or interest to your custom audience. This means sending your ads to people who have similar buying habits like your customers, presenting your brand in front of valuable new eyes. It increases the chances of expanding your potential customer base.

Optimize Your Ads Campaigns Better

Since the Facebook Pixel tracks your site visitors’ behaviors, you can use it to create more engaging ads. You can align the ads more closely with your marketing campaign goals. Also, you will know how much time people spend on your website. This way, you can focus more on high-value customers. You will also see the cost per lead to plan your resources for better ROI.

Bottom Line

Facebook Pixels are a handy tool that helps marketers create, manage and optimize campaigns. After installing the Facebook Pixel, you should constantly monitor it to ensure that you use it to its full capacity. If the Pixel doesn’t give you a complete view of your site visitors’ interactions with your website, you might need professional assistance. Contact us today, and we will help ensure that you get the most out of your Facebook Pixel.

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