The Facebook Pixel: What It Is And How To Use It

For anyone who does any kind of marketing and promotion on Facebook for their blog, there is something you might like to have. If you run any sort of paid ads on Facebook, this information will especially come in handy for you.

 

What we’re talking about is called the Facebook Pixel.

 

What is it, and how can it help me you ask? At its core, the Facebook Pixel is a tool that can help to track the traffic to your site, and create easily trackable ads.

 

How exactly does the Facebook Pixel work?

 

The Facebook Pixel is a little snippet of code provided to you by Facebook that you can attach to the headers on the backend of your website. The code will watch and track traffic for you, providing you with insight that will allow you to build laser targeted Facebook ad campaigns with a custom audience.

 

Every Facebook Ad account will get one Pixel by default. The code snippets will be in two parts; the base code and the event code.

 

• The base code goes into the headers of your site’s HTML. It will track all of the traffic to the site.
• Event codes are different in that they can track more specific actions on a site. The event code is put underneath the base code in your site’s HTML headers.

 

What can event codes track?

 

Event codes can track a lot of very specific things for you. Learning these things can help you optimize your website and receive better conversion rates.

 

With the Facebook Pixel and using event codes, you can track some of the following actions on your site:

 

• The search event code allows you to track searches on your site. This comes in handy to help you know what is popular on your pages, so keep up that sort of content.

 

• Add to Cart. If you have any e-commerce features on your website, it is highly possible that you have an Add to Cart button somewhere on the site. The Add to Cart event for the Facebook Pixel allows you to track when someone adds something to their cart but doesn’t complete the purchase, allowing you to remarket specifically to them later down the line.

 

• Add to Wishlist. If you have this event code active and you have a wishlist function on your site, you can track which items people add to their wishlists. You can then run ads to them featuring the items they just added to their wishlists.

 

• You can use the Purchase event code to track every purchase made on your site, and then market to those buyers again when you have a new product in the pipeline.

 

• If you collect potential leads through your site with a call to action or lead magnet, you can track those leads with the Facebook Pixel.

 

Now that you know all about the Pixel and how it works, you’re going to need to know how to find it and use it for yourself.

 

How I do I use the Facebook Pixel?

 

It couldn’t be any easier. Simply go to Facebook and open up your Facebook Ads Manager. Click the menu button (the three horizontal lines) and select Pixels on the resulting menu from the column labeled Assets.

 

You’ll be greeted with another page. Click on Create a Pixel. You’ll then be prompted to name your Pixel. Do so and click Next. It will then be time to install the Pixel’s base code.

 

You will be presented with a code snippet on the next screen. Copy this code into your browser’s clipboard. Open up your website’s backend settings, and it will be time to paste this code into your HTML headers. There are also tag manager plugins that can aid with this sort of thing.

 

After you have the Facebook Pixel installed, you can check to make sure it is firing. You can check manually from the Facebook Ads Manager looking at your active Pixels. You can also do it in your browser with extensions such as Facebook Pixel Helper.

 

So, it can help me in targeting my ads?

 

Yes. The Facebook Pixel is all about gathering data that will better help you to serve laser targeted ads.

 

The more you know about your audience, the more effective your marketing will be. The Pixel can track when visitors land on a certain page of your site, when they make a purchase, and so much more. All of this will be helpful in better knowing your audience. Knowing your audience will also help you to provide better quality content tailored directly to them.