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Let’s say you have a Facebook marketing strategy currently in place. You have a list of goals and you’re posting engaging ad content. However, you want more information. You might want to know what actions people are taking on your page. Or maybe you want to know when or if a customer purchases a product after seeing your ad.

This is where Facebook pixel can be a valuable tool to add to your website. Once you have installed Facebook Pixel, you can track actions on your website and use the data to optimize your Facebook Ad campaign.

The benefits of Facebook pixel are tremendous. Further, the Facebook Pixel cost is free. In this article, we’ll answer your questions like what is Facebook pixel and how does it work? We will also tell you how to set up Facebook pixel and the best way to use Facebook pixel tracking.

What is Facebook Pixel? 

To begin, Facebook pixel is a piece of code for your website that you copy into the header section. It integrates with the Facebook Ads Manager. It allows you to optimize delivery to audiences who are likely to convert. This is a great way to guarantee sales. Remember that strong content is central to converting visitors into buyers.

On the Facebook Pixel dashboard, you can get data and insights on how visitors are behaving on your website. This includes what actions they are taking. As a result, you can create custom audiences from web visitors. You can reach the customer or visitor again using the Custom Audience setting and through future Facebook ads.

Also, these custom audiences are useful for dynamic ads. Dynamic ads occur when a user expresses interest in your website and then it appears on their Facebook page (or vice versa). This automated process is a great visual reminder for your website visitors.

Given that most of us use more than one device, it’s important to know where the traffic is coming from. That’s where Facebook pixel comes in. It can measure cross-device conversions so you can refine your strategy. Cross-device conversions also means that if someone clicks on your ad via their mobile device and does not purchase, but later opens it on their laptop and does, the Pixel algorithm will detect it.

Once a user takes action, the Facebook pixel is notified. The more conversions that happen, the better the algorithm becomes at targeting the right audiences. This is known as conversion optimization. A conversion is what you want your audience to do and where you want them to be directed. This could be to an app, a messenger, or a website.

All in all, Facebook pixel is an analytics tool that will help you:

• Increase your ROI and drive more sales
• Show your ads to the right audiences
• Measure the results of your ads

How to Set up Facebook Pixel

The first step in how to set up Facebook pixel is making sure that you have a website for your business and be able to edit the website code. This is because you will need to install the Pixel on your web page. Then, you can move on to these steps:

• The first step is to go to the events manager on your Facebook account.
• Next, you want to press the green plus (+) icon that states “Connect Data Sources.” From the list of options, choose “Web.”
• Then you want to press “Facebook Pixel” and choose “Connect.”
• Now you will need to add your “Pixel Name.”
• Lastly, you will paste your website URL and work your way through the simple setup steps.

The process above actually creates the pixel. After that, you will need to add the Pixel code to your website to complete the setup process. There are many ways to add the Facebook Pixel code.

These include: manually adding the code, selecting a partner, or emailing the instructions to someone who manages your website code. This decision will likely depend on which website platform you use. For more details, check out this guide by Facebook business help center.

How Does Facebook Pixel Work?

Now that you know what Facebook pixel is and how to set it up, you probably want to know how does Facebook pixel work? Let’s say a user is scrolling through Facebook and they come across your ad. They click on it and get redirected to your website. Then, they choose to purchase an item.

When this happens, Facebook pixel will be notified and record the action. One great Facebook pixel benefit is that you will actually have the ability to reach out to this specific customer again by creating a Custom Audience.  Another important feature is that Facebook pixel can help you narrow down customers who have looked at your website but are still unsure of purchasing. They might have shown interest by actually clicking on the ad, but it didn’t translate to a lead. They could have selected a few items to add to their cart and abandoned them there. Facebook pixel collects this data and uses it to determine exactly which ads show them.

Essentially, Facebook pixel will help you narrow down your customer audiences to optimize sales and revenue. By reporting on every action taken on your website and Facebook ads, you will be able to effectively retarget these users.

Also, it will provide good insights into what is and isn’t working in your ads. For instance, you might see that a lot of people are purchasing one particular product. Or, you might notice a lot of clicks on one ad campaign and not the other.

As you build your audiences, knowing how to manage your budget is very important. Thankfully, the bidding prices on Facebook can be pretty low. Still, you want to focus on groups who are likely to act and purchase.

Overall, the great thing about Facebook pixel is the analytics and data. You can easily analyze the results of particular Customer Audiences and assess what is and isn’t working and implement that into your next social media ads campaign.

Facebook Pixel Tracking

Facebook pixel can track behaviors like:

• How long a user spent on the webpage
• What the user clicked on or purchased
• How much the user scrolled
• What time the user visited
• If the user didn’t visit

All of these are under the heading of Conversion Tracking. Generally speaking, you can use Facebook Pixel to track these behaviors in three ways:

The first is standard events. Standard events are common conversion activities. These include things like seeing a product, looking for a product, and buying a product.

Next is custom events. These are events that you have created. If you don’t see the event you want in the list of standard events, then you can create your own custom event. These can be used in combination with custom audiences to optimize ads.

Last is custom conversions. There are many uses for custom conversions. One is that they provide rules for a URL or event. In fact, you can measure customer actions more thoroughly after making these rules. An example of a custom conversion would be all clothing items purchased over $50. Another use for custom conversions is optimizing ad delivery.

One particularly useful Conversion Tracking behavior is the timeframe the user visited. This timeframe is useful because it can be correlated with the visitor’s level of intent. You can create a Custom Audience simply based on the users who have visited over the last week or over the last 30, 60, or 90 days. Play with the date range to ensure you have a large enough audience.

Benefits of Facebook Pixel Tracking

If you’re still not convinced, here are some benefits of Facebook Pixel tracking:

• Understand your target audience. Facebook Pixel provides powerful tools to collect data about your potential and existing target audience. This will encourage your ads to be shown to people who are most likely to take action. Facebook Pixel can open doors to new lookalike audiences who have similar interests, likes, and demographics to the people already visiting your website. Its retargeting data can allow you to push specific products to people who have already viewed your ads. This is a great way to use Facebook demographics for marketing.
• Optimization of Facebook Ads. Facebook pixel will help you turn visitors into leads. This will let you optimize your website for conversion that will boost business goals, like purchases and sign-ups, instead of only link clicks. Pixel allows you to optimize for value as well, meaning that it will target people who are more likely to make high-value purchases.
• Gain more access to Facebook Ad tools and Analytics. The extensive details Facebook Pixel provides makes it worth taking the time to set up. You will be able to analyze metrics to better understand your spend cost per lead or cost per conversion and create custom audiences and dynamic ads.
• Appeal to Long and Quick Shoppers. Facebook Pixel provides you with data that can help identify shoppers who take their time browsing before making a purchase. This will allow you to insert suggestions of other items the shopper should explore before making a decision. Similarly, the data can identify quick shoppers, who base their purchase on price and reviews. This will allow you to edit the format of your ads to better appeal to these shoppers, such as Collection or Carousel ads.
• Installing it is free! Paying for the ads is not free, but setting up Facebook pixel is.

Still Lost?  

The team of experts at Webmix Networks SEO can make your life easier by helping you out with the Facebook pixel setup. We can also tell you exactly how you should be using Facebook for marketing. Finally, we can guide you through Facebook advertising and ensure that your ads are fully functioning and effective.