What Is A Facebook Pixel And How To Install One?
Do you know that over 1.7 billion people use Facebook daily? That's 1.7 billion prospective customers waiting for your business.
By installing a Facebook Pixel on your website you can not only target those people with Facebook Ads but also see what they are looking at when they come to your website.
What Is A Facebook Pixel?
Simply put a Facebook pixel is a piece of code that you put on your website (and/or landing pages). As Facebook explains, this code “is an analytics tool that allows you to measure the effectiveness of your advertising by understanding the actions people take on your website.”
A Facebook pixel can help businesses with their online marketing in many ways, the three main ones are:
Advertising
With the information that a Facebook pixel Facebook themselves will make sure that your ad is shown to the right people.
Retargeting
Have you ever gone to a website to look for a particular product, say a pair of shoes. You look, your research and then you leave without buying. Next, you go to Facebook to connect with friends, and right there, on your feed, is an ad for those exact shoes from that exact website. This is the magic of a Facebook Pixel.
When you install a Facebook Pixel on your website, it will track visitors and their actions (capture events) there for example:
which page they visited
what they looked at on that page
how long they stayed on that page
how many times they visited that page
Build Audiences
There is a whole world out there waiting for your business but how do you pick who to show your products to?
With a Facebook pixel you can use it's targeting data to create lookalike audiences of people of who have similar interest, demographics and even likes to people who have already been on your site. This is a great and easy way to expand your customer base without having to spend any money.
This all sounds great, but is it hard to install a Facebook pixel? Not at all!!
Below I'll take you step by step through the process so you can then start using the Facebook Pixel to track and retarget your customers and get more sales and leads.
So you've got your website up and running...tick
Whether it be on Shopify, Woocommerce, Wix or Wordpress you're going to need a website.
Next, you have a Facebook business page....tick. From there you have created an account in Facebook Business Manager (if you are unsure how to do this have a look at How To Create An Account in Facebook Business Manager)
Here is where manage your different advertising accounts, Facebook pages, Instagram accounts, invite partners (to manage advertising for example), etc.
Where to find the Facebook Pixel tab
To do this, click on the menu at the top left of the Facebook Business Manager.
Click Events Manager and this screen will appear. Click on Pixels.
How to Create the Pixel
On the popup that will appear, select " create a pixel ", and choose its name.
Note that you can only have one Facebook pixel per ad account.
How to Install a Facebook Pixel on your website
Now comes the fun part of integrating the Pixel onto your website and the great news is that it's not complicated to do!
You will be given 3 options
1. Connect a Partner Platform.
This option is intended for those whose site has a tag manager hosted on an e-commerce platform (example: Shopify), or who use an e-commerce extension (example: Woocommerce). In this case, just follow the instructions given by the partner.
On WordPress, you will have to download a plugin. This will guide you to install your Pixel on your website. There are a lot of choices so take the time to do some research.
3. Install Facebook Pixel code manually
For this option, you will have to copy and paste your code, and add it manually to your pages. This is quick and simple, despite appearances.
Both Shopify and Wix and will allow you to insert a header code.
On WordPress, your theme will have it in settings. You will need to insert the code given by Facebook in the dedicated field (<head>).
3. Email the instructions to your web developer
If your website is supported by a web developer send them an email. They will do everything for you, that's their job!
Check that the Pixel is actually working
To find out if your Pixel is in place and running correctly there are two methods available to you.
1. Wait a couple of hours and then go back to the Facebook Ads Manager menu. Then select the Pixel tab: if it is displayed "active", it means that your Pixel code has been correctly installed. And in this case, I congratulate you, you have succeeded!
2. Download Facebook Pixel Helper from Google Chrome. After installing this extension, click on the logo, and you will know if your Pixel is active. Otherwise, you will receive an error message, or the extension's logo will simply not appear.
This second method is more efficient because it shows you the problems encountered (if any).
If you need any help give me a shout and I'll get you up and running.