5 Steps to Installing Your Facebook Pixel

Author: Kaitlyn Wilcoxson Category: Marketing, Social Media & Digital Date: September 7, 2018

This is a scenario that you probably know all too well: You are online, and you see an amazing pair of shoes on your favorite store’s website. You are on the product page and you think, “Well, I don’t need these right now,” so you leave the site. But, over the next few days, Facebook seems to disagree with you, they think you need the shoes and that you need them now. Each time you login to Facebook, you are then revisited by an ad for that same pair of shoes and next thing you know, they are in your cart and you are entering your credit card information.

At Paradigm, we say it often, it takes seven to eleven touches to reach your target audience. Facebook knows and understands the concept well, which is why retargeting ads and custom audiences are an important part of their advertising capabilities. So, how does Facebook know to show you those shoes again? It is called the Facebook Tracking Pixel, and here is what it is and how it works:

What is the Facebook Tracking Pixel?

The Facebook Tracking Pixel is a snippet of code that is unique to your Facebook ad account. The Pixel code is generated by Facebook and is placed between the HEAD tags on every page of your website to allow you to track where your website visitors go once they click on your Facebook Ad.

Why is it Important?

The Facebook Pixel provides you with greater insight into what your audience is interested in and what actions they are taking on your site. As the Pixel collects data, you can use that information to develop custom audiences for your ads. With the information you collect, you can target website visitors that visited a certain page, that visited within a certain time range, that were most active on your page and more. This information is key for advertising to people that may be at different points in the buying funnel.

For example, if a person has visited your website in the last few days, you can point them to a specific tool, case study or blog post that you posted since their last visit. If they stayed on a particular page for a while, our shoe scenario, you can point them towards a conversion such as purchasing the product on that page, filling out a contact us form, or downloading a resource or tool relevant to the page they were visiting. Once you create these ads, they will automatically run whenever someone takes the action that you choose. But, you should revisit your ads every few weeks to measure performance and make any modifications to the messaging or design.

How to Install it

1. Login to your Facebook Ads Manager and navigate to the Pixels page. You can find this page under Measure & Report column in the top left dropdown menu.
2. Get started by naming your pixel, your pixel name should be related to your business name.
3. You will then be provided with a series of options, choose the option that says Manually Install the Code Yourself. Once redirected, copy the entire code from the second box.
4. Next, login into your WordPress site and go to your Headers and Footers plugin. If you don’t already have one, you can install WordPress Headers and Footers.
5. Once in the plug-in, paste the code into the headers section and click save. This will apply the code to all of your pages’ head tags.

Now that you have your Pixel installed and you know how it works, it is time to start collecting data. Make sure when you are creating all Facebook ads, that you have your Pixel turned on during the final step of the ad building process. After you have collected some data from the Pixel, start developing retargeting campaigns using these custom audiences to help move your prospects through the buying funnel.

If you want to learn more about how you can develop social media marketing campaigns that convert, contact us today.