A Facebook pixel is a code that you can put on your website that tracks conversion rates from Facebook ads. The pixel helps to optimize ads based on this data, gather a targeted audience for future ads, and sell your product or service to people who have already taken action on your site.

In short, the Facebook pixel places and triggers cookies that track users of your site and people who interact with your Facebook ads.

How the Facebook Pixel Works

Facebook allows you to collect data via nine predefined events, or through custom conversions that you decide yourself. These nine standard events include:

View content: A visitor lands on your website.
Search: Someone uses the search function to look up something on your website.
Lead: A prospect signs up for something on your site and qualifies themselves as a lead.
Add to cart: A buyer adds a product from your site to the shopping cart.
Add to wish list: A viewer adds one of your products to a wish list available on your site.
Initiate checkout: A prospect begins the checkout process to buy something from you.
Add payment info: A buyer types in payment information during the purchasing process.
Make Purchase: A buyer completes the purchase process.
Complete registration: Your client finishes registering for something on your site, for instance, a subscription.

With custom conversions, you can use Facebook pixel to track specific categories of merchandise instead of all of your content, or otherwise use specific URLs or keywords to track certain items. To activate custom conversions, you will need to enable the option through your Facebook Ads Manager.

You can also add details to any of the nine events using parameters that customize events based on product name, category or ID, number of items clients buy, specific searches, and more.

How Can You Use the Pixel to Grow Your Business?

“Knowledge is power,” many say, and Facebook pixels provide the knowledge that can power your marketing strategy. For example:

Tracking: Facebook pixels help you track conversions by monitoring what people do on your site after seeing your Facebook ad. It even allows you to track prospective clients across devices (phone, laptop, desktop, iPad, etc).
Targeting ads: Data from Facebook pixels can help you collate an audience with similar interests and/or demographics to expand your ability to reach warm leads. Pixels ensures that your ads are seen by the people most likely to take action.

Therefore, some ways to use Facebook Pixels include:

Customizing your audience: Use Pixels to track site visitor movements to find out which pages they visit on your site, and when. Then use this data to market to these groups. You can advertise to people who have visited a specific page on your site, or people who have visited your site within the last 24 hours, or more.
Custom or standard events: Facebook pixel logs any action on your website as an event. You can use these events to track and optimize conversions and build audiences. If you know that you have specific elements on your site that you want to track, beyond the nine standard events, you can create custom conversions using the URL or part of the URL that represents your custom conversion.

How to Install Facebook Pixel for Retargeting

If you want to install Facebook pixel on your site, you can do it yourself by placing the base code in your header:

Go to Pixels in Events Manager
Click “Create a Pixel”
Click “Create” to finish creating your pixel
When the pixel is finished, locate the header code for your website, and copy the entire code and paste it in the header of your site.
Check that the Pixel is working correctly by clicking “Send Test Traffic” after placing the code on your site. If the status says “Active,” you are in business!

Is a Facebook Pixel Necessary For Your Future Marketing Campaigns?

Every solid digital marketing strategy needs a method for tracking campaigns. If you are planning to make Facebook a part of your strategy, then Facebook pixels are a must-have.

This simple piece of code that you install on your website will help you see, track, save, and analyze site visitor footprints. This important piece of information will tell you how well your ads are working, if they are working at all, and take appropriate action.

As you continue to adjust your ad and collect conversions, Facebook learns and markets your ad to more and more ideal prospects. Pixels gives Facebook the ability to know who to serve the ad to. In short, Facebook pixels is a smart investment for modern-day digital marketers, saving you time, effort, and money, and ultimately contributing to your business success.