The Facebook Pixel - What Is It and Why You Must Have It On Your Website

What is the Facebook Pixel?

The Facebook Pixel is a piece of code that is installed on the backend of your website. Don't worry though, you don't need to know advance HTML coding to install this code, as most website builders will have easy integration instructions or a plug in allowing simple installation.

If you don't like getting you hands dirty on your website, get your web designer to install it for you. It is a simple 5 minute job so don't expect a huge expense to have it installed.

Why does my website need the Facebook Pixel?

The Facebook Pixel tracks user behaviours every time someone visits your website. This is crucial when you are marketing through Facebook, because firstly it allows you to measure any specific results you decide to measure, for example a purchase completed, a contact form completed, an add to cart, a product view etc. Any action can be measured by setting up a custom conversion.

Secondly it allows you to create highly targeted custom audiences that you can then run re-marketing campaigns to. As these audiences are highly targeted based on actions people have taken on your website, you will usually see a much better return on investment from these campaigns due to the audience your showing ads to have shown an interest in your business already, thus closer to taking action.

Why is it important to utilise the Facebook Pixel when running Facebook ads?

Say for example your want to create a Facebook ad to get somebody to purchase a product on your website, or to fill out a contact form to enquire about your product or service. When we set up a Facebook ad, we would choose the 'Conversions' objective. With the conversion objective we are telling Facebook the specific action we are looking at getting our customers to take like for these examples a purchase or contact form submitted. 

The reason why it is so important to use this objective if you are sending traffic through to your website, is that once Facebook starts to receive results from the conversion being completed, either purchase or contact form filled out in this example, the Facebook algorithm will go out and then show your ad to the most similar people to those who have already converted. 

The Facebook algorithm has thousands of data points collected about each person and their behaviours on Facebook, and it will start showing your ad to people who they determine, to be a good fit to complete the conversion you are looking for.

The more people you have converting on your ad ie. purchases or contact form in this example, the more data they have on the people that are converting. This makes it easier for Facebook to find the best prospects for you, and thus making sure your marketing is hitting the right people.

How to find the Facebook Pixel to send to install myself or send to your developer

Firstly you need to create a Facebook Business Manager account, if you don't have one already. Simply go to business.facebook.com to create an account. They are free and make it easier to have all of your social media assets like Facebook business page, Facebook ad account, Instagram business account and pixel in one place for easy access.

Next step is to click on the 3 horizontal lines in the top left corner of the page, then select the link 'Pixels'.

Then there is a blue button on the left hand side of the page that says 'Add New Data Source'. Click that and select 'Facebook Pixel'. Then follow the instructions from there. 

Here is also a link handy guide from Facebook to show you step by step how to do it. https://www.facebook.com/business/learn/lessons/tips-to-create-and-install-facebook-pixel?ref=ahc_lwe