How To Create & Install The Facebook Pixel On Your Website

You’ve heard about it and you know it can help you with things like retargeted advertising. But the question remains…

Have you installed the Facebook pixel on your website? Or are you not sure you even need it?

Today, I’m going to walk you through exactly what the Facebook pixel is, how it can help in your digital marketing activities and finally, how you can create it and get that bad boy onto your website to start doing it’s thing!

What is the Facebook pixel?

The Facebook pixel is a piece of code that can be placed on your website which tracks all the activity on the various pages where it is placed and reports it back to your Facebook ad account.

Pretty neat huh?!

It essentially looks something like the below in your Facebook ads manager, when installed correctly. All those peaks and troughs in the graph are telling you when people were active across your site and what they were doing.

Why do I need the Facebook pixel?

Always a question I am asked and yes, it is a fair one. If you have no intention of ever undertaking Facebook (or Instagram) advertising, then maybe you don’t need the pixel installed on your website.

But, my take on things is to ‘never say never.’

Right now, Facebook advertising might not be in your marketing mix, or even on your radar as a marketing activity. But what if your business grows, what if you move into e-commerce, or online bookings/transactions. You may then be looking in hindsight wishing you had installed it to begin with.

The Facebook pixel collects data on your website visitors. It tracks the pages they land on and the actions they take; from viewing a page, to adding products to carts, to making a transaction. This is all data you can use in your advertising strategy, particularly for retargeting.

So, even if you don’t think you’ll need that data in the future, it can’t hurt to let it accumulate either.

Let’s look at an example…

You own a small e-commerce business and you notice that you have a fairly standard rate of abandoned carts. Nothing too much to worry about, but definitely an audience you could reach out to and try to convert. We know it takes multiple interactions before a consumer will make an online purchase, so how in the world do you reach them again?

It’s all in the Facebook pixel!

Using ads manager, you can create custom audiences from the data your pixel has collected. We can literally tell Facebook that we want our ads shown only to those who have added products to their cart, but not made a purchase in the last 30 days. Now, you might offer a discount code, or you might just remind them of what they’ve left behind on your site. But, either way, you are getting in front of an audience with a high consideration for your product or service and reminding them that they are there to purchase.

Without the Facebook pixel? You are relying on basic targeting such as demographics and interests and once someone leaves your site, you have a much smaller chance of reaching them again.

How do I put the Facebook pixel on my website?

Now this is usually where business owners decide the pixel is too hard to work with and give up.

I promise you, this is not the case!

I am not a web developer and I have done this for my own site and so can you! Of course, reach out to your web guy/ girl if you’re really stumped.

Rather than writing a list of instructions down, I have created a short video to show you how you can create the pixel and then the steps you can take to install it.

I would suggest that if you are not already, you set up Business Manager in Facebook. This helps to separate your personal and business profiles and makes things much easier to manage in the longterm, especially when it comes to advertising!

So, take a look at how easy it really is…

*insert new/updated youtube video*

It’s as simple as that!

So, even if right now you don’t think you need the Facebook pixel because you aren’t advertising, you don’t sell products online, your website isn’t up to scratch; just imagine all that data you could be missing out on accumulating before you decide that you DO need the pixel and all its benefits.

Want to find out more about how Facebook advertising could benefit you? Take a look at my social media advertising services!