If you're not using the Facebook pixel for your advertising campaign, you could be leaving a lot of money on the table.
The pixel has been around for a few years now, but many businesses still don’t take advantage of it when advertising online. In this article we’re going to cover exactly why the Facebook pixel (and advertising tracking in general) is so important to advertising success.
The Facebook pixel is an invaluable piece of code that tracks the actions of people visiting your website. It does this by placing cookies in the user’s browser and logging the actions the user takes, which (when set-up correctly) includes everything from filling out forms to making purchases. You can use it to measure the effectiveness of your advertising and see what’s bringing customers in... and what’s not. Without the pixel, you are flying blind.
For example, say you have two adverts running on Facebook simultaneously. How can you tell which ad is performing better? Installing the pixel will let you see how many people have converted from each advert into a lead or customer for your business. This enables you to switch off the underperforming campaign and spend more of your advertising budget on the campaigns that are working.
Advertising is a complex art. The clear and detailed statistics the pixel provides make it far easier to see what action you should take next when building your audience. You can use the information to optimise your advertising campaign, promoting content that draws customers in and removing content that does not. You can track the number of visitors, as well as see the actions they take on your website. This gives you an idea at how effective your website is at engaging and converting your prospects into paying customers.
In addition, Facebook retargeting lets you deliver ads to Custom Audiences. This means that you can target specific audiences for advertising - for example, people who have visited your website or purchased a product from you in the past. You can also send your audience adverts for specific products they have shown interest in but not yet committed to buying, such as something they added to their wishlist or favourited. The pixel helps Facebook’s machine learning algorithm optimise your campaigns towards the right type of people by giving it data on which Facebook users have taken actions with your business. The longer you use the pixel and the more data it gathers, the better its algorithms get at targeting the right people. This is a powerful tool for making sure your ads are reaching the people they should.
We recently launched a new campaign for one of our clients in the fitness industry. We used the data the pixel provided to retarget adverts towards customers who had viewed their opt-in page, but not signed up for their promotion. We specifically excluded users the pixel had tracked as ‘leads’, ensuring money was not wasted advertising to existing customers. Retargeting allowed us to aim the advertising towards the people most likely to become new paying customers. This had a significant impact on the success of the campaign.
Thanks to the abundance of technology most people have at their fingertips, it’s not uncommon for purchasing decisions to be made over several devices. For example, a person is scrolling through Facebook on their phone at work when they click on an advert for a pair of shoes they like. Once they get home, they remember the shoes and decide to buy them on their desktop computer. Although their initial interest was piqued by the advert on their phone, they made the actual purchase on a different device.
The pixel lets you take advantage of this. It uses cross-device tracking to keep tabs on the activity of a customer over several devices, letting you see exactly where they first became aware of your product and where they decided to take action and make the purchase. This lets you determine the path most of your customers follow when buying from your website, as well as compare the effectiveness of your campaign on different devices. You can then use this data to adjust your marketing accordingly.
Retargeting works over multiple devices. Someone who visited your website on their computer but left without buying anything may find their phone suddenly filled with adverts for the same product they showed interest in. To them, this can seem like destiny - why else would adverts for the product keep popping up everywhere they look? It can be the push they need to make the purchase.
If you have access to the code of your company’s website and some technical know-how, you can set up the pixel yourself. You’ll have to insert the pixel base code into all pages of your website, then add standard events to specific pages of your website so actions like purchases can be tracked. In-depth instructions can be found on Facebook’s Help Centre.
Many people need help getting the pixel up and running. If you need a hand, we can help! Click here to contact us so we can talk to you about your specific needs.
The Facebook pixel is an indispensable tool for successfully advertising your business online. It’s the best way to track results, see exactly how well your advertising is performing, and optimise your campaign towards the most relevant audience. Knowing your audience is key, and the pixel gives you all the information you’ll need to run an effective and memorable ad campaign.