How to install the facebook ad pixel

If you are thinking of running Facebook and/or Instagram ads (or even if you don’t have plans at the moment but may in the future), do one thing and install the Facebook Pixel.

The pixel is a small piece of code that sits in the header of your web pages and tracks all visitors to your site, wherever they have come from. You can then use this helpful information to build audiences when you are creating your ads. By targeting warmer audiences e.g. website visitors, you are talking to people that are already interested in your business and closer to converting.

You can build more targeted audiences like web visitors over the last 30 days or create ‘look-a-like’ audiences of your website visitors - so opening up a whole new (cold) audience of people that are likely to behave like your already warm, website visitors do.

You can also set up events on your website such as ‘view content’ ‘add to cart’ or ‘lead’ which can be used to track conversions of these events and retarget people where necessary. UPDATE May 2021: Note that since Apple recently released iOS14.5 and requires users to opt IN to tracking, retargeting audiences may become smaller (because people opt out) and your costs per action may appear higher. Facebook now use ‘aggregated events’ to try and work with this new Apple update but it’s worth considering your strategy around this.

Installing the pixel is really quite easy. Simply navigate to www.business.facebook.com (this is Business Manager where you will manage your page and your ads. If you haven’t got this set up yet, you can do this first).

Once you are in Business Manager, click on the burger icon at the top left of the page and navigate to ‘Pixels’. Here you can set up a pixel and Facebook will guide you easily through the process.

The installation process for the pixel works with different websites so you can easily choose the relevant integration partner, for example if you use a Squarespace website.

Or if you are pretty savvy with websites you can manually enter the pixel code into the header of your web pages.  If you use a web developer, you can easily email the code to them and have them do it.

Once it’s installed, you can test that it’s properly working by going back to the Pixel section and checking it’s active. It may take a while so don’t be alarmed if it’s not instant.

Alternatively you can download Google Chrome’s ‘Facebook Pixel Helper’ which tracks any pixels that are present on web pages.

If you’d like help with the Facebook Pixel, please get in touch.