What is the Facebook Pixel, and Why Should You Use it?

Megan Duffy

• Social Media

If you’re marketing on Facebook, you probably have an idea just how powerful social media has become for e-commerce. In fact, according to Forbes and Fortune, social media – particularly Facebook – is now vying with search engines for the largest share of referral traffic on the web.  Understanding and implementing the Facebook Pixel should rise to the top of your to-do list.

What is the Facebook Pixel?

The Facebook Pixel is an analytics tool that gives you better insight into the behavior of users who have reached your website through paid or organic advertising on Facebook.

If you’ve used Google Analytics, the Pixel is similar in that it’s implemented by inserting a tag into the head of each of your website’s pages. Without any additional configuration, the Facebook Pixel gives you the ability to track several different types of actions that users take on your website.

The Pixel tracks nine “standard events”:

1. View content: key page views
2. Search: searches made by users on your website
3. Add to cart: when items are added to a user’s shopping cart
4. Add to wishlist: when items are added to a wishlist
5. Initiate checkout: when people enter the checkout
6. Add payment info: when payment info is added during the checkout process
7. Make purchase: when the purchase process is completed
8. Lead: when someone submits a form, signs up, lands on a pricing page, etc.
9. Complete Registration: when a registration form is completed

You can take events a step further by either creating custom events or adding parameters to standard events. Custom events give you the flexibility to create specific, tailored events for your website.

With custom events, you don’t get all the features that standard events provide. For users who aren’t afraid of a little code, Facebook recommends setting up standard events with additional parameters.

Why Should You Use the Facebook Pixel?

Here at Volume Nine, anytime we do something—whether it’s social media, SEO, or content marketing, we make it a priority to find ways to do it better. And that’s what the Facebook Pixel is all about—it helps you find methods to perfect your Facebook marketing using data taken from your target customers.

Better targeting for more cost-efficiency

By setting up the Pixel, you can find new, better customers. How you do this varies by your specific business needs. You may want to target customers who have visited your products page or subscribed to a list. Either way, by creating “Lookalike Audiences,” you take control of who sees your ads and avoid spending your budget targeting people who aren’t interested in your product.

Observe user engagement for conversion insights

One of the pillars of marketing success is optimization, and nothing is more important to optimize than conversions—the actions that put money in your pocket.The Pixel recognizes that by letting you track the entire conversion process and make improvements based on user behavior during the process.

To get the most out of the Facebook Pixel, familiarize yourself with Facebook’s implementation guide, or you could enlist the help of the social media experts at Volume Nine. Get in contact with our social team today!