How to Set Up Facebook Pixel for Your Website: The Full Guide

Facebook Pixel is a powerful marketing tool in the hands of the right wielder, who can effectively manage how the Pixel tracks and analyzes website visitors’ behavior.

By the end of this article, you will know how to set up Facebook Pixel and understand its importance and benefits for your business. 

We’ll cover everything from creating your Facebook Business Manager account to customizing your Pixel settings, troubleshooting common issues, and employing best practices.

Introduction to Facebook Pixel and its benefits for businesses

Most business owners doing ads online have heard of Facebook Pixel, changed to Meta Pixel after the re-branding of the company. At its core, this is a piece of tracking code that is added to your web page for you to collect data on the behavior of your target audience coming from Facebook and to help you optimize ads on the platform.

The data collected with the help of Pixel is mainly used to improve your Facebook advertising strategy and get the most out of your ad spend. Whether you are a starting business owner, a proficient marketer, or a select web developer, being aware of its benefits will aid you in utilizing it more effectively.

At the top of the list stands the main reason for relying on Facebook Pixel data, which lets you see how people interact with your website after clicking on your ad.

This Facebook tracking tool uses custom data sharing settings from the respective user and customer data sharing section on other Meta sites and tools, including your settings in the Meta Business Suite.

From a business perspective, the Pixel opens up more opportunities for gathering valuable insight into how your website design influences purchase decisions. This ties in well with the next benefit – retargeting ads.

When you retarget an ad, you can specifically target people who have visited your website or taken certain actions there. In other words, you are going after people already familiar with your online business, which can significantly boost your Facebook conversion rates.

Thirdly, within the Facebook Pixel functionality kit, you have one that enables you to create custom audiences. This is how you target your ideal customers more effectively.

Custom audiences are groups of people who have already interacted with your business. When you create lookalike audiences through your ad account, you target your new online store visitors who are likely to be interested in your offering because they share similar behavior to your existing customers.

Lastly, you get to use Facebook conversion tracking and see how successful very accurate numbers are in terms of how your ad has performed and what has happened directly. That way, you can know whether customers completed actions like purchasing or signing up for a newsletter.

Setting up a Facebook Business Manager account

Before you go ahead and create a Facebook Pixel, you need to have a Facebook Business Manager account.

Business Manager is another tool developed by Meta, aiming to facilitate the management and organization of business assets, such as your pages and every Facebook ad account you may have.

To set up a Business Manager account, you will need to do the following:

● Visit business.facebook.com and click the Create Account button.

● Enter your business page name, your name, and the business email address you want to use to manage your Business Manager account; then, click Next.

● Enter your business details, including address, website URL, country, and primary industry.

● Specify whether you will use the Business Manager account to promote your own goods and services or provide services to other businesses.

● Once done, click Submit.

You should now have access to tools like Facebook Ads Manager and Events Manager. These are the platforms you will need to create your Facebook Pixel and manage your Facebook advertising campaigns.

Creating a Facebook Pixel and adding it to your website

Once you have a Business Manager account, it is time to perform the Facebook Pixel setup.

Go to the Business Manager Menu and click on Business Settings at the bottom of the menu on the left:

● Click on Data Sources on the left-hand side menu.

● Click Pixels.

● Click Add.

● Name your Pixel and click Continue.

Pixel setup – done! Now, it’s time to install Facebook Pixel on your website. There are several ways to do that:

● Use a partner integration to install the Facebook Pixel without going into your website code. Facebook has partnerships with several platforms, including Shopify and WordPress, so if yours is one of those, you can follow the guided setup for an easier time.

● Send the Pixel code to your web developer and have them add it to your website.

● Input the install code manually by copying the Facebook Pixel code from the Install section and pasting it into the header code of your website.

To manually add the Facebook Pixel code, you would have to do the following:

● In the Meta/Facebook Events Manager, click on your Pixel name.

● Click on Overview and then on Set Up Meta Pixel.

● Choose Install Code Manually.

● Copy the entire Pixel code.

● Go to the header Facebook Pixel section of your website and paste the code after the opening <head> tag but before the closing </head> tag.

● To track conversions, you also need to add the relevant conversion tracking code beneath the Pixel code.

● Save your changes and publish your updated website code.

Congratulations! You have gone through the complete registration and installation cycle.

Feel free to enjoy your tracking Pixel capabilities. If you want to ensure everything is in working order, keep reading.

Verifying that your Facebook Pixel is working correctly

After adding it to your to your website, it is recommended that you verify Facebook Pixel works correctly for you. The Facebook platform has a Pixel Helper tool that can help you do that. Pixel Helper is a Chrome extension, so you have to download and install it to take effect. Its primary function is to check any website you visit for a Facebook Pixel and provide real-time feedback on implementation and operation.

When a website does have the Facebook/Meta Pixel installed, the Pixel Helper icon on the right side of your address bar will turn blue, and a small badge will appear to indicate the number of Pixels on that specific page. Clicking on the icon provides information you can use to verify, troubleshoot, and improve the Pixel.

This way, you can use the data from Pixel Helper to ensure that your Pixel is running smoothly, and two, your Facebook ad campaigns are properly optimized by taking action on what seems amiss within the compiled data report.

Overview of your Facebook Pixel settings and event tracking

While the basic setup of a Facebook Pixel is relatively straightforward, the power of the tool is manifested most in its customization options. You can adjust what the Facebook Pixel tracks from its settings, so that you can more close match business needs to desired user actions through events.

Here’s how you can make the Facebook Pixel work with custom settings and align them further to match what you need:

● Navigate to Events Manager from the All Tools menu and select the appropriate Business Manager.

● Select Facebook Pixel – the one you want to customize.

● Scroll down to Event Data Sources, where you can see and manage the events your Pixel is tracking.

Setting up standard and custom events for tracking website activity

While clicking through your online store, users perform various actions that can be tracked for the traffic coming from your Facebook ads. Meta offers several standard events that you can track through Pixel, but you can also set up custom ones that are woven according to your preferences.

Standard events are predetermined actions that Facebook recognizes and logs automatically. At the time of writing, there are 17 standard Facebook Pixel events that user actions can trigger:

● AddPaymentInfo: upon entering any payment info during the payment process;

● AddToCart: upon adding an item to their cart;

● AddToWishlist – upon adding a product to their wish list;

● CompleteRegistration – upon filling out and submitting a registration form;

● Contact – upon contacting the business owner (usually via a contact form);

● CustomizeProduct – upon making changes to product options;

● Donate – upon making a donation;

● FindLocation – upon finding the location of your business;

● InitiateCheckout – upon initiating the checkout process;

● Lead – upon registering for a service or showing interest in a product or service;

● Purchase – upon making a purchase;

● Schedule – upon making a reservation or scheduling an event;

● Search – upon using the search option on the website;

● StartTrial – upon starting an initial trial period;

● SubmitApplication – upon submitting an application for a product or service;

● Subscribe – upon subscribing for a product or service;

● ViewContent – upon viewing a specific page or product on the website.

To set up a standard event, you will need to:

● Go to the Events Manager and click on your Pixel.

● Click Add Events and select Add New Integration.

● Click META Pixel.

● On the new page, scroll down to Track Events Automatically Without Code and turn on Automatic advanced matching. This will track standard events without you having to add extra code.

● Choose the standard events you want to track by clicking on them.

Alternatively, if you cannot use the open Event Setup Tool that works without code, you can set up events manually for your app or website using code, a partner integration, or app event suggestions in Events Manager.

On the other hand, custom events are more suitable when you wish to track actions outside the standard events. For instance, you can see how often users watch a certain video, have a counter for how many times a page has been visited, or create rules for custom conversions when a customer spends more than a certain amount of money.

To create a custom event, you can proceed the same way as above until step 4. From there, click on Track a Custom Event, then name your event, define its parameters, and select the category that best fits it.

Using Facebook Pixel data to optimize your advertising campaigns

As an analytics tool that collects data, every piece of information that Facebook Pixel goes through is considered valuable. It contributes to your understanding of how people interact with your website and which of their actions are influenced by your Facebook ads.

There are many ways to use this data to optimize your advertising campaigns, and some of them require you to use data to:

● Run dynamic ads: This type of Facebook ad automatically promotes your product catalog across Facebook’s family of apps. Once your Pixel is up and running, you can set up dynamic ads to show the right products to those likely to express interest to them. Each of your dynamic product ads can then be tweaked further according to custom behavior.

● Measure the effectiveness of your ads: Seeing your ads’ performance is a must if you want to adjust your strategy accordingly and have future ads bring you better results. The Meta Pixel work you do here is mainly to track how many conversions occurred, the cost per conversion, and more.

● Understand your audience better: Learn about the demographics and behaviors of your website visitors, including their age, gender, location, and interests. Based on that, you can tailor your advertising and your products or services to suit your custom audience.

Integrating Facebook Pixel with third-party tools 

Facebook Pixel can be integrated with third-party tools to enhance both functionalities, giving you an even deeper insight.

For example, you can link Facebook Pixel with Google Analytics to cross-reference data and gain a more holistic view of your website traffic and performance.

To integrate the Pixel with Google Analytics, you’ll need to use Google Tag Manager:

● Create a new tag in Google Tag Manager.

● Choose Facebook Pixel as the tag type.

● Enter your Facebook Pixel ID.

● Choose the trigger to determine when the Pixel will fire.

● Save and publish your tag.

Ecommerce platforms like NEXT BASKET are Facebook’s integration partners, so the setup is also quite simple.

Troubleshooting common Facebook Pixel issues

Despite our best efforts, sometimes technical issues are unavoidable.

Here is what you should be looking for during the setup and use of your Facebook Pixel:

● Pixel not firing: If you notice that your Pixel fails to initiate, check whether the Pixel code has been installed correctly in your website’s header. It should be placed after the opening <head> tag but before the closing </head> tag. You can use the browser extension Facebook Pixel Helper to troubleshoot this issue.

● Duplicate Pixel events: This could be caused by adding the same Pixel code more than once or by adding the Pixel code to a page already tracked by another method. Fix this by removing the duplicate code or choosing a single tracking method.

● Incorrect event values: If you want to track custom conversion rates, ensure the conversion value is correctly set in your Pixel code. You might notice your reports getting inaccurate if it is missing or incorrect.

Most of all, if you experience an issue but need help fixing it or what it is, the best course of action is to check out if Meta has a solution. They offer a range of resources and support for troubleshooting Pixel issues, so don’t hesitate to seek assistance.

Best practices for using Facebook Pixel for website tracking and optimization

To wrap up, let’s review some of the best practices when using Facebook Pixel:

● Ensure your Facebook Pixel is installed on every page of your website for the most comprehensive data compilation.

● Regularly check the status of your Pixel in the Events Manager to confirm it is working and tracking events without issues.

● Use Automatic Advanced Matching to automatically track standard events without adding extra code.

● Set up standard and custom events that address your unique business needs to get the most value from the Pixel.

● Utilize third-party tracking tool integrations like Google Analytics to gain deeper insights into your website and ad campaigns’ performance.

● Always approach your website visitors with respect when it comes to their data. Be transparent about the kind of data the tracking technologies collect, and ensure you comply with all relevant data privacy regulations.

As mentioned at the beginning, Facebook Pixel is a powerful marketing tool in the hands of the right wielder. Now that you have acquainted yourself with it, you will feel the power brimming and use it to enhance your Facebook ad strategies even further.