08 May 2023

What are Meta pixels?

Sand footprints

In summary

Meta pixels can be used to help track user events and actions on webpages and apps
There are a range of benefits when using Meta pixels, such as gaining helpful insights in user behaviour, building audience lists and enhancing your campaign’s performance
It’s super easy to create a Meta pixel and three simple ways to install it!

What is a Meta pixel?

Meta pixels, previously known as Facebook Pixels, are small snippets of code that are used to track events and actions such as page views, purchases and add-to-cart activity. Similar to other forms of tagging, Meta pixels gather all this data and use it to optimise campaign performance and create audience lists for targeted campaigns.

Why use Meta pixels?

Meta pixels are primarily used to track marketing campaign performance across Facebook and Instagram. By tracking conversion and user activity, the collected data can paint a picture of what areas your campaign is performing well, where improvements are required and how users are responding to ads, providing valuable insights into the user experience.

Benefits of Meta pixels

Reporting purposes

They help collect conversion data of your choice. Conversions are recorded actions from a user interacting with advertising such as a purchase, page view or sign up. With this data, further metrics can be calculated, such as conversion rates and cost per conversion, demonstrating how ad/s are performing and their impact.

Understanding user experience

By tracking the actions of users that interact with these ads, deeper insights are gathered. It is easy to understand how engaged audiences are by analysing a variety of metrics such as session lengths, which pages were viewed and any particular actions that were performed, like submitting a form. This can be used to understand how the audience behaves. Improvements to the user experience can then be made to achieve better engagement and likelihood of a conversion.

Build custom audiences

Meta offers a custom audiences feature allowing advertisers to use data collected from Meta Pixels to curate a list of relevant users and those likely to convert. This is built up via the page that the pixel is implemented on, capturing users that have interacted with that particular page. There is no need to define a certain demographic or interest - Meta pixels have it covered!

Build lookalike audiences

Similar to custom audiences, lookalike audiences expand audience reach by seeking users who are similar to those who have already converted or interacted with campaign ads. Meta pixels, or more specifically, retargeting pixels, can be used to build a custom audience list as a building block towards the lookalike audiences. With a larger reach, there is higher chance more conversions will be generated.

How does a Meta pixel work?

Easy! They are a 1x1 graphic that is implemented on a webpage or mobile app.

This is how it goes:

Step 1. User lands on a page where a pixel has been implemented

Step 2. Pixel is triggered to ‘fire’ resulting in the information being captured and sent to Facebook

Step 3. Data that is collected is encrypted, so that the information remains private

Create a Meta pixel

A Facebook Business Manager account with admin level access is required to create a Meta pixel.

Follow the steps below:

Step 1. Open the ‘Business Settings’ and select the desired business

Step 2. Select ‘Pixels’ from the ‘Data sources’ drop-down menu

Meta Pixels- data sources

Step 3. Click ‘Add’ to create a new pixel

Step 4. Enter a pixel name that follows a consistent naming convention, so that it is easily recognisable

Step 5. [Optional] Enter the website URL

Step 6. Click ‘Continue’

Step 7. Click ‘Set up the pixel’ now to install the pixel onto relevant website

Install a Meta Pixel onsite

There are three ways to complete the installation process:

Manually
Using a partner integration
Email instructions to a developer

The creator will be prompted to select an implementation method after the pixel creation step.

Option 1: Manually add pixel code

Navigate to the desired Meta Pixel and click ‘Connect’ and ‘Install code manually’. A pixel base code will then be provided to copy and paste into the header of the website. Alternatively, a header template can be used in the CMS or web platform.

Option 2: Partner integration

To use a partner integration after creating your pixel, select ‘Use a partner’. Then, a list of partners will be shown for selection. Some available partners include:

Google Tag Manager
PixelYourSite
Ensighten

Option 3: Email instructions

If another third party or development team update the website, email the instructions. After, the creation stage, select Email instructions and enter the recipient’s email address and click ‘Send’.

Next steps

Now that you know what a Meta Pixel is and what it does, why don’t you have a play over at Facebook Business Manager? Reach out to Louder if you have any questions.

If you’re interested in any other platforms or industry news, head over to the Louder blog or sign up to our monthly newsletter to learn more.