Have you ever visited a website and then had that website’s ads follow you around the internet? Do you ever wonder how these marketers are able to target you with specific ads on other websites? Some marketers have gotten so sophisticated that they’ll even serve you ads based off of the specific item you were looking at on their website. Today, we’ll explore the world of tracking pixels and how you can begin using them in your Facebook advertising strategy.
What is a Facebook tracking pixel?
First let’s start by discussing what a tracking pixel is. In its simplest form, it is a snippet of code that is embedded into specific pages on your website. If you have a website master or company who manages your website, they will be able to help you embed the code.
For Facebook, there are actually two different tracking pixels that can be installed, a Conversion Tracking Pixel and a Website Custom Audience Pixel. Today, we’ll focus on the Website Custom Audience Pixel since this is the one that is used to retarget users on Facebook who have visited your site. The Conversion Tracking Pixel is used more for tracking people once they’ve clicked on your Facebook ad to see what actions they take on your website. The Facebook Website Custom Audience Pixel allows you to track the Facebook user IDs of individuals who come to your website, then allows you to build a custom audience and retarget them with appropriate ads. Since you are targeting an audience that has already been to your website, you have a higher likelihood of converting them to purchase.
How are Facebook tracking pixels created and installed?
The process to create a tracking pixel is very easy; Facebook has made sure that any marketer can do it, even if they aren’t tech savvy. All you’ll have to do is go to your Ads Manager page, within Facebook, and create a custom audience that collects data from your website traffic. Be sure that when you name your custom audience, you make it easily distinguishable so you know at a glance what it is.
Once you’ve selected your custom audience, all you’ll need to do is copy and paste the pixel code onto the pages of your website that you want to track. Again, your website provider should be able to help you install the code onto your website to ensure it gets placed in the head tag (don’t worry, they’ll know what that means). Once the Website Custom Audience Pixel code is placed on your website, return to your Ads Manager to monitor that it is collecting data and working properly.
Once you’ve got your Website Custom Audience Pixel up and working, think about setting up a lookalike audience. This is also pretty easy to do and takes your website visitors’ attributes and determines other individuals on Facebook who have the same or similar attributes. This helps expand your pool of relevant audiences that you can market to on Facebook.
Now what?
You’ve taken the time to setup a custom audience, copied the tracking pixel to your website, and have started collecting data; now what? Great question! It’s time to set up Facebook ads that use the data from your Website Custom Audience Pixel. If you have never created a Facebook ad, you’re in luck. They make it very easy to do with their setup wizard. Simply choose the objective for your Facebook ad and fill in the necessary information. Next, when choosing your ad set, be sure to select the custom audience that you set up that collects Facebook user IDs from their activity on your website. Here you will also set the daily budget and schedule for your ad. Lastly, create your advertisement to retarget your website visitors through their Facebook news feed. When setting up your Facebook ads, there a couple of things you want to remember.
- Make the ad look as close to your website as possible, that way you can leverage brand recognition to drive your message.
- Make the content of your ad enticing so the user will click on it and be directed back to your website.
- Make your ad visually appealing and use more imagery than text to stand out from the sea of advertisers. (Facebook has a 20% text rule, so make sure your ad has 20% text or less, or your ad will be rejected.)
- Leverage Facebook’s carousel ads to show multiple products in your lineup to further entice users to click and learn more.
If you’re looking for a way to spend less advertising dollars, but get more return, look no further. Facebook’s Website Custom Audience pixel is a great way to retarget individuals who have recently visited your website, already know your brand, and, therefore, more likely to convert to a sale. Plus, you can extend the reach of your advertisements and gain further brand recognition, by setting up lookalike audiences and delivering relevant advertisements to these individuals.