You may have heard the term “Facebook Pixel” before and not have any idea what it is. Perhaps you haven’t heard the term at all, but now you’re intrigued?
WHAT IS A FACEBOOK PIXEL
A Facebook Pixel is just a paragraph of HTML code unique to your Facebook account that you can install on your website so that you can leverage your website visitors on Facebook.
If you are planning to run ads on Facebook, your Facebook Pixel can help you target your advertising specifically to people who have visited your website.
Facebook tracks their actions on your site, and you can even create ads based on what actions they have taken on your website, like viewing a particular product or page, adding something to cart, or purchasing something.
This is why you suddenly see ads for that furniture website you just visited online popping up in your Facebook feed.
DO YOU NEED IT?
So, here’s the thing. If you’re never planning on running Facebook Ads OR you don’t sell a product, you probably don’t need to install the Pixel on your website.
BUT, I will say that it also helps you measure visitors to your website by displaying key information like page/post visits in your Facebook Ads Manager. It’s almost like a second Google Analytics for your website or blog.
HOW TO INSTALL YOUR FACEBOOK PIXEL
GO TO FACEBOOK ADS MANAGER
Right here: facebook.com/ads/manage/powereditor
Once in Power Editor, select the drop-down box in the upper left corner and look for Pixels. If it isn’t listed, click on All Tools, then Pixels.
Click Create a Pixel
Click Actions > View Pixel Code
It’s a paragraph of HTML. Don’t worry, you don’t need to know how to code to do this, you’re just going to copy and paste it to your website. If you have someone do all your website editing for you, you’ll want to send them this paragraph of code and have them paste it to your website header code.
Click the code to highlight it.
Right-click and select Copy
Click Done
Go to your website’s HTML and paste the code in your Header.
“But I don’t know how to do that”
Now here’s where you might say ‘but I don’t know how to do that.’ But there are instructions for almost any website platform right in the step-by-step instructions Facebook provides as you move through these steps and they are all very straightforward.
There are steps for WordPress, Shopify, SquareSpace, LeadPages, Wix, Weebly GoDaddy, Magento, and many, many more instructions all right here, thanks to Facebook!
Here are two examples of the simple instructions Facebook provides:
WORDPRESS:
Note: The pixel is available only on self-hosted WordPress.org sites, not WordPress.com sites. Visit WordPress.
- Install the Insert Headers and Footers plugin.
- From the Settings section, click Insert Headers and Footers.
- Paste your pixel code in the Scripts in Header box.
- Click Save.
SHOPIFY:
- Go to Shopify.
- Select Log in from the Shopify admin.
- Enter your store address, email address, and password.
- Click Log in.
- Select Online Store and choose Preferences.
- In the Facebook pixel section, enter your Facebook pixel ID.
- Click Save.
ADVANCED
There are changes happening every day over on Facebook, as you know. Once you have your base pixel code installed, you can get even more savvy with the new conversion pixel(s). Facebook is pretty good at sharing how-tos and has an extensive help library of tutorials. Start here for ads.
