Are You Getting the Most Out of Your Facebook Pixel? (Probably Not.)

If you’re a business owner in 2020, it’s probably a safe bet that you’re already on Facebook and using it to at least some degree. In fact, I’d bet that building up your company’s Facebook page and inviting all of your friends to like it was one of the first things you ever did in terms of digital marketing.

But then what?

If your Facebook marketing strategy is still along the lines of “throw up a few pictures, share some funny memes, and hope for the best” then I hate to break it to you, but we’ve got some work to do.

Let’s start with the basics. How are you measuring your company’s success on social media? Is it by how many likes a post gets? Is it by how many followers you have? While these metrics are certainly fun to monitor, they’re basically self-serving and don’t provide a whole lot of insight as far as valuable impacts on your business growth. I mean, would you measure the success of your business based on how many people stop by to say they like you? Of course not. You measure the success of your business based on qualified leads and sales.

If you’re posting without purpose on social media and just crossing your fingers that it’ll boost your bottom line, you’re not doing enough to bridge the gap between what’s happening in the journey a customer takes between your social media presence and a conversion.

The key to selling on Facebook and getting a full picture of the path from an ad to a sale is the Facebook Pixel.

What is a Facebook Pixel?

The Facebook Pixel is code you place within your website that helps you track conversions from your Facebook advertising campaigns. Essentially, the Pixel acts like a cookie to track users who’ve interacted with your Facebook ads. The data derived through the Pixel can help you to optimize your future campaigns, build targeted audiences, and follow up with people who have interacted with your site in some capacity.

If you’ve already installed the Facebook Pixel on your site and are tracking and retargeting users with it, you’re ahead of the game. But what I see with many clients who come to us for help is that the Pixel isn’t properly installed or isn’t being used to its full capacity. And if it’s not providing the data you need to grow your business, it’s not doing its job.

How Can We Help?

With my team’s proper implementation of the Pixel, we’ve been able to provide key information about actions users take on our clients’ websites, leading to a crystal clear picture of what users are doing on your website once they leave social media. As a result, our clients have the data and resources necessary to further develop their social media targeting strategies and further increase their ROI.

The Pixel even allows you to see the journey a user takes through different channels. For example, wouldn’t you like to see how many users visit your website through an ad, but then go away and search for your business again through Google before completing a purchase? That could indicate a better SEM/SEO strategy is needed.

And What Do I Do In the Meantime?

Here’s what I want you to do: Get into your Facebook Business Manager and confirm you have a Pixel to start with. Don’t have one? Don’t know what the Business Manager is? You’re not using Facebook marketing to its full potential and you need to correct that IMMEDIATELY (don’t worry, we can help you there too).

Once you confirm that you do have a Pixel (or you’ve taken the steps to create one), get it on your website. You can use the free Facebook Pixel Helper browser extension to find out. Now, is your Pixel tracking correctly? Is it just tracking traffic or is it giving you more useful information about users who are viewing products, adding things to the cart, and initiating checkout and dropping off before purchasing? Exactly what are you doing to get the most out of your Pixel?

Is it a lot to learn? Absolutely. But I’ve got news for you. The top companies in your industry, the ones who have cracked social media marketing, have this all figured out already. And you’ve gotta figure it out, too, if you want to succeed.