Have you heard the word “pixel” just thrown around in a conversation? Have you never really understood what that means? Don’t worry, you are not alone. But I assure you, by the time you reach the end of this article; you will get a basic idea of what pixel stands for.

In the digital marketing world, terms like “tracking pixels” or just “pixels” are quite popular. Pixels are one of the largest marketing buzzes of current times. Social media advertising has great benefits of testing, tracking, and targeting the ads with precision. Social media pixels is a data-gathering tool that helps make the most out of online ads.

Let us take an example; have you ever been scrolling through Facebook and an ad shows up on the topic you just were discussing? A little creepy, right?

Well, Facebook isn’t actually reading your mind; it’s just using “pixels”.

What is Facebook Pixel?

Facebook pixel is a piece of code that you place on your website. The pixel collects data that helps you to track conversion rates from Facebook ads. It also helps in optimizing the ads, build a targeted audience for future ads. This targeted audience is general users who already have taken some kind of action using your website.

The Tracking Pixel

Marketing pixels are also known as tracking pixels. These are tiny snippets of code that allow you to gather information about the visitors to your website. You can get information like, how the visitor browsed your site, what type of ads they click, etc.

Retargeting Pixels

These pixels are solely focused on a website visitor’s behavior.

For example; if you visit an e-commerce website where you are searching for beauty products and then you go onto Facebook, you will find that all the pop-up ads would be reared to beauty products.

The work of retargeting pixels come here they are basically monitoring your behavior and they will catch your attention on other websites too.

The Conversion Pixels

The pixels come into play once a purchase is made. They are used for tracking sales from a specific ads campaign. They are responsible for identifying the source of conversions and the measurement of the success or failure of ad campaigns.

The value of Pixels in Marketing

Marketing pixels are almost an afterthought for most marketers. In the process of planning, targeting, and implementing the marketing plan to the right audience; pixels can be forgotten. But today’s market is a competitive one. And when you are relying on lookalike targeting and prospecting to find more customers to purchase your products and services, pixels are quite important for you.

  • As we have discussed, advertising pixels help in tracking both impressions and conversions of a website. They also allow tools like Google Analytics and ad servers to track the number of visitors to the website.
  • The audience data thus collected helps marketers in improving their ad targeting. Pixels enable a better insight into audience engagement and behavior.
  • Pixels act as an excellent conversion tool. Information about your target audience can help to broaden your views on marketing plans. As you modify your plans for better, you attain a higher conversion rate.
  • Pixels enable targeting your advertising spend on those who are most likely to convert. The higher accuracy you achieve using pixels can reduce your spending on users who are not likely to convert as a customer.

How exactly does the Facebook pixel work?

The Facebook pixel triggers cookies to track users who interact with both your business and social media like Facebook and Instagram. For example, if you are using an e-commerce website and have added a decorative candle to your cart but have not finished the purchase; you are sure to get many pop-up ads regarding decorative candles on your Instagram and Facebook page the next time you open them. This is called “Retargeting”.  It is a very vital way for marketers to remind shoppers to become back and buy the product they showed interest in. apart from retargeting, pixels also track various actions that people take on a website. These actions are called “events”. There are popularly 17 standard Facebook pixel events.

LinkedIn Pixels

For more B2B driven businesses, the LinkedIn pixel is an excellent choice. The LinkedIn pixel is essentially a piece of Javascript code that you can install on each of your websites. Adding a LinkedIn Insight Tag to your website will allow you to track users who visited your website. You can retarget lost leads and purchases with help of this. You can also create better quality optimization and better analytics. This pixel enables you to understand things about who visits your website, his job title, job function, company size, and even company name. You can easily track conversions based on the criteria which you set up.

Pixels are an important tool in unlocking your social media advertising. It offers massive opportunities to marketers. You must keep a check that the pixels are firing correctly and collecting required information about your audience. So, start ‘pixeling’ now and ensure that you have got the right marketing pixels in your websites and ad campaigns.