How To Set Up Facebook Tracking Correctly
Facebook is STILL the world’s largest social media network, and its reach is still massive. It is for this reason that advertising on Facebook is a winner for many businesses! A crucial factor in your success as an advertiser is to know how to set up Facebook tracking correctly. It is all about measuring your return on investment (ROI) and helping you formulate and implement action items that will generate more revenue for your business from Facebook ads.
Why Should You Set Up Facebook Tracking?
Accurately Measures Ad Results
Its foremost goal is to measure your ROI. What conversions resulted from your ads, and what are the values? Whether they be purchases, email registrations, website visits, contact form completion or other goals, Facebook tracking allows you to see your ROI per conversion.
Shows What Ads Work Best
Make data-driven decisions in terms of which ads you will run longer or change. Correctly setting up Facebook tracking allows you to see the exact results and which ads convert.
Ensures The Right People See Your Ads
Facebook’s algorithm tracks the users who are converting on your ads and utilises the data (account profile, site behaviour, etc.) to target other users just like them. Your ads will display on similar audiences’ feed, which can increase the likelihood of conversion.
What Is A Facebook Pixel?
Facebook pixel is a code generated from your Facebook Ads Manager account that you install on your website to track site visitors and other conversion metrics. When someone takes action on your webpage, it fires up the Facebook pixel allowing the social media platform to track the user activity on your site.
Track Facebook Conversions In Two Ways:
There are two ways to track conversions on your Facebook ads, and both depend on having your Facebook Pixel installed on your website.
Custom Conversions
Considered as the simpler way, it requires no modification of Facebook pixel code. The Custom Conversion method is within the Facebook Ads Manager and uses the URLs of the pages you want to track.
Standard Event Conversion
This is the more advanced method as it involves pieces of code that track a specific action within the Facebook pixel on the website, e.g. purchases and add to cart.
How To Set Up Facebook Tracking Correctly
For Custom Conversion
Install Facebook Pixel On Your Website
The Facebook pixel is located in your Ads Manager under the “Pixels” tab. Install the Facebook pixel on every page of your website to allow data gathering on all page activities.
You can easily do this by adding it to the header code on your website. If you have a WordPress website, we recommend the plugin Headers and Footers.
For Standard Conversion
Choose The Standard Event Actions To Track
Depending on your Facebook ad campaign objectives and overall goal, choose which standard events you need to track. Each event has a corresponding code.
Install Event Code
The method depends on the website platform and your coding knowledge. You can either copy and paste the code if you have ample coding skills or use pixel plugins that allow you to install Facebook pixel with one click across your specific actions or events that you want to track.
Make Sure The Tracking Works
You can test if your Facebook pixel is firing in Business Manager under the “Pixel” tab. This is also where you can test that your events are also working.
It is also helpful to download the Facebook Pixel Helper Chrome browser extension. Once installed, load the website and in the top right of your browser, click the Pixel Helper button. A drop-down will appear with the status of each event you are tracking.
For Tracking Multiple Pages Using Similar Standard Events
Create custom conversions so you can see the individual results for each page in your Facebook ads reporting.
For instance, if you’re tracking two different ‘Lead’ events on two services you offer, you need to create a separate custom conversion for each. By doing so, you will see individual results as opposed to a combined one when you add the only standard event action into your reporting.
We highly recommend installing conversion event pixels on “thank you” pages – this is the page that the lead is directed to after completing their details or purchasing your product.
Final Step: Add Conversions To Your Facebook Reporting Dashboard
Create custom conversion columns in your Facebook Ads Manager dashboard. You can also track other metrics on here, such as cost per conversion and total conversion values for actions such as purchases. To create a new reporting column in the Ads Manager dashboard, click on the Columns button, scroll down and select Customise Columns from the drop-down list.
Knowing how to set up Facebook tracking correctly will help your business fully maximise the Facebook advertising platform. When you track the results of your ads, you will know how the impact of your advertising efforts. You can also make tweaks to your campaigns for more profitable results.
If you need help with Facebook advertising, please book in for a strategy call with us.