Creating Meta Pixel
As discussed in our introduction to standard tracking tools, the meta pixel is a snippet of code that tracks the users across your website. If you are unsure your website has a pixel in place and you would like to find out contact us or using the Facebook pixel tag helper you can quickly identify if you have a pixel installed or not. Our recommendation is to share your existing pixel to our business manager as pre set pixels will have most items enlisted already configured and due to length of implementation will have got up to speed with Meta's algorithms and machine learnings.
If you need to create a new meta pixel the first step would be to create this in your business manager.
Once the pixel ID has been created, use the following instructions to obtain your pixel script for page view. To create pixel script for other events Facebook's further documentation provides more context to this however our templated script can help you with implementation.
Sharing your pixel or assets
How to get to Facebook Business Manager
Once logged in you should see a screen like this, click in the dropdown the business manager where the pixel/pixels are held.
Then click business settings.
In Facebook Business Manager Settings
Click data sources then pixels, find the pixels that we will be using for the project
You will know if they are active as the pixel will indicate a green marker. If you see red or grey this means the pixel is either not installed or not currently active.
Click Assign Partners
Please copy in our business ID 294675754893882 and follow the form to send then send the pixel. Please provide admin access
Provided you have admin access to the pixel you should be able to do this.
Our Recommendations (Strongly advise)
In order to ensure your pixel is tracking and attributing correctly we have a pointers that we strongly recommend on what will help register conversions accurately, in some cases we will not accept the pixels if many of these have not been implemented:
Automatic Advanced Matching
The pixel header will send Facebook data from the header, this mostly entails the IP address, device ID (MAID) and the events triggered. In order to help with attribution we recommend a setting call advanced matching is switched on.
With advanced matching switched on this will send Facebook anonymised data regarding the customer. Added data points helps match the converted user to our targeted audience pool. Due to iOS14.5 updates and privacy advanced matching has shown to have a significant impact on attributing conversions efficiently.
More details on advanced matching can be found here.
Conversion API
A common theme with most of our recommendations are due to iOS14.5 and introduction of privacy blockers enabled on browsers by default. This means browsers will automatically look to disable the pixels firing, which can in turn mean cause a loss of tracking. Hence the cost per acquisition can be higher and attribution lower.
The conversion API are events that are being sent from your server to Meta's Server. As a result of being an action conducted from server to server this means tracking is not lost due to browser blockers. This will reduce the impact caused from iOS blockers, ensuring that conversions can be accurately tracked and allow easier measurement
If you are using platforms such as Shopify or Tealium they have direct integration with Facebook to implement the conversion API out of the box. Meta's guidance can be found here.
Verifying your domain
Following the theme of changes due to iOS14.5, Meta strongly recommends that you verify your domain showing you own the website. If not done so already, to do this you will need to access your Facebook business manager and create a meta tag. This tag can be implemented in different methods such as pasted into the website script on the <head> of your website or propagated onto your server DNS.
The following video shows how to create the meta tag, the implementation will need to be done by your technical team.
Video to illustrate how to access your business manager and add your domain to your business manager. Once you implement the meta tag on your website, press verify domain, allow 24-48 hours
Event prioritisation
Provided your domain is verified with Meta, if you have not done so already, again a strong recommendation is to prioritise the events on your website that are most important to you. This will help Facebook prioritise tracking these events over others and will help bring the cost per acquisition down.
The video will show you how to set this up
Conduct a test booking
To ensure the pixel is firing correctly we advocate that it should be tested with a booking. This may require some help in the form of a dummy booking channel, dummy credit cards that will help facilitate this. Again this will help analyse whether there are any duplicate events happening early on.
Compare events in events manager in Meta, to other platforms.
To ensure the pixel is tracking the right number of events we will ask you to verify the number of purchases that the pixel triggers. Normally this is within 28 days. This helps us ascertain whether the correct number of events are being shown.
We also recommend if your purchases are less than 100, that solely a conversion campaign would not be optimal for you.
Contact us if you have any queries about the discussed.
Thank you!
