Conversion Events Archives - Jon Loomer Digital

Conversions for Meta Advertising Checklist

Jon Loomer — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 23:57:18 +0000

Conversions are the centerpiece of any effective Meta advertising strategy. They help you define success, measure performance, and optimize for the action that you want. If your focus isn’t on conversions, you’re likely swimming in misleading, low-quality results.

It’s easy to say, “Focus on conversions.” But, there are many steps required to make sure that conversion attribution is complete and accurate.

That’s why I created this checklist for website-first businesses. You may not need all of these steps, but you should at least consider them all. In this post, we’ll cover the following:

Add the Pixel
Standard Events
Custom Events
Custom Conversions
Conversions API for Web Events
Conversions API for Offline Events
Test Events
Understand Attribution
Interpret Results

I’ll cover the basics of each. At the end of each section, I provide a list of resources for deeper learning.

Let’s get to it…

1. Add the Pixel

If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard the rumor that the pixel is about to die, I’d have at least $10. But, it remains relevant.

The Meta pixel is a snippet of code that is unique to the advertiser who controls it. When a page of your website loads, the pixel loads. Once that happens, any conversion events can be associated with the pixel. This will be necessary for conversion attribution, reporting, and optimization.

You need to add the pixel to your website. Not just on your home page. Not just the pages you believe are important. Every single page of your website. If some pages are owned by a third-party that allows you to inject your pixel, add it there, too.

I’d love to tell you that there is one, simple way to do this. But, it depends on how your website is set up.

If you’re lucky, there’s a simple integration. Shopify, for example, makes it very easy.

You can also inject the pixel to every page of your website using WordPress plugins and customizations of the header. I added the pixel to this website using Google Tag Manager.

Create a pixel.

To get started, go to Events Manager and click on the left to Connect Data Sources.

Select Web.

Enter the name of your dataset (whatever you’re calling your pixel) and click “Create.”

If you utilize one of the partners that can be used for integration, select it.

The “WordPress” integration utilizes the official Meta for WordPress plugin. Just know that you don’t necessarily need to use that plugin if your website is on WordPress.

If you’re connecting manually, let’s connect the pixel only for this demonstration.

Click “See instructions.”

You will now be taken through a pixel installation wizard.

Copy the pixel code and paste it into the bottom of the header section (right before the closing “head” tag) of the template of your website.

Consider turning on Automatic Advanced Matching to improve attribution (you can turn it on later within the Settings tab of Events Manager if you want to wait).

Apply a previously created pixel.

If you already have a pixel, find it within Events Manager under Data Sources. If there hasn’t been any activity on the pixel, select the option to Set up Meta Pixel.

If there has already been activity on the pixel, click the Add Events dropdown menu from the Overview tab and select “Add New Integration.”

Select “Meta Pixel” and click “Set Up.”

Choose to either manually add code or use partner integration.

From this point forward, the steps are the same as when creating a new pixel.

RESOURCES:

2. Standard Events

The pixel itself is pointless without events. Events notify Meta when an important action occurs so that it can be used for attribution purposes. For example, if someone who saw or clicked your ad performs that event, it can be reported in Ads Manager.

Standard events are predefined actions that any advertiser can track. Examples include Purchase, Add to Cart, Initiate Checkout, Complete Registration, and Lead.

Once again, there are multiple ways to add standard events.

Add standard events manually.

Standard events are marked with a separate snippet of code that will be important if you’re adding standard events manually.

I also have a resource that generates the code if you are adding it to a page manually.

The main pixel will load with each page load. An event should only load when the action it represents has completed. For example, you don’t want the Purchase event to fire until the purchase is completed. This is why you might add the Purchase event code to the confirmation page following a successful purchase.

I add standard events manually, specifically with Google Tag Manager. A separate tag and trigger is created for each standard event.

Use the Event Setup Tool

The Event Setup Tool is a codeless method for creating standard events. You’ll find it once you reach the final step after creating your pixel.

You can also find it within the Settings tab in Events Manager.

Enter the URL of the page where you want to add a standard event and click “Open Website.” NOTE: Your pixel first needs to be on this page.

The page will load and a box will appear at the top left for managing events.

Only events created with the Event Setup Tool will appear here. You can create an event by button click (if the button is detected on the page) or URL (the URL of the current page).

Use partner integration.

If you use a partner like Shopify, most or all of this manual work will be unnecessary.

RESOURCES:

3. Custom Events

The concept of a custom event is rather straightforward. This is an action that is important but it cannot be defined using one of Meta’s standard events.

When possible, use standard events. Meta has standard event data from advertisers around the world to help optimize ad delivery to make sure that the people who are most likely to perform the action that you want will see your ads.

But, this isn’t always possible. You also may not use custom events for delivery optimization, but instead to provide additional reporting information.

I track dozens of important actions on my website that cannot be defined with standard events. They include:

2 Minutes Time on Page
Scroll Depth 50%
2 Minutes AND 50% Scroll
Video Watched
Podcast Play
Google Referral
Internal Link Click
External Link Click

Custom events for website activity are most often sent using code. They utilize the same code structure as standard events, but you define them. If you send an event that Meta doesn’t recognize by name, it’s a custom event.

I use Google Tag Manager to track these custom events. The primary reason for that is that GTM offers built-in trigger actions for things like timers (to track time spent), scroll depth, and embedded YouTube plays.

RESOURCES:

4. Custom Conversions

Standard events and custom events are for tracking important actions so that they can be used for reporting, optimization, and even targeting. Custom conversions are similar, but they should not be used in place of standard or custom events.

Think of it like this…

You have a purchase event that fires whenever someone purchases a product from you. It could be your most expensive or least expensive product. It could be a training course or a t-shirt. They are all tracked as purchases.

Custom conversions allow you to segment those purchases. You don’t need code or help from partner integrations. It’s all done within Events Manager.

Click “Custom Conversions.”

Click to “Create Custom Conversion.”

You could create a custom conversion based on the specific URL that someone views.

Or select the specific standard or custom event…

…and then create a rule based on the specific URL, referring domain, or event parameters when that event fired.

A common use case for custom conversions is to add a column to your Ads Manager reporting for the purchase of the specific product that you’re promoting. Meta’s “Results” column will otherwise include all purchases (for example) that are attributed to your ads. But, those who engage with your ad may purchase something you didn’t promote. The custom conversion can provide more certainty.

Standard events fire on my website following any purchase or registration. I created custom conversions for the purchase of specific products and registrations to specific lead magnets.

RESOURCES:

5. Conversions API for Web Events

The purpose of the Conversions API is to send events to Meta directly from your server. Combined with pixel events from your browser, this can help provide a much fuller picture of conversions that customers are having with your business.

Of course, there are two primary ways that typical businesses can take advantage of this. One is for web events (we’ll get to offline events in a moment).

As discussed earlier, there have been rumors of the Meta pixel’s demise for years. It’s simply not as dependable as it once was. The reasons for this are mostly due to privacy restrictions and cookie blocking, but this is also where my technical expertise on the subject gets a little thin. The main thing is that the pixel alone has big holes.

The Conversions API for web events allows you to send a second set of events for website activity from your own server. By itself, the Conversions API for web events is far more dependable than the pixel alone. When you send events from both sources, Meta is more likely to reflect conversion activity on your website.

If you have some technical expertise or know someone who does, the Conversions API can be set up manually. Otherwise, it’s going to require partner integration.

The key consideration here is deduplication. Since events will be sent from two different sources, Meta will need to be able to sort out whether events are unique or duplicates. Otherwise, your results will be inflated.

This is where third-party integration can be especially helpful. Especially when a partner manages both your pixel and API integration, the deduplication is often done for you.

In some cases, this integration requires very little of you. If you’re on Shopify, it’s practically as simple as checking a box. That’s the case for many platforms.

I use the Conversions API Gateway, which mimics all of the events that are sent with the pixel. It utilizes an AWS server. While you can set up the API Gateway directly with Amazon (I have), you also may not need that much power (or cost). I’ve found a great alternative to be Stape, which allows me to set up the API Gateway at a fraction of the cost.

On average, I see about 10% additional events as a result of using the Conversions API Gateway.

This can be found within the Events Manager Overview tab.

RESOURCES:

6. Conversions API for Offline Events

Another reason you may send events using the Conversions API is so that Meta has events that do not happen on your website. In this case, you are passing offline events, which typically come from your CRM.

This method isn’t necessary for all businesses. If conversions happen exclusively online and you aren’t struggling to get full attribution, I have a tough time making the argument of sending offline events. But if you do, deduplication becomes an even bigger hassle, and you’ll undoubtedly need an expert who knows how to sort that out.

A use case for needing to pass offline events goes like this:

You collect leads on your website
A salesperson contacts these leads
The purchase and other important actions are recorded in your CRM (not via a customer-initiated website action)

I do pass a small number of offline events using the Conversions API, but these are events that are only recorded within my CRM. There isn’t going to be an issue related to deduplication, so it’s rather straightforward in that case. I use these events for reporting purposes so that I can see what leads who came in via ads, for example, do further down the funnel.

Another example of leveraging offline events is when running ads optimized for Conversion Leads. In this case, you pass the offline events so that Meta can follow new leads through various stages of your funnel so that it can help improve optimization.

An important point here is that the Offline Conversions API is getting phased out and will no longer be active come May of 2025. You’ll still be able to send offline events, but you’ll need to do so via the main API.

Admittedly, this is a transition that I still need to make. I use Zapier to pass offline events, and I haven’t yet been able to get it to work for sending them using the main Conversions API.

You may have another partner or method for sending those events. I encourage you to do so, especially if important actions happen exclusively away from your website.

RESOURCES:

7. Test Events

Once you’re sending events, you’ll need to test them.

This is a primary source for overcounting and undercounting conversions. If you aren’t sending events properly (or they aren’t getting deduplicated), your results will be off.

The primary way to test events is within Meta’s own testing tool in Events Manager.

You can test web and CRM events.

When testing website events, you can focus on server events or browser pixel events.

When testing, you can get an actual accounting of the events that fire from your visit. This can help troubleshoot issues when you fear that events aren’t getting sent or they’re getting sent too often.

RESOURCES:

How to Test Meta Conversion Events
Are Ads Manager Results Too Good to Be True?
Test your app or web browser events using the test events tool

8. Understand Attribution

Passing conversion events to Meta is great, but you also need to understand how attribution works. Otherwise, the entire exercise is pointless.

Attribution is how Meta gives credit to an ad for conversions. In the simplest terms, someone you paid to reach clicked on an ad and converted within the attribution window. As a result, your ad gets credit for that conversion.

The attribution setting is defined within the ad set when utilizing the Website conversion location and optimizing for conversions.

The default attribution setting is 7-day click and 1-day view. In other words, Meta will attribute conversions to your ads if someone clicks on your ad and conversions within 7 days or views your ad (without clicking) and converts within a day.

But, you have options for defining the attribution setting:

Click: 7-day or 1-day
View: 1-day or none
Engaged View: 1-day or none

Engaged View is only relevant to videos. If someone views at least 10 seconds of your video, doesn’t click, and converts within a day, it’s considered an Engaged View conversion.

The attribution setting controls two things:

1. How conversions are reported, by default.
2. How delivery is optimized.

Meta’s goal will be to get you as many conversions as possible. Changing the attribution setting can impact who ends up seeing your ads. For example, if you remove 1-day view, Meta won’t see a view-through conversion as successful. Because of this, the focus may be on those who will click to convert.

Finally, understand that Meta utilizes a last-click attribution model. Two ads can’t get credit for the same conversion. If someone engaged with two different ads before converting, attribution goes to the most recent click. If neither ad was clicked and a view falls within the attribution setting, credit goes to the most recent view.

RESOURCES:

9. Interpret Results

This is related to understanding attribution, but it’s an extension of it. Knowing how attribution works is an important step. But, then you have to apply that knowledge.

You can’t always take your results at face value. You need context behind those results. There are two features that are especially helpful in this area.

Compare Attribution Settings.

Let’s assume that the attribution setting is 7-day click and 1-day view, which it will be in most cases. How many of those conversions were view-through? How many happened within a day of clicking? This context matters.

Within the Columns dropdown menu, select Compare Attribution Settings.

From there, you can choose to add columns for each attribution window — even if it wasn’t used in the attribution setting. There’s even an option for 28-day click.

Were most of the reported conversions from 1-day view attribution? If that’s the case, it’s likely that this is a remarketing campaign and many of the conversions would have happened without your ad. Were most 1-day click? That would be a good sign that your ads were directly responsible.

It’s not that view-through or 28-day click are worthless, but the context is important.

First Conversion.

This is the latest addition to the Compare Attribution Settings feature that helps solve issues where your results appear inflated. Let’s assume that someone clicks your ad and makes three separate purchases within the attribution setting. In that case, all three conversions would be reported.

But, you can have only the first of those conversions appear within your reporting.

And when you do, you may see a drastic difference in results — especially for non-purchase conversions.

RESOURCES:

Your Turn

This became a lot! Consider this your starting point with conversions, but drill down using the additional resources.

Have you had issues with conversions and attribution?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Conversions for Meta Advertising Checklist appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Pass Dynamic Purchase Value With Meta Events

Jon Loomer — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 02:49:09 +0000

If you pass purchase events to Meta via the pixel and API, you may be aware of a challenge: What do you do when the value of the purchase is variable?

Here’s an example of the purchase event code and parameters that you’d use when you know that the price of a product is $147…

fbq('track', 'Purchase', { value: 147.00, currency: 'USD' });

This is great when the loading of a specific page (like a confirmation page) means that someone purchased a product for $147. It’s no longer useful when that total is variable.

What do you do if you don’t know the total amount spent? What if the customer can add multiple items to their cart prior to completing a purchase? What if the customer can apply promo codes that impact the total order value?

This is where it gets tricky. Let’s discuss the factors that would help you solve this problem…

Dynamic Variable

In simple terms, you need to replace “147.00” above with a dynamic value that represents the total order value.

It might look like this…

fbq('track', 'Purchase', { value: order_total, currency: 'USD' });

In this example, we replace the dollar amount with a variable that reflects that total. That total will then be injected dynamically.

Of course, I’d love to tell you that your platform utilizes a variable called “order_total.” Unfortunately, it is not universal and what you use is going to be different depending on your platform.

Meta provides the following well-known examples:

Shopify:
'{{ total_price | money_without_currency }}','currency':'USD'

Magento:
$amount

WooCommerce:
$order->get_order_total()

Squarespace:
{orderGrandTotal}

BigCommerce:
%%ORDER_SUBTOTAL%%;

The good news is that if you use any of these solutions, the dynamic value may be passed via the pixel already. Confirm that, but it’s likely the case. So, again, we haven’t solved a problem yet.

The issue comes into play when we have to pass events manually by adding our own event code.

General Solution

Let me start this section by being clear that I am not a web developer. Based on Meta’s documentation and my own research (always dangerous), this is my interpretation of what you need to do.

There do appear to be multiple approaches, but the most common is related to pulling the order total from the confirmation page. This may be your first obstacle.

I use Infusionsoft (Keap). Purchases are made using an Infusionsoft order form. Customers are then redirected to a confirmation page on my website.

We need the Infusionsoft form to pass the order total to the confirmation page and display it. There is actually an Infusionsoft setting when creating order forms to “Pass contact’s information to the Thank You Page.”

This information should then be passed using URL parameters (characters that are appended to the end of the confirmation page URL).

From what I can tell, when using Infusionsoft, the product price is passed using an ID of “price,” though there may be a different ID for the total if you have multiple items in your cart. You can use that information to display the total on the confirmation page.

Of course, you won’t be able to display that information on the confirmation page without some programming effort.

Consult a Web Developer

I know. I’d love to be able to give you the specific step-by-step instructions to solve this problem, but I can’t. Not only am I not a web developer and I already worry I’ve overstepped my expertise, how exactly this is solved will depend on your platform.

But, pass this post (and Meta’s documentation) on to a developer.

The main steps:

What platform is used for purchases?
What ID is used to define the purchase total?
Pass that total to the confirmation page
Display that total on the confirmation page as a variable (it could probably be hidden)
Pull that variable into the purchase event code that fires on that page

Hope that helps!

Your Turn

Is this a problem that you’ve solved? What did you do?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Pass Dynamic Purchase Value With Meta Events appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

How to Test Meta Conversion Events

Jon Loomer — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 03:05:20 +0000

One of the primary reasons for bad reporting in Meta Ads Manager is conversion events that were set up improperly. This includes standard events, custom events, and custom conversions.

You should test your events before relying on them in your Ads Manager reporting. If you don’t, this is one of the first steps you should take when you run into questionable results.

Why isn’t Ads Manager reporting your conversions? Are the numbers inflated? Is the wrong event reported? Confirm the answers to these questions by testing your events.

Here’s how to approach this…

What to Look For

When testing events, there are several things to look for…

1. Is the event firing? When someone completes a conversion, does the expected event fire?

2. Is the event firing on the wrong page? Oftentimes we’ll see the final step of a conversion flow fire on the wrong page. For example, Purchase or CompleteRegistration fires when the initial button is pushed.

3. Is the event firing multiple times? This isn’t a problem if you perform an event multiple times, obviously. But do you see an event duplicated? Is it the same event or do you have multiple events set up under the same name?

4. Are parameters set up properly? Passing parameters (details of a conversion) can be tricky, so it’s nice to get confirmation that this information is passed correctly.

Go to Test Events

Within Events Manager, go to Data Sources and then select your pixel.

Now, go to Test Events within the horizontal menu.

You can test website or CRM events. For the purpose of this tutorial, we’re going to test website events.

We’re able to test either server or browser events. For now, let’s test the browser (website) events.

Enter the URL of a page where this event will occur and click “Open Website.”

Go ahead and perform the action or actions that should fire the events you are testing. You should see the standard events, custom events, automatic events, and custom conversions appear in real time in Events Manager as they happen.

You can choose which types of events and activity details appear from the dropdown on the right.

If you ever want to start over, you can click to clear activity.

You can expand an event to get additional details of the information that was passed. This is especially helpful if you pass parameters with an event.

This is useful if you ever create custom conversions or website custom audiences and need to manually enter parameters when creating rules.

Other Testing Considerations

There are other ways to test your events, as well. I’ve used the Facebook Pixel Helper Chrome extension in the past, and it’s generally good for easily troubleshooting while I’m on a page. But I’ve found it’s less dependable than testing within Events Manager.

You should also consider options to test prior to publishing changes, if possible. How that is done will depend upon how you manage your pixel. But Google Tag Manager allows you to preview how tags (your events) fire before publishing your changes. The Events Manager testing option won’t work for a page that hasn’t been published, of course.

You want to catch problems as quickly as possible because changes to your events won’t be corrected historically — only going forward. If you place an event on an incorrect page and get overcounting, that tabulation will continue to exist in your history.

Likewise, if you change the name of an event, the old name will continue to appear in your history and across many of Meta’s dashboards, at least for a period of time.

Watch Video

I recorded a video about testing your events, too…

Your Turn

How do you test your Meta conversion events?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post How to Test Meta Conversion Events appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Are Meta Conversion Events Overcounting?

Jon Loomer — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 19:40:00 +0000

I often hear from Meta advertisers who think their conversion events are overcounting. It typically starts with a distrust of Meta. But if conversion events actually are getting overcounted, there’s almost always a reasonable explanation.

Let’s go through the steps to help you troubleshoot and correct this so that your events will fire correctly.

Ads Manager vs. Events Manager Reporting

Before even having this conversation, there’s often a core misunderstanding regarding reporting. Where do you think events are overcounting? Within Ads Manager or Events Manager?

Ads Manager only reports on conversions from your ads. If you think Ads Manager overcounts because it doesn’t match up with Google Analytics or another tool, know that it’s never going to match up. They report on conversions differently. You will see variations. That’s a whole different discussion about attribution that we’re not going to tackle here.

A true overcounting would be spotted in Events Manager. Events Manager reports on all conversions, regardless of the source. If you think Events Manager is showing lots of conversions that aren’t actually happening because you don’t see them on the back end, that’s a reason to suspect overcounting.

If that’s the case, go through these questions…

1. Are Browser and Server Events Deduplicated?

Are you sending events both from the browser (pixel) and server (conversions API)?

If so, Meta needs to know that an event coming from both places is the same event. Otherwise, that event will be counted twice. Your events need to be deduplicated.

Even if your events are deduplicated, you will see an initial double counting in Events Manager. Here’s an example of the counting of an event.

The total amount displayed in Events Manager will be prior to deduplication. It will appear to be doubled. If there are problems with deduplication, you will get a message from Meta telling you that.

2. What URLs is the Event Firing On?

If you’re convinced that conversion events are reported that shouldn’t be, a good first step to isolate the problem is uncovering which URLs the event is firing on.

You can find this by expanding your event in Events Manager and clicking View Details.

Then select “URLs” in Event Breakdown.

Are there any URLs listed where this event shouldn’t occur? Do any of these URLs appear to be the source of this overcounting?

The classic example of overcounting occurs when events fire on a URL where they shouldn’t occur. Often this is because the event was added to the wrong step of the funnel. For example, a Purchase event is added to the landing page rather than the confirmation page. If this is the case, you’ll need to remove that event.

But if you’ve isolated a page where the event should occur but appears to be overcounting, move on to the next step.

3. What About That URL Leads to Overcounting?

Ah hah! You’ve found a URL that is clearly overcounting. You are not receiving nearly as many conversions on this page as Events Manager is reporting.

Let’s think about that. What would explain this overcounting?

Is it a URL people can return to frequently? It should be a confirmation page that users only see once. Make sure this page is hidden from search engines and that your email campaigns never send people back to these confirmation pages. Otherwise, a conversion could be reported every time that page loads.

Has a team member been testing this URL recently? This is a frequent explanation. The team member is making changes to the page or testing it and repeatedly refreshing the page. That loads the pixel and fires any events on the page. Is the overcounting focused on times when this was going on?

4. How Was the Event Set Up?

To pinpoint and fix the problem, make sure you know how you set that event up in the first place.

Did you use the Event Setup Tool? If so, open that page up with the Event Setup Tool to see how the event was created.

Click the Add Events dropdown in Events Manager. Then select “From the Pixel.”

Click to open Event Setup Tool.

Then enter the URL that is the problem.

The page will be loaded with the Event Setup Tool and you’ll be able to edit and remove events from there.

Did you use a third-party tool that manages your pixel? Verify how you set up that event. Did you set it up twice?

Is this a custom conversion? Verify that this was set up properly. If you created a URL rule with “URL contains,” make sure that what you pasted in will only include a single URL.

The example above could fire on any page that includes “thank-you” in the URL.

5. Go Through the Conversion Process

Finally, go through the process of a conversion as a website visitor would.

Don’t just refresh the page. This is a classic mistake. That’s not normal user behavior. The overcounting is due to normal user behavior, and you need to mimic that.

Walk through the steps that a user would go through. Does the event fire properly?

Maybe everything fired properly when you went through the process. Is there anything that might cause the event to fire again? Evaluate the page and decide if there’s something about how it is set up that may lead to this problem.

Watch Video

I recorded a video about this, too. Check it out below…

Your Turn

Have you experienced overcounting of events? How have you pinpointed the problem?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Are Meta Conversion Events Overcounting? appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Use ChatGPT to Generate Facebook Pixel Purchase Event Code

Jon Loomer — Thu, 05 Jan 2023 03:04:49 +0000

Ever since ChatGPT made it into the mainstream, marketers have been scrambling to find creative ways to use it. Here’s a good one: Use ChatGPT to generate purchase event code for your Facebook pixel.

This is especially useful if you aren’t super technical (which includes me). Here’s what you can do…

Collect Basic Info First

Before you do this, you’ll need some basic information related to the purchase. When creating a purchase event, you’ll need at least the following information:

Product Name
Value (purchase price)
Currency

These are necessary for the parameters, which are details related to the purchase. You can use others as well (content ID, content type, number of items), but start here.

You may not need to worry about currency if you’re in the US since ChatGPT seems to generate code using USD currency automatically for me.

The ChatGPT Prompt

Now, go to ChatGPT and enter the following prompt:

Generate Facebook pixel event code for a purchase based on the following information:

– PRODUCT: [Your Product Name]
– VALUE: [Your Value]
– CURRENCY: [Your Currency]

You’ll replace everything in brackets with details related to your product. Here’s an example:

– PRODUCT: Power Hitters Club – Elite
– VALUE: $147
– CURRENCY: USD

Here’s what I get…

You then copy that code and place it (with opening and closing SCRIPT code) within the header of the purchase confirmation page. For more resources on pixel events, go here.

Lots of Potential

This approach should work for any of the standard events. The information is pretty straightforward, so you shouldn’t have any issue getting accurate code. But as your request gets more complicated, the code ChatGPT provides may be less dependable.

For example, I’ve asked ChatGPT to generate code for an Initiate Checkout event based on button click. The answer it gave me was technically correct, but I wouldn’t have been able to simply copy and paste the code it gave me without some tweaks.

I’ve had some success with custom events, too, but that entire process is a bit messier and has more variables involved. But I’m trying to find the best way to finesse my ChatGPT prompts to produce helpful results.

Watch Video

I also put together a quick video of this process…

Your Turn

Have you experimented much with ChatGPT yet? What creative solutions have you found?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Use ChatGPT to Generate Facebook Pixel Purchase Event Code appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

How I Use Facebook Custom Conversions for Reporting and Optimization

Jon Loomer — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 18:00:39 +0000

I wrote recently about the role of custom conversions in your Facebook advertising. Today, I want to provide some specific examples of how I use them.

If you aren’t using custom conversions, it’s time to start. There’s really no excuse.

Quick Refresh

First, a very brief reminder about what custom conversions are, in the simplest terms.

It’s important to know that custom conversions should not be used in place of standard and custom events; they should be used in addition to them.

Custom conversions provide granularity for both reporting and optimization. They allow you to map standard and custom events with parameters to better track how many purchases of a specific product, for example, resulted from your ad.

This granularity is the key. You can optimize for and get reporting on standard and custom events generally, but all product purchases are lumped under the same Purchases event. Custom conversions allow you to get access to the details.

Standard and custom events require additional coding. Custom conversions do not.

You can create website custom audiences based on standard and custom events. You can’t do this with custom conversions.

We good? Now, here’s what I do…

Individual Products and Opt-ins

Every time I launch a new paid product, I create a custom conversion for that specific purchase. I should note that I make sure that the Purchase standard event with parameters (“content_name” to provide the name of the product) is firing on the confirmation page first.

Every time I launch a new opt-in, I create a custom conversion for that specific registration. And like with the product, I make sure that the CompleteRegistration standard event with parameters (“content_name” to provide the name of the opt-in) is firing on the confirmation page.

Now, there are a couple of ways to create the custom conversion. Admittedly, I do it kind of old school. I blame this on having been exposed to website custom audiences first. I was comfortable creating audiences based on URLs, so that’s how I created some of my custom conversions.

So, I usually create these particular custom conversions based on the confirmation page URL.

But, the more sophisticated approach is probably to create it based on the Purchase standard event, refining by the “content_name” parameter.

Either one works. Do what makes you happy.

Once I do this, I can then add columns to my reporting for the specific products and opt-ins that I’m promoting.

I can also optimize for them, though I generally optimize for the standard event since it will provide more volume.

Product Groups

Second, I create custom conversions to group products.

For example, I have sold many different training courses over the years. While I create a custom conversion for each individual course purchase, I also create a custom conversion for the general “training” category. This allows me to track purchase results by that category.

You could once again use the URL route here, but you’d need to be sure that all of the confirmation pages within a particular category follow the same structure.

For example…

It probably makes more sense for you to send the “content_category” parameter instead and create the custom conversion based on the Purchase event, refining by parameter.

I can then also optimize for that type of purchase. Here, it could make sense since the type of customer who buys training programs may be very different than those who sign up for a membership or book a one-on-one with me.

For Custom Events

Finally, I create custom conversions for many of my custom events. There are a couple of reasons for this.

First, I’m not sure if this is intentional by Facebook, but I’ve found that some custom events don’t appear in the list for adding columns. It seems like Facebook may only list the custom events you’ve ranked for event configuration.

For example, I have far more active custom events than these three.

But, I can create a custom conversion based on that event and then add a column for that custom conversion. Here is one such example…

Another reason I need to create a custom conversion for some custom events is to provide more detail. For example, the Page Views Per Session custom event fires on every page. I can create a custom conversion to isolate only those who loaded two page views per session (or 3 or 4).

And then I can add a column to reporting to get a better idea of traffic quality sent by my ads.

Your Turn

I hope these examples of how I use custom conversions help. How do you use custom conversions?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post How I Use Facebook Custom Conversions for Reporting and Optimization appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Why You Should Use the Facebook Pixel Helper Chrome Extension

Jon Loomer — Mon, 11 Apr 2022 18:00:39 +0000

Some of the most helpful tools are super simple. The Facebook Pixel Helper (is it the Meta Pixel Helper now?) is such a tool.

The Facebook Pixel Helper is a Chrome browser extension. It’s not new. But, it’s extremely valuable for Facebook advertisers, and it’s free.

What is it?

First, you need to use the Chrome browser. If you do, you can add the Facebook Pixel Helper browser extension.

It’s a troubleshooting tool that detects the presence of a pixel on the current URL you’re viewing. It also detects the standard events, custom events, and custom conversions that are firing.

Let me provide a couple of examples of how it can be used…

Managing Clients

Maybe you’re managing a client or are considering a potential client. You don’t have access to their Ads Manager, but you want to get a better sense of what they’re doing.

An example: I host one-on-one sessions. I’m not a hands-on contractor, but more of a short-term (45 minutes) consultant. I don’t have or desire access to your Ads Manager, Events Manager, or Business Manager.

Prior to our session, I have the client complete a questionnaire to tell me more about what they’re doing and what they hope to accomplish. They also provide a list of domains related to their business.

This allows me to poke around a little bit without any direct access. Do they have the pixel installed? What kinds of events are firing? It doesn’t give me a thorough review, but it provides some surface-level context.

Testing Tool

Yes, Facebook has its own testing tools within Events Manager. You can use them, too. And while they may be best for viewing how the pixel is firing across your website, I prefer the Facebook Pixel Helper for testing individual pages.

The extension makes it super easy to immediately see if the pixel fires when the page loads. It also allows me to test whether certain events fire when they’re supposed to, in real-time.

Learning Tool

It’s a great learning tool! When I write about the custom events running on my website, you can actually test them out for yourself.

You’ve already been on this page for a while. You’ve scrolled. You should also click the audio player at the top. Then click the helper to see the exact events that are firing.

Try it!

You can even expand each event to learn more about the parameters used.

Your Turn

Do you use the Facebook Pixel Helper, or do you prefer other testing tools?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Why You Should Use the Facebook Pixel Helper Chrome Extension appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Facebook Event Parameters for Granular Reporting and Targeting

Jon Loomer — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 18:00:36 +0000

You can track events on your website — both standard and custom events — using the Meta pixel and Conversions API. It’s the Facebook event parameters that provide the power of granular reporting and targeting.

Let’s break this down, covering the following:

The role of parameters
An example of parameters
Using parameters for granular reporting
The role of parameters in powerful targeting
How to set up parameters

The Role of Parameters

You can set up conversion events to fire on your website when people perform important actions. Standard events will typically fire on a button click or load of a specific page to notify Facebook that an action like a purchase, registration, search, or lead has occurred. This information can then be used in reporting (conversion attribution), optimization, and targeting.

Thanks to these events, you can know the number of people who purchased anything on your website. That volume can help with optimization to find other people likely to purchase. And you can then target anyone who has purchased anything on your website.

But, it’s the parameters that provide the granularity and details of these purchases and other actions. The parameters send information like the product purchased, the amount spent, and more.

Examples of Parameters

Let’s use the Purchase standard event as an example. You can send the following details of a purchase:

Currency
Value
Conent_name (product name)
content_id (product ID)
Number of items

Collecting value helps an advertiser know if they are achieving a positive ROI.

The product name helps an adveriser know what was actually purchased.

And the number of items are helpful because a single purchase may actually include multiple products.

Of course, these are just a few examples used for the Purchase event. Standard events are structured, and you can only send specific information that Facebook expects as parameters with these events. You have much more flexibility with custom events.

Targeting Based on Parameters

When you create a website custom audience, you have the option of basing it on your events.

Let’s stick with the Purchase event. You can then “refine by” Parameter to isolate purchases by the accompanying parameters.

The parameters that appear will depend on the parameters your event uses.

I could, for example, create an audience that is refined by the value of the purchase.

You can also refine by aggregated value. You could, for example, create an audience of people who have made at least two purchases.

It could also be based on the total amount spent, average amount spent, or minimum amount spent.

I also do this with custom events for quality traffic activity. I send parameters like the scroll depth, amount of time spent on a page, and embedded YouTube video played. I can then create an audience for one of these events and isolate the audience by parameter.

For example, I can segment the YouTube video people watched on my website using parameters.

I can segment the people who played my audio player at least 5 times.

And I can segment the people who viewed a specific blog post on my website for at least two minutes.

How Parameters Contribute to Granular Reporting

These parameters also allow you to drill down in your reporting. Instead of getting reporting for all purchases, you can filter by purchases of a specific product, for example. You’ll do this with custom conversions.

Custom conversions are created a similar way to website custom audiences based on events. First, select the event.

Then, create a rule based on event parameters.

The parameters that appear will depend upon what you are using.

Here’s an example of a custom conversion for a purchase based on the name of the product.

You can and should also include the value of that purchase.

This custom conversion can then be used for both reporting and optimization. You can optimize for the purchase of a specific product, for example. But you can also add columns in your reporting for the purchase of that product.

Setting Up Parameters

How you set up parameters will depend upon how you’re sending events. You may be using partner integrations that automatically send events and parameters. Custom events will require custom coding to decide on the parameters you want and to send them.

The pixel event setup tool can help you set up standard events with some parameters without code.

It’s not a perfect tool and doesn’t provide a ton of flexibility, but it’s an option.

If you want to add code manually, you can use my Pixel Event Generator to help construct your event code with parameters.

Answer some basic questions, and the tool will spit out the exact code you need to use. It’s completely free!

Your Turn

What’s your experience been with event parameters?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Facebook Event Parameters for Granular Reporting and Targeting appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Create a Facebook Ads Audience Based on Event Frequency

Jon Loomer — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 19:00:56 +0000

You may want to target your most valuable website visitors with Facebook ads. One way to do this is by creating an audience based on event frequency.

While targeting the broadest audience possible is popular these days, there are absolutely times to consider targeting a smaller, more valuable audience, too. When you do, this is the type of targeting that you should use.

In this post, we’ll walk through how to isolate your audience based on the frequency of events executed. But, I’ll also give you the tools to dig deeper and create audiences based on event parameters.

Create a Website Custom Audience

To isolate those most valuable website visitors, of course, you’ll need to create a Website Custom Audience.

For the source, select your pixel…

While the pixel has become less reliable over the years due to iOS 14+ and browser restrictions, this should also capture web events fired from the API. Facebook isn’t perfectly clear on this point, but it would be consistent. When you set up the API for web events, you need to first select the pixel that those events are based on. And there’s no way — that I’m aware of, at least — to create an audience based only on API web events.

Select an Event

Next, select an event under “From your Events.”

If you want to create an audience of frequent website visitors, you can select the PageView event.

Other events advertisers are most likely to use would be the Purchase or CompleteRegistration events. What you use here depends on what type of audience you’re trying to create.

We’ll walk through a few examples during this post.

Set a Frequency for PageView Event

Before we get to this, you would set a retention. I’d recommend using the largest retention possible for most advertisers since this is going to shrink your audience. In that case, use 180 days (but feel free to use whatever works for you).

After setting the retention, click the “Refine by” drop-down menu. If you’re creating an audience based on the PageView event, select “Frequency” (options will look different for other events and we’ll get to that next).

The default set-up here is a frequency greater than or equal to 2.

This is a really good place to start as it will eliminate people who viewed only one page of your website. Feel free to increase the number, but know that the audience size will shrink with each increase.

A key point to understand is that this measures the number of times the PageView event fired. So, technically, it could be the same page multiple times or several unique pages.

Set a Frequency for Other Events

You could also create an audience based on the frequency of purchases, searches, registrations, or other events. When creating an audience based on one of these events, you’ll see options for “URL/Parameter” and “Aggregated Value.”

Select the “Aggregated Value” option and the default option will be “Frequency.”

Parameters and Other Examples

You can also get way into the weeds on various audiences you can create based on some of your events using parameters, whether it’s for standard or custom events.

I go into additional detail in a recent blog post covering the 10 website custom audience strategies that I use. Take a look!

Your Turn

Do you have other examples of ways that you’ve used this type of targeting?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Create a Facebook Ads Audience Based on Event Frequency appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Custom Facebook Web Events That I Use

Jon Loomer — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 19:00:14 +0000

If you’re serious about ads measurement and retargeting, you need to use custom Facebook web events. In this post, I’ll give you the specific custom web events I use and why. I hope that this may give you some ideas for what you can do, too.

Note that I’m being careful to say “custom web events” rather than “custom pixel events.” What I’m describing will apply to all web events, using the pixel or Conversions API.

Web events are actions that Facebook tracks so that you can see them in your reporting, optimize for the action, or even target the people who performed them.

While you’ve likely heard of Facebook web events before, they can be either “standard” or “custom.”

Standard Events

If you have Facebook events firing on your website, it’s likely that you use standard events. These are the web actions that fit nicely in a box that Facebook makes available to everyone. Examples include Purchase, CompleteRegistration, ViewContent, Search, AddToCart, Lead, Contact, and more.

Whenever possible, you should use standard events that represent actions taken on your website. This will help you measure when people you target purchase a product, register for a free thing, or something else that fits within such events.

The advantage of standard events is that if you optimize for a Purchase event, for example, Facebook can find people who have fired that same event but on other websites.

My website utilizes the following standard events:

Purchase
CompleteRegistration
Search
ViewContent

I use InitiateCheckout in some cases, but not consistently across all products.

What Are Custom Events?

In some cases, though, you may want to track, optimize for, or target people based on a completely different event. This is where custom events come into play.

While standard events are typically very easy to set up and often fire due to a page loading or button clicked, custom events can be a bit more complicated. They often need hooks into triggers like media players, timers, scroll, or more that can indicate your desired event has occurred.

I should note that I use Google Tag Manager to manage my events. I’d like to say that there’s one, uniform (and easy) way to set up these events, but it’s going to depend on the platform you use. In some cases, it becomes very technical, and additional coding is required (coding that is above my pay grade).

Let’s go through the various custom events that you can find on my website…

Custom Web Events for Quality Traffic

My website is central to my business and funnel. I publish content to attract people into my funnel with the hopes of getting people added to my email list who will eventually buy from me.

As a result, I care about the quality of traffic that comes here. I have several events firing that help me understand whether paid traffic was actually quality or empty clicks. Not only can I view these events in my reporting, but I can then target these people who are more likely to be highly engaged.

1. Time on Page: This event utilizes a timer trigger in Google Tag Manager. I’ve used variations of this during the past couple of years, but now I have it fire when a user spends one minute and then two minutes on a page. I initially had it set up to fire in 30-second intervals. You can read my blog post for details about how this works.

2. Scroll Depth: This is another event that utilizes a built-in trigger in Google Tag Manager, this time for scroll depth. You can customize how deep on a page someone needs to scroll before firing an event, and you can technically have it fire multiple times. Once again, I’ve used variations of this, but I now have it fire only when someone scrolls at least 70% within a page. This blog post explains how it works.

3. Time + Scroll: I call this the “Quality Visitor” event. While it’s nice to spend two minutes or scroll 70% on a page, I’ve also created an event that requires that you do both before it fires. I originally had it fire at one minute, but I’ve realized that two minutes is more indicative of a quality visit. Read here about creating this “ultimate” event for traffic quality.

4. Page Views Per Session: This was inspired by an experiment I ran optimizing for scroll depth while targeting a cold audience was failing to provide any type of conversion (even Search or CompleteRegistration). Another signal that could indicate a quality visit is viewing multiple pages during a single session. I create a custom conversion to isolate those who fire this event at least two times in a session.

5. Page Views Per User: While the above event is good for isolating quality visits, I can also isolate quality visitors who fire the Page Views Per User event multiple times, even if not during the same session. This, too, requires a custom conversion to focus on the number of times this fires.

Custom Web Event for Video Watched

I haven’t embedded YouTube videos often on my website, but when I do I have an event that fires when people play that video. Since GTM and YouTube are both Google products, there’s a trigger available for YouTube video plays. I fire an event when someone starts a video, watches 50%, and finishes the video.

You can read my blog post on how to set these events up in Google Tag Manager here.

I’m actually looking into adding an event for Vimeo videos as well since I use Vimeo quite a bit. This is a resource I’m looking at to get that done.

Custom Web Event for Audio Player Clicked

You may know that I recommitted to my podcast in November of last year, which makes this new event so important.

I have an audio player embedded at the top of many blog posts (this is becoming a more consistent part of my strategy), and I also have players embedded across the Pubcast section of my website. I started to realize how important it was for me to know when people click to play those episodes, both for Ads Manager results and remarketing possibilities.

Well, the solution is very technical (a member of my time applied it and tried to explain what he did, but it’s way over my head!). But, it fires every time someone starts an audio player.

Test It!

I encourage you to test these events out yourself. If you use a Chrome browser, add the Facebook Pixel Helper plugin. Then, perform some of the events I describe above based on time spent, scroll depth, audio players played, or any of the others. As you perform those events, you’ll see them appear within the Helper plugin.

What Should You Do?

I wouldn’t recommend you necessarily create the same events I do. The events you use will depend upon what’s important to your business.

Ask yourself:

What is important to you?
What actions are people performing on your website that you aren’t tracking?
What would be valuable to track in your Ads Manager reports?
What would be valuable to TARGET based on these actions?

If you use Google Tag Manager, here’s a resource that I used to get started.

Watch the Video

Your Turn

What custom Facebook web events do you use?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Custom Facebook Web Events That I Use appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Importance of the Facebook Conversions API

Jon Loomer — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 19:00:18 +0000

The Facebook Conversions API has been a popular topic for the past year or so. While most marketers understand that they need it, most misunderstand the reason why.

Let’s clear up the following:

What the Facebook Conversions API is
Why it’s important
Whether it’s helpful for iOS 14 data loss
How to get it set up

Let’s go…

What is the Facebook Conversions API?

Look, as much as I’d like to be, I’m not a super nerdy, techy, programmer guy. I’m going to explain this in only the most basic terms — mainly because I understand it in the most basic terms.

The Conversions API creates a direct connection between your data and Facebook. This helps provide a conversions source in addition to the pixel and offline methods.

Consider the API something of a backup plan for sending web events. Those web events can be used for conversion attribution and reporting, optimization, and targeting.

Why the API is Important

The Facebook pixel was one of the most impactful developments of the past decade for advertisers. It’s certainly been huge for my advertising.

The problem is that the pixel is getting less and less reliable. Its ability to send event data to Facebook is interrupted by cookie blockers, loading errors, and connection problems.

It doesn’t mean that you should use the Conversions API instead of the Facebook pixel. If you use them both, you’re more likely to send Facebook a complete set of data. If Facebook doesn’t have the complete picture, it will negatively impact the platform’s impression of performance.

Consider this: If Facebook doesn’t have all of the event data, it may make it more difficult for your ad set to exit the learning phase. It may lead Facebook to incorrectly favor one ad set over another or one ad over another. Accurate attribution is important.

Adding the API leads to improved reporting, more complete custom audiences, and better optimization. And given the trend of ad blocking and browser privacy changes, we can expect the pixel to get less useful in the future — making the API even more important.

The API, iOS 14 and Data Loss

The Facebook Conversions API started getting more popular once changes related to iOS 14 were first announced. And Facebook confused matters more by recommending the API during this time.

The problem is, though, that the Facebook Conversions API has to follow the same rules for web events that the pixel does for sending data. If someone opts out of tracking, the API will be impacted in the same ways the pixel is.

Again, though, that doesn’t mean the API isn’t important. If you’re getting fewer conversions reported due to iOS 14, that just makes it more important that Facebook gets as many of the events that it can to report on what it can.

It won’t solve problems related to iOS 14, but the Facebook Conversions API will help improve your reporting that is unaffected by iOS 14.

How to Set it Up

Of course, there isn’t a single method for setting up the Facebook Conversions API. And in most cases, it’s not a simple task (there are exceptions!). It depends largely upon how you’re managing your pixel right now.

Within the Events Manager for your pixel, scroll down to Conversions API.

Click to choose a partner. There are several potential integration partners that you can pick from.

Depending on the partner, the instructions for setting up the API will be different. In some cases, it may be just a matter of a few clicks (the rumor is that Shopify and WooCommerce are very easy). In others, it may require some technical assistance.

I used the Conversions API Gateway to set it up. I wouldn’t say it was easy, but it was finally a solution that allowed me to get the process completed. For the longest time, I ran into hurdles.

Read my tutorial on how I set up the Conversions API Gateway.

Other Uses of the API

Beyond sending web events, you can also send offline events or integrate your CRM. The CRM integration, at least for now, is being used by Facebook for Conversion Lead optimization when running Facebook lead ads. I’ll cover that in more detail later.

Watch Video

Your Turn

Do you have the Conversions API set up? What method did you use? Are you seeing an improvement in performance as a result?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Importance of the Facebook Conversions API appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

How to Use Google Tag Manager to Manage the Facebook Pixel and Events

Jon Loomer — Sun, 28 Nov 2021 03:19:51 +0000

For the past couple of years now, I’ve used Google Tag Manager to manage the Facebook pixel and events (both standard and custom events). In this post, I’m going to walk through exactly how I do that.

I wish I would have started using GTM to manage my Facebook pixel and events sooner. It provides a ton of flexibility and ability to get creative in ways that you can’t while sticking with standard events only.

Install the Base Pixel Code

In order to take advantage of Google Tag Manager for standard and custom pixel events, you’ll first need to add the base Facebook pixel code.

Within the Google Tag Manager workspace for your domain, go to Tags.

Click to create a “New” tag.

Click “Tag Configuration.”

Select “Custom HTML.”

This is where you’ll need to paste your base Facebook pixel code. Go into Facebook Events Manager and select your pixel as the data source.

Then click the “Add Events” drop-down and select “From a New Website.”

Choose to “Install Code Manually.”

Click the green “Copy Code” button.

Then paste that code back into the HTML field of the tag you were creating in GTM.

Under “Advanced Settings,” choose “Once per page.”

At the bottom, click into “Triggering.”

Select the “All Pages” page view trigger.

Name your tag (something like “Facebook – Base Pixel”) and save it.

Then click to submit your changes.

Create Standard Events

First, you can technically use the Facebook Pixel Setup Tool to create standard pixel events without code. I’ve personally not had a lot of luck with that tool and choose to do it manually in Google Tag Manager.

We created a Facebook Pixel Event Generator tool to help with this process. Let’s assume that I want to create a ViewContent event for the view of my training landing page.

I select “ViewContent.”

Everything else is optional, but I’ll also provide the name of the landing page for “content_name.”

The code I need is now at the bottom of the page. Copy that.

Here’s a video of how to use that tool if you need it…

Now, create a new tag in Google Tag Manager. Once again, it should utilize custom HTML. Paste the code we just copied from the Event Generator.

Let’s name the tag before we go further. This is for you, so name it whatever you want. Make sure it’s descriptive so you know what it is.

Under Advanced Settings, expand Tag Sequencing and check the box for “Fire a tag before [your tag] fires.”

We want the base Facebook pixel code to fire first or the events won’t work. Click to select a tag and then choose the base pixel tag that we created earlier.

Click into Triggering and then click the “+” to add a new trigger. This trigger will be the view of the specific page that will result in the ViewContent event firing.

First name it. Then click Trigger Configuration. Select “Page View” as your trigger type.

Select “Some Page Views” and then “Page URL” from the drop-down. You’ll use Page URL “contains” and then paste in everything from your landing page URL after the domain name (including “/ and /”).

When you’re done, save and submit your changes.

You can do this with any standard event. I also create events for CompleteRegistration and Purchase using the page view of the thank-you pages as the trigger events.

Create Custom Events

One of the really cool benefits of Google Tag Manager for managing your Facebook pixel is the custom events that you can create. I’m not going to use this space to detail how I created all of my custom events because I’ve already written individual blog posts on each one.

I’ve created a custom event to trigger when someone views a page of my website for at least 60 seconds. It uses a special Google Tag Manager timer trigger.

I’ve also created a custom event to trigger when someone scrolls at least 70% deep into a page. This event utilizes the Scroll Depth trigger.

And finally, I created an event that triggers when someone watches YouTube videos embedded on my website. These events use a YouTube Video trigger.

I’m sure there’s still way more that I can do with custom pixel events using Google Tag Manager, but these are really nice tools to help me track, optimize, and target quality actions on my website.

Test Them

You can test whether the pixel and events are working using the “Test Events” tab in your Events Manager. But I find it’s easier to simply use the Facebook Pixel Helper Chrome plugin.

If you use the plugin, simply navigate to the page that should fire the event you’ve added.

If everything is working properly, all expected events will fire and display with a green checkmark.

GTM + Conversions API Gateway

While the Conversions API Gateway isn’t part of Google Tag Manager, I wanted to note that the two play nicely. Once I set up the Conversions API using the API Gateway, it automatically detects all of the standard and custom events that pass through the pixel.

Watch Video

Your Turn

I’m a big fan of using Google Tag Manager to manage my Facebook pixel and events. Have you used it to create other powerful custom events that I haven’t?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post How to Use Google Tag Manager to Manage the Facebook Pixel and Events appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

ERROR: “This event hasn’t been set up on any of your domains”

Jon Loomer — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 21:53:27 +0000

Have you recently seen an error like this in Facebook Ads Manager?

This event hasn’t been set up on any of your domains. Once Apple begins enforcing their new iOS 14 requirements, ad sets optimizing for **EVENT NAME** will be paused unless you change your available events in Events Manager.

Here’s an example…

One of Facebook’s reactions to the iOS 14 data tracking prompt is to impose a limit of eight events for optimization. That limit is the source of this error.

You are probably seeing it for one of these two reasons:

You attempted to optimize for an event that falls outside of your primary eight
You tried to set up a conversions campaign and have not yet configured your eight events

If none of this makes sense, keep reading. Let’s talk about the 8-event limit and what it is, how to configure your events, and some outstanding questions.

Understanding the 8-Event Limit

Once the iOS 14 tracking prompt goes live, Facebook will execute an 8-event limitation on optimization. This means that you will only be allowed to optimize for one of eight different events per domain.

When I say “optimize,” I’m referring to the conversion event you select within your ad set when optimizing for some type of website event…

Keep in mind that this limitation applies “per domain.” You can have a single pixel on multiple domains and optimize for eight different events on each domain. You can have multiple pixels on the same domain, but you are still limited to the same eight events.

While Facebook hasn’t been entirely clear, it’s assumed that you will be able to continue to include events outside of the primary eight within your reports (when customizing columns) and for custom audience targeting. Of course, reporting will be incomplete for users who opt out of the iOS 14 tracking prompt, though Facebook says they will perform modeling to attempt to fill in the blanks.

Now that you have a better understanding of the 8-event limit, let’s talk about configuring your eight events…

Navigate to Web Event Configurations

Within Events Manager, you will see a tab for Aggregated Event Measurement. Click on that…

Once you click on the “Configure Web Events” button, you’ll be sent to the Web Event Configurations page…

Domain Verification

Web events on this page will be organized by domain. You’ll notice that the second column will include one of three messages.

“Domain Verified”…

“Owned by another business”…

Or “Verify Domain”…

Note that you cannot configure your events until you verify your domain. If you don’t own that domain, you will not be able to verify it — or configure the events on that domain.

If you haven’t yet verified your domain (and you’re able because you own it), click the button to start that process. You will then be redirected to the Domains section of your Business Settings.

You essentially need to add code or a file to the backend settings of your website — settings that only the website owner or admin will be able to access.

You’ll have three options:

DNS Verification
HTML File Upload
Meta-tag Verification

I personally prefer the Meta-tag Verification option since it’s closest to the process for adding a pixel to my website (which I know how to do). Simply add that code to the header of your website’s homepage and then click to verify.

For more info on domain verification, read this blog post.

Configure Your Eight Events

If your domain is verified, expand the entry for that domain in Web Event Configurations to view the events currently assigned to it.

Facebook will attempt to choose and rank your events for you, but you can (and likely should) edit this. Note that the list will start only with the current standard events Facebook finds on your website. You can remove and move events, and you can also add custom conversions.

Click to edit your list. First, you’re going to get a warning…

Prior to the iOS 14 tracking prompt going live, this is no big deal. But it could be a very big deal later. Keep in mind that changes can and will result in your ad sets pausing.

Now, let’s edit your events…

The ranking matters. When a user opts out of iOS 14 tracking, Aggregated Event Measurement will come into play. At that point, Facebook will only receive a user’s highest-ranked event in a given visit.

You can order your events any way you want, but it would certainly make sense to have your Purchase event be the highest rank. It would be nonsensical to want Facebook to receive a ViewContent event but not Purchase, for example. This would happen if you rank ViewContent highest.

An example of how you might order it with standard events:

Purchase
Add Payment Info
Initiate Checkout
Add to Cart
Lead
Complete Registration
Search
View Content

This is only an example. A registration may be worth more to your business than an add to cart. Also, note that you may not even have all of these events on your website.

Of course, if you want to use Value Optimization, that will take up four events by itself…

It’s possible, though, that you won’t even be able to optimize for value since you may not qualify.

Including Custom Conversions

Maybe you can fill up your events using standard events. Regardless, you may want to include Custom Conversions in your list.

There are a few reasons you may want to include Custom Conversions. Doing so allows you to optimize for…

Custom Events that you find important
The purchase of a specific product
The purchase of a category of product

There are other reasons as well, but standard events are based on very general actions. Custom Conversions give you more granularity.

To include a Custom Conversion, click the first drop-down that otherwise selects your pixel and scroll down to the bottom to select “Custom Conversion.” Then select the specific Custom Conversion in the drop-down to the right.

Here is my final, ranked list of eight events…

My website only makes use of Purchase, View Content, and Complete Registration standard events. However, I use a custom event for tracking quality web traffic by time (and scroll depth, for that matter). So, I included Custom Conversions for 60-second visits so that I can optimize for high-quality visits (typically for blog posts).

I created custom conversions based on categories of product as well, mainly because I had slots available. Since optimizing for specific products will create an issue of needing to edit my list often, these categories will (or should) remain unchanged. That also provides some volume for optimization purposes, rather than optimizing for the purchase of a single product.

Addressing the Error

Let’s return to the original issue of the error you may be seeing…

For now, this isn’t a problem. But once the tracking prompt goes live, the eight events will be enforced. At that point, you will not be able to optimize for an event outside of your primary eight. Any ad sets currently running that are optimized for an event outside of those eight will be turned off. And any change to your primary eight will result in a temporary pause.

This is going to create all sorts of problems and frustration for advertisers. It’s important that you plan ahead while you can. The more evergreen your eight-event configuration, the less likely you are to need to edit it later.

Fewer headaches, happy advertiser!

Many Open Questions

I covered a lot here, but know that the 8-event limit per domain opens up a ton of questions. One of the most common is something along these lines…

“What about using a third-party website to sell products? I provide them my pixel, but I am not able to configure these events because I don’t own — and can’t verify — the domain. So, I can’t optimize for these events. What do I do?”

It’s a question that I haven’t seen Facebook address yet. It’s not clear if they have a solution in mind, but this example does seem to present a big problem.

I’ll address this, and many other, related questions in separate blog posts and within my training.

Your Turn

Have you configured your eight events yet? What issues are you running into?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post ERROR: “This event hasn’t been set up on any of your domains” appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Facebook Website Custom Audiences: A Definitive Guide for Remarketing

Jon Loomer — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 05:30:07 +0000

[NOTE: This post has been updated and completely rewritten from an original publication.]

The power of Facebook ads is found within the targeting. And targeting those who are closest to your business using Facebook website custom audiences is one of the best and most effective ways to do it.

I don’t care how perfect the ad copy, imagery, bidding, and optimization are, it’s imperative that you target the people most likely to perform your desired action.

Who are those people? In many cases, they are those who have visited your website.

Those who have the most success with Facebook ads have mastered remarketing. The purpose of this post is to help you master it, too.

What is Website Retargeting on Facebook?

Website retargeting — also known as remarketing — is the process of running ads that target people who have previously visited your website. In this case, we’re speaking specifically about using Facebook ads.

You can only run ads targeting people who have visited a website you control. You’ll need to place a snippet of code (also called a “pixel”) on your website that essentially allows you to claim those pages.

Whenever that pixel is fired, Facebook is notified that a user has visited a page of that site. Facebook will then refer to rules an advertiser has created to determine whether that user should fall within a specific audience to be targeted with an ad.

Advertisers create rules that help bucket website visitors into specific audiences based on the specific actions they’ve performed and when those actions occurred. This then allows advertisers to create ads that are perfectly crafted based on a user’s activity on the advertiser’s website.

How to Install the Pixel

All of this is possible thanks to the Facebook pixel. The base pixel is unique to your ad account, and it should be placed on every page of your website prior to the closing HEAD tag.

There are countless methods for adding that pixel to every page of your website.

1. Partner Integration

Facebook has multiple partners that help integrate the pixel for you.

2. Facebook WordPress Plugin

If you have a self-hosted WordPress website, you may want to try out Facebook’s own plugin.

3. Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager is what I use.

I won’t reinvent the wheel here since I’ve already written extensively about how to install the base pixel code (read that linked post), and the focus of this post is creating website custom audiences. But, it’s important that you don’t skip this step.

Add Pixel Events

To get the most out of website custom audiences, you need more than just the base pixel code on every page of your website — you need to utilize pixel events, too.

Pixel events are how you define conversions and other critical actions that are occurring on your website. By using pixel events, Facebook not only knows that someone visited, but that they performed an important action. This information can be used in ad optimization, conversion tracking, and — of course — targeting.

Once again, I’ve written about this elsewhere, but let me help you get this done…

1. E-Commerce Partner Integration

If you use Shopify, for example, many of these events are already being created for you. Here’s a list of partners that may help with this process.

2. Use the Event Setup Tool

The Event Setup Tool has the potential to be great. No code and streamlined. Yet, as I write this, it’s flawed. Maybe it’s good enough for your purposes.

3. Create Pixel Events Manually

I create my events manually, and I use the Pixel Event Generator to provide the code that I need to use.

However you do it, it’s important that you utilize events and parameters for a multitude of reasons, but it will become clearer when you set up website custom audiences based on pixel events.

Create a Website Custom Audience: Basics

Go to Audiences within the Business Tools menu.

Click “Create Audience” and select “Custom Audience.”

Select “Website” as your source.

It will look like this…

You can include people who meet ANY or ALL of the conditions you set (“ANY” is set by default).

This will only matter if you add multiple conditions later (more on this in a minute). In most cases, just stick with the default here.

If you have multiple pixels, make sure that the right one is selected.

You’ll be able to create an audience of all website visitors, people who visit specific web pages, visitors by time spent, and from your events.

We’ll get into the details of all of these in a moment. All website visitors is the default.

You’ll need to determine the time window for when and how long someone is in your audience.

By default, this duration is set to 30 days, but it can be anywhere from 1 to 180 days. While 1 day will be the most relevant, it will also generate the smallest audience; a 180-day duration will include less relevant visitors, but it will also generate more targeting volume. Know that this is a rolling window that updates dynamically.

You can choose to include more people or exclude people (if you left the default at “ANY” at the top).

This allows you to create more conditions and refine the audience.

I rarely, if ever use this. Instead of including and excluding people in the same audience, I’ll create simple audiences based on a single rule so that I can choose to either target or exclude that audience in the ad set.

When you’re done, name your audience and (optionally) add a description. Then click the “Create Audience” button at the bottom.

Website Custom Audience: All Website Visitors

The default, and likely most used, audience is for all website visitors.

This is the audience that websites with less traffic will use most often to get volume, rather than isolating visitors to specific pages. It doesn’t matter what they did or how long they were on your website to be included in this audience.

There is certainly value to an audience like this, but understand that it includes EVERYONE — your most valuable customers, accidental clicks, and everything in between.

Website Custom Audience: People Who Visited Specific Web Pages

This is a multi-purpose audience that has so many uses that we can’t list them all here.

Whenever I write a new blog post (like this one), I create a website custom audience for that page.

I can then exclude that audience when promoting that particular blog post. I can also target that audience when promoting a related product.

Whenever I publish a new free opt-in, I create a website custom audience for the confirmation page the user is redirected to after submitting their contact info.

I can then exclude people who already registered when promoting that opt-in, and I can target those who opted in when promoting an up-sell.

I’d recommend creating an audience of people who visited important landing pages. You can then target them with a special offer (excluding those who already converted).

You can create an audience of people who visited any page of your website that includes a keyword within the URL.

This has the potential for picking up multiple pages — a category of content — that will create more volume. You can then target those people when promoting a related product or related content.

These ideas are just scratching the surface for this audience type, but it should provide some inspiration and direction.

Website Custom Audience: Visitors by Time Spent

Visitors by Time Spent helps you remove your lower quality visitors from an audience.

You can create an audience of your top 5%, 10%, or 25% visitors in terms of time spent on your website.

If you want, you can further filter by pages visited.

While this approach is great for isolating valuable visitors, know that it’s also slicing your audience into a much smaller fraction. It may not be ideal for websites with light traffic. Or you may simply want to use a longer duration and lower budget.

Website Custom Audience: From Your Events

This one is a whole lot of fun, and it’s a big perk to utilizing events with parameters.

The events that appear as options will be those that have been receiving activity on your website.

Once you select an event, you can click the “Refine by” link.

This will allow you to refine by URL/Parameter, Aggregated Value, or Device.

At this point, you’re only limited by your own creativity and the events you have on your website. But, here are a few examples of audiences you could create…

All purchases during the past 180 days. These people may be likely to purchase again, or this may be a good source for a lookalike audience.

All registrations during the past 180 days.

All people who viewed 4 or more pages during the past 180 days (high-quality visitors).

All people who completed 2 or more purchases during the past 180 days.

All people who spent $500 or more in aggregate on my website during the past 180 days.

Everyone who scrolled at least 50% on a blog post during the past 180 days.

Scroll depth is actually a custom event that I’m using on my website, along with time on page to help track, optimize for, and target high-quality website visitors.

How to Target or Exclude a Website Custom Audience

When creating an ad set, you can target a website custom audience by entering it in the custom audience text box.

You can also click the “Exclude” button and exclude one or multiple custom audiences.

When using custom audiences, be careful about how you do any other targeting and filtering in the audience targeting. For example, you may want to select a handful of countries or even go Worldwide, depending on the size of the audience you’re targeting.

I would leave all other targeting at the defaults unless you have a specific reason not to.

Dynamic Ads

When you hear the term “remarketing,” you may also think of dynamic ads. Well, that’s another complex topic in itself. But, know that much of the targeting and excluding that occurs there is done dynamically — not because you created audiences, but because you set up the proper pixel events.

A Note on Reach Optimization

When I create hyper-targeted (and small) audiences that I want to target, I often won’t optimize for conversions. When you do that, Facebook optimizes to show to only certain people in that audience. But these super small audiences are relevant, and I want to reach everyone.

That’s why, when we’re talking about hyper-targeted audiences in the hundreds of people, I’ll use the Reach objective.

I will then optimize for Reach and utilize frequency capping.

Reach optimization isn’t magic, and it shouldn’t be used in very many cases. But this is a time when I find it useful.

How Should You Use Remarketing?

I hope I provided plenty of ideas and inspiration within this post about how you can use website custom audiences for remarketing. Know that there isn’t a right or wrong path. The audiences you can create are often unique to your website, products, and events that you’ve created.

Remarketing is a go-to strategy for me. I use it for driving traffic, re-engagement, building my email list, and selling products. It may not be the primary audience I target in all of these cases, but they are certainly in the targeting mix — and I also use these audiences regularly for exclusion purposes.

What other ways do you use remarketing?

Learn More About the Facebook Pixel

Want to master the Facebook pixel? Take your learning a step further with the Facebook Pixel Masterclass, a video series covering advanced topics related to the pixel. We’ll go into detail related to pixel events, custom conversions, tracking, optimization, and targeting.

Or, if you aren’t ready for the advanced topics, check out my Facebook Pixel Basics free video series (this is also included within Facebook Pixel Masterclass). You can register by clicking the link below…

[GET THE VIDEO SERIES]

It includes eight lessons covering what the pixel is, why it’s important, how it works, how to add it to your website, and how to test that it’s working.

Enjoy!

Register For Facebook Pixel Basics Free Video Series

The post Facebook Website Custom Audiences: A Definitive Guide for Remarketing appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Facebook Pixel Events and Custom Conversions: Best Practices

Jon Loomer — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 02:08:04 +0000

Meta pixel events and custom conversions are important tools that can amplify your marketing and advertising efforts. Given some crossover between the two, it may be challenging to understand the difference between them as well as when and how to use each. This post is meant to provide some clarity.

First, if you haven’t read my guides on how Facebook pixel events and custom conversions work, I encourage you to do so:

Throughout this post, we’ll discuss how to utilize each (if at all) in the following processes:

Conversion tracking in Ads Manager
Conversion optimization
Targeting
Dynamic ads

When we’re done, I’ll walk through exactly how I use Facebook pixel events and custom conversions.

Conversion Optimization

If you want to get the best results, you’ll want to take advantage of Facebook optimization. When creating an ad set, Facebook will optimize for your performance goal. This means that they’ll show your ads to people within your audience most likely to perform that action.

If you optimize for a conversion, Facebook will optimize for the specific conversion event that you define for Facebook at the top of the ad set.

You can select a standard event, custom event, or custom conversion.

First, know that there’s certainly value in setting your conversion event as any registration, purchase, or some other standard event. That creates volume that may help with optimization.

But, maybe you want to set a goal that is more specific, like the precise product that you want to sell. Know that you can still do that with custom conversions.

You can do this either by creating a custom conversion based on a standard event and parameter…

…or by product purchase thank you page URL (either using the standard event or not)…

You can also map a custom event to a custom conversion.

Conversion Tracking in Ads Manager

When running Facebook ads with the goal of a conversion, you will want to be able to measure success. To accomplish this, you’ll need to define your conversion goal so that Facebook can report on how many of those events occur as a result of someone seeing or clicking your ad.

First, know that when optimizing for conversions, Facebook will report on the goal conversion that you set in the step above as your default “Result.”

Know that when you hover over the number in that Results column (while optimizing for some type of conversion), Facebook will report on all custom conversion events that resulted from someone seeing or clicking on your ad.

But, maybe you want to see how many conversions happened when you weren’t optimizing for a conversion. You still can. This can be incredibly valuable.

Click to customize columns.

You can add columns of Total, Value, or Cost for any standard event or custom conversion.

We’re back to the same problem we faced with optimization! No ability to select a standard event based on parameters or a custom event.

If you’re reading closely, you probably know the answer. Map your standard event with parameters or custom event to a custom conversion. Do that and you can add a column to your Ads Manager for reporting.

Targeting

You can’t simply target a pixel event or custom conversion. But you can create a website custom audience that’s based on a pixel event (not a custom conversion) and target it within your ad set.

This is where it gets interesting and potentially complex. The audiences you can create are only limited by the number of pixel events (standard and custom) and parameters you use.

When you create a website custom audience, you will have the ability to select “From your events.”

You will be able to select from both standard and custom pixel events here — whatever events are active on your website.

First, you can choose to create an audience based on an event without refining by parameters. This could give you volume for more targeting power.

For example, here’s an audience of all purchases…

But, you can also refine by URL/PARAMETER or aggregated value.

So, you could create a website custom audience based on an event that occurred on a particular page (purchase event by confirmation URL) or based on product name using parameters.

You could create an audience of all purchases with a value of more than $100.00.

If you refine by Aggregated Value, you could even create an audience of all people who made at least two purchases during a given time period.

Or you can create an audience of people whose sum of all purchases over a given period of time is greater than or equal to $500.

Once again, your possibilities for targeting are only limited by how much you use pixel events. This is where putting in the work to use standard events with parameters as well as custom events really pays off.

Dynamic Ads

If you have an e-commerce company and want to benefit from Dynamic Ads, it’s a must that you use standard events with parameters (custom events and custom conversions don’t apply).

The ability to target Dynamic Ads based on the above categories relies on your diligent use of standard pixel events and parameters. That is how Facebook knows that someone viewed, added to cart, or purchased a particular product.

Summary

I created the following matrix to try and summarize how standard events (with and without parameters), custom events, and custom conversions can be used.

An important point: While you can’t technically track and optimize for standard events by parameters or custom events (with or without parameters), you still have options. All you need to do is first map that event to a custom conversion.

Can you get away with using ONLY pixel events and not custom conversions? Only if you have no interest in defining the specific conversion (product name and other details) for the purpose of optimization and tracking. Not a great idea.

Can you get away with using ONLY custom conversions and not standard or pixel events? First, not if you run an e-commerce website and want to utilize Dynamic Ads. But otherwise, you’d need to have the smallest of websites with a minimum number of conversion types to consider this approach.

Best Practices and What I Do

Note that this post isn’t meant to instruct you on which pixel events, parameters, and custom conversions to create. That’s going to vary from business to business. Instead, I hope this provides clarity on how each is used. But, I would like to explain how I use them.

For every product I launch, I create a standard event in Google Tag Manager and use the parameters to define the product, currency, and value.

I create a custom conversion for that product to isolate it for optimization and tracking in Ads Manager. Note that I create my custom conversions for product purchases and registrations based on confirmation page (mainly because it’s easier and my website is set up to do it this way).

I create a website custom audience for that purchase, but again I base it on the confirmation page URL.

You may not be able to create your purchase custom conversions or website custom audiences based on URL if you don’t have a unique confirmation page for each product purchase. That’s where you’d instead base those on pixel events and parameters.

I still use standard event parameters so that I can create some of those unique website custom audiences I discussed earlier. Otherwise, you could make the argument that standard event parameters are less necessary for a website like mine.

This same process applies for all of my free opt-in products. I create custom conversions and website custom audiences based on the confirmation page URL, and I add standard events with parameters.

I also create custom events based on time on page and scroll depth to measure, optimize for, and target high-quality visits.

The pixel events and custom conversions you use will depend on your business. But this is what I do.

Learn More About the Facebook Pixel

[GET THE VIDEO SERIES]

It includes eight lessons covering what the pixel is, why it’s important, how it works, how to add it to your website, and how to test that it’s working.

Enjoy!

Register For Facebook Pixel Basics Free Video Series

The post Facebook Pixel Events and Custom Conversions: Best Practices appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

How to Create Facebook Pixel Events and Parameters Manually

Jon Loomer — Thu, 10 Sep 2020 00:22:04 +0000

Facebook pixel events are critical for conversion tracking, optimization, and retargeting. You may not have partner integration that automatically injects this code. The Pixel Event Setup Tool may not be sufficient (it’s not for me). You may need to add the code manually, and this post is meant to help.

The Problems with the Pixel Event Setup Tool

As I write this, the Pixel Event Setup Tool, though it has promise, simply isn’t a solution.

It should allow for full parameter flexibility. You should be able to add any qualified parameter that you want. But, you can’t. In particular, you can’t add a product name. Why in the world can’t you add a product name?

The most excruciating part may be how value is added for the purchase event.

If you don’t use the Initiate Checkout event, you can’t provide a value unless Facebook reads it from the page. There’s no option to enter a value manually.

Needless to say, this isn’t good enough. Facebook may very well fix these issues. But in the meantime, creating your pixel events manually may be the best solution.

Pixel Event Code

The base pixel code goes before the closing HEAD tag on every page of your website. The pixel event code typically goes soon after, following the opening BODY tag (though it can go anywhere prior to the closing BODY tag).

Pixel event code is script that includes the event that should be tracked and any relevant parameters. It could be as simple as this…

The example above doesn’t include parameters, which provide additional details like the product and value. The purchase event is the only event that requires parameters (value and currency).

Here’s an example with parameters…

There are 17 standard events in all. For a full list of the events, code, and parameter options, check out this resource.

The Easy Solution: Pixel Event Generator

Look, I’m not a programmer. I’m not all that technical. So, I won’t waste any more energy trying to explain how to code events with parameters.

No, I have a much easier solution for you…

There was a time when Facebook offered a tool that helped you generate pixel event and parameter code really easily. For some crazy reason, they got rid of it. I think it’s because they assume the Pixel Event Setup Tool is sufficient. As we’ve discussed, it’s not.

That’s why my team developed the Pixel Event Generator. It’s free. There are no strings attached.

[GO HERE TO USE THE PIXEL EVENT GENERATOR]

It’s really simple…

1. Choose the event you want to track.

All 17 standard events are there. If you aren’t sure what an event is, select it to get a definition.

2. Choose your parameters.

The parameters that are relevant to your selected event will now appear. They are optional. You won’t need to enter anything, but you can if you’d like. Only fields you fill will appear in your code.

3. Copy your code.

Your pixel event code will be provided to you automatically based on your settings. Simply click the “Copy” button and paste it into the relevant location on your website (typically after the opening BODY tag on the page where the event occurs).

The video below walks through how it works…

Reminder: If you need a refresher on how pixel events work, read my guide here.

Learn More About the Facebook Pixel

[GET THE VIDEO SERIES]

It includes eight lessons covering what the pixel is, why it’s important, how it works, how to add it to your website, and how to test that it’s working.

Enjoy!

Register For Facebook Pixel Basics Free Video Series

The post How to Create Facebook Pixel Events and Parameters Manually appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

How to Use the Facebook Pixel Event Setup Tool

Jon Loomer — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 17:50:25 +0000

[NOTE: This post has been updated from its original publication.]

Any business serious about conversion tracking and optimization needs the Facebook pixel installed on their website. But getting the pixel and events installed correctly has been a chore, particularly for those who are less technical or lack the staff and resources to handle some basic code.

That changes with the Facebook pixel Event Setup Tool. Or it potentially does (more on the issues with this tool later). While you will still need to add the base pixel code to your website, the Event Setup Tool is meant to provide a codeless, seamless method to integrate pixel events.

It has enormous potential for simplifying the pixel event creation process, no matter your technical expertise. Before we get to the juicy stuff of using this tool, we’ll need to take a couple of steps back.

In this post, you’ll learn:

How to install the base pixel code (if you haven’t already)
A refresher on pixel events
How to use the Event Setup Tool

Install the Pixel First

First, there’s no way around getting the base pixel code installed on your website. If you haven’t done that yet, you’ll need to before dealing with events.

The Facebook pixel is a unique piece of code that connects activity on your website to Facebook. It is the pixel that gives you access to all of the following, and more:

Retargeting with Website Custom Audiences
Attribute conversions to your advertising
Optimize advertising for Landing Page Views
Optimize advertising for conversions
Track marketing performance with Facebook Attribution
Track customer funnel with Facebook Analytics

If you haven’t yet installed the pixel, go here.

What Are Pixel Events?

Adding the base pixel code connects your website to Facebook. With your unique pixel on every page of your website, Facebook will be notified when a page of your site is loaded.

If you do nothing else, you’re limited in terms of how much you can get from the pixel. You can create Website Custom Audiences to retarget those who visit your website, which is amazing. But, the extent of your targeting will be limited without pixel events. And you’ll need those same pixel events for better tracking and optimization.

[READ THIS INTRODUCTION ON PIXEL EVENTS]

A pixel event is a modifier that adds details to the information sent to Facebook. Events allow Facebook to be notified that not only was a page visited, but a purchase (or registration, lead, search, etc.) was completed.

Standard pixel events (expanded since first announced) include:

Add Payment Info
Add to Cart
Add to Wishlist
Complete Registration
Contact
Customize Product
Donate
Find Location
Initiate Checkout
Lead
Purchase
Schedule
Search
Start Trial
Submit Application
Subscribe
View Content

Events become particularly useful for conversion tracking and optimization. They allow you to connect your advertising efforts to a specific number of resulting conversions and, if applicable, the related revenue. Once Facebook collects this info, it also allows the advertiser to better optimize for a particular event.

Earlier, I described some of the tools that become available to you once you install the pixel. But, once you start using events, each of those tools become more powerful.

What is the Event Setup Tool?

Without the Event Setup Tool, advertisers need to modify their pixel code on specific pages of their websites to collect anonymous event information. This can be done manually, with the assistance of a plugin, or through partner integration.

The Event Setup Tool allows advertisers to add events based on page views or button clicks. Most importantly, no coding is required.

When in your Events Manager, click the Add Events drop-down and select “From the Pixel.”

You will now see the option to use Facebook’s Event Setup Tool.

Before we move forward, determine on what page the pixel event will occur, whether by viewing a URL or clicking a button. Enter the URL for that page here…

After entering the URL for this page in the step above, click “Open Website.” That will open a new window for that particular page that includes a Facebook dialog at the top left.

If any events have already been created for this page, you’ll see them here.

Set Up an Event by URL

One option is to set up a pixel event by URL. In other words, if someone loads a particular URL, this is a sign that a conversion is complete. An example would be a thank-you page following registration for a webinar or purchasing a product. This should be a page that users will only visit once.

Click the “Track a URL” button. You’ll now see this…

You’ll want to choose an event that has occurred once a person visits this URL. Facebook provides several standard options…

I am going to choose “Complete Registration.”

You also have the option of tracking the entire URL or portion of the URL.

“URL Equals” would limit qualified URLs to a single URL whereas “URL Contains” could result in multiple qualified URLs.

Once you’re done, click “Confirm.”

You will now see that event listed.

Set Up an Event by Button Click

This has the potential to be the most valuable application of the Event Setup Tool. Updating button code to track conversions on click is very technical. I can tell you that I rarely got it to work properly on my website.

Click “Track New Button.”

Suddenly, the page grays out and highlights appear for links and buttons that would qualify.

By selecting a link or button here, Facebook will begin reporting on events whenever a visitor clicks it. Once you select your button or link, Facebook will ask you to connect that click to an event.

I am going to choose “Lead.” Then click “Confirm.” Once again, you’ll see that event listed under “Events on this Page.”

Since I previously created an event based on URL, I have two listed (you may have only one).

Test Your Event

From the image above, note that you can edit or delete an event before finishing. Once you’re finished, click “Finish Setup” at the top right.

Facebook now asks to review your events.

If it looks good, click “Finish.”

Back on your Events Manager screen in Facebook, you’ll get a notification that your event setup is complete.

Click the blue button to test your events. You’ll get a page that looks like this…

Note that while in test mode, Facebook will only track the events on that page that you trigger, not the events triggered by other website visitors. Assuming the link to that page you were just working on is in the text box (it should have prefilled), click “Open Website.”

If you created an event by URL, you have already triggered an event. Otherwise, click the link or button on that page that triggers your button event. Then go back to the testing page in Events Manager.

Here is what that page looks like now for me…

In the middle column, you’ll see those two events were created via Event Setup Tool. In the far right column, you’ll see the last time that event was triggered. In other words, these were set up properly!

The Problems With This Tool

The Pixel Event Setup Tool has been available long enough now that all of the bugs should have been worked out of it. We should be beyond versions 1, 2, and 3. And yet… The tool still has some major flaws.

When it was first released, the Pixel Event Setup Tool didn’t allow the ability to add parameters. Parameters are additional details about a conversion (like value, product name, quantity, etc.). While parameters are now partially integrated in this tool, their availability is rigid and not incredibly helpful.

Here’s an example when creating a purchase event…

The only parameter options I’m given are for value and currency. However, we should be able to provide parameters for other items, including the name of the product (content_name) and type of product (content_type). The product name, in particular, is a critical item.

But, even the parameters available aren’t good enough. As you can see from the image above, my options for value are:

Use Value from Initiate Checkout (Recommended)
Choose Value on Page
Don’t Include Value

This is painful. I don’t use the Initiate Checkout event. I tried, using the Pixel Event Setup Tool, and ran into all sorts of technical roadblocks of bugginess. I don’t include the value on the confirmation page. I tried to include it for this purpose, but Facebook didn’t detect it. And providing no value should not be an option.

WHY CAN’T I JUST MANUALLY ENTER THE VALUE??

This is a regular issue. I want to provide the name of a product for a CompleteRegistration event, but it’s not an option. There is no flexibility when it comes to parameters. Why not? It would seem to be an easy addition, and it would make this tool a slam dunk.

I’ve also run into general bugginess with Facebook’s detection of buttons, links, and values. It may be a browser compatibility issue in some cases, but the highlights often don’t line up.

These are big problems. Until they are addressed, the Pixel Event Setup Tool simply isn’t a viable option for serious marketers. It’s otherwise a nice little tool with big potential. It can solve small tasks if all you want to do is add a standard event without details. But that’s about it.

Adding Code Manually

I’m sure Facebook will eventually address this. In the meantime, I’ll continue to use partner integration or add code manually.

Of course, Facebook scrapped their valuable manual pixel event creation tool with the redesign of Events Manager. We saw this as an opportunity and created the Pixel Event Generator that you can us at no cost. It allows you to select an event, enter parameters, and copy the relevant code to be pasted on your website.

Learn More About the Facebook Pixel

[GET THE VIDEO SERIES]

It includes eight lessons covering what the pixel is, why it’s important, how it works, how to add it to your website, and how to test that it’s working.

Enjoy!

Register For Facebook Pixel Basics Free Video Series

The post How to Use the Facebook Pixel Event Setup Tool appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Facebook Custom Conversions: The Ultimate Guide

Jon Loomer — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 04:10:15 +0000

[NOTE: This post has been updated and completely rewritten from its original publication.]

You have the Facebook pixel. You may even be using pixel events with parameters. But if you aren’t using custom conversions, you’re doing it wrong.

Let’s walk through what custom conversions are, how to create them, and how you might use them.

What Are Custom Conversions?

Custom conversions are a way for advertisers to define a conversion event for the purpose of tracking and optimization. Most frequently, they are used for the tracking and optimization of very specific conversions.

Without custom conversions, you can only track and optimize for standard and custom pixel events. For example, you can track and optimize for all purchases or all registrations. You wouldn’t be able to track how many purchases of a specific product occurred or optimize for the purchase of a specific product with events.

Without custom conversions, you may not be able to get Ads Manager reporting for custom events (it’s possible this is a bug that not everyone deals with). Only a couple of my custom events show up among metrics that can be used for adding columns to my reports. If I map those events to custom conversions, I can then include them in reporting.

While custom conversions and pixel events have similarities, they aren’t the same. Events and custom conversions can both be used for tracking and optimization. But really, their similarities mostly stop there.

Pixel events typically require additional code, while custom conversions do not. Website Custom Audiences can be created based on pixel events, but not custom conversions.

Pixel events and custom conversions work in tandem. You can’t get the most out of pixel events without also using custom conversions. In a separate post, we’ll talk more about best practices, and how you should use standard events, custom events, and custom conversions together.

How to Create Custom Conversions: Basics

Within the Business Tools menu on the left, select Events Manager.

After selecting your pixel, click the menu item for Custom Conversions on the left side of Events Manager.

Click the “Create Custom Conversion” button and you’ll get a pop-over like this…

Let’s first cover the items that will always apply, no matter how you set up your custom conversions.

Name your custom conversion something descriptive so that you know exactly what it’s for. You can use the description field as well if necessary, but it’s optional (I can’t say I’ve ever used it).

Select your data source for the conversion event. This will typically be your pixel, but it could also be an offline event or app event. For the purpose of this tutorial, I’m focusing on the pixel. If you have multiple pixels, make sure you select the right one! If I’m going to screw up this process, this is where it usually happens.

At the bottom, you can enter a conversion value. This isn’t required and will be set to $0.00 if you don’t enter anything. But you should enter something if the conversion is anything with a monetary value.

When creating a custom conversion, you’ll need to select a conversion event. You’ll choose from standard events, custom events, and custom conversions. Let’s walk through each of them.

How to Create Custom Conversions: Standard Events

The options that appear under Standard Events will rely on the events Facebook finds on your website. Let’s use a common one: Purchase.

We now need to create our rules for defining this conversion. We’ll have options of URL, Referring Domain, and Event Parameters.

Let’s talk through use cases for each…

URL: Likely most common with this option. You want to track and optimize for the purchase of a specific product. Maybe you aren’t using event parameters and you have a unique confirmation page for each product. If so, using this makes sense.

REFERRING DOMAIN: Maybe you simply want to track how many of your sales were referred by Google. You could create this custom conversion and then add a column to your Ads Manager reporting.

PARAMETERS: If you use event parameters with your purchase events, you could create a custom conversion for a specific product. This is a good solution if you don’t have unique confirmation pages by product. This way, you can still track and optimize for the specific product purchase.

How to Create Custom Conversions: Custom Events

First, let’s select our custom event.

Since you aren’t basing this custom conversion on a standard event, Facebook needs to better understand what the event is. By default, Facebook will automatically choose a standard event to categorize your custom conversion based on information they have on your business.

Personally, I have doubts about Facebook doing this automatically. Based on information Facebook has on my business? Why does that matter? Shouldn’t it be specific to the conversion itself?

While this is the default, you can also customize it and select a standard event that you believe best represents the conversion event.

The rules you use and parameters available will depend upon the custom event — and the options are essentially limitless. But here’s an example using my Time on Page custom event and related parameters for 30 seconds.

How to Create Custom Conversions: All URL Traffic

The final type of custom conversion you can create based on pixel activity is for All URL Traffic. Such a conversion is defined by the URL, referring domain, or UTM parameters.

Once again, you’ll need to choose a standard event that most closely represents the conversion event you’re focused on.

One of the most common reasons you might use this is for a conversion confirmation page, but you don’t otherwise use pixel events. You could instead simply create a custom conversion for the confirmation URL.

The event parameters that are used here are actually pulled from your UTM parameters (if you use them). So, there are potentially creative custom conversions you could create if UTM parameters are part of your tracking strategy.

How to Optimize for a Custom Conversion

As discussed, one of the primary values of custom conversions is ad set optimization. Let’s talk about how that’s done.

When creating your campaign, select an objective that would allow for using the Website conversion location. Objective examples include Sales, Leads, and Engagement.

Within the Conversion Location section of the ad set at the top, set it to “Website” and select your pixel.

You can then select from a list of standard events, custom events, and custom conversions. The custom conversions will be labeled as such.

Make sure that within Optimization & Delivery, you are optimizing for conversions. By doing this, you not only optimize for a conversion but for the conversion you defined at the top.

How to Track and View Reported Conversions

If you set a custom conversion as the conversion event at the top of your ad set in the step above, Facebook will automatically report on it within the “Results” column.

However, you may not set that custom conversion as your conversion event — if you have that option at all (which you won’t when optimizing for an action that isn’t a conversion). You can still add a column to view your custom conversions.

Click the Columns drop-down and select the option to customize columns.

On the left, click on Custom Conversions and find the custom conversion you want to track. You can add columns for Total, Value, and Cost.

Also, a little known tip: To see all conversions of any type that resulted from your ad when optimizing for conversions, hover over the number in the Results column.

What’s great about both of these options is that they allow you to uncover hidden conversions that may not have been your priority or goal when running your ads — but they happened anyway! For example, someone may have clicked your ad promoting a blog post, but while there they decided to make a purchase. This is how you find those purchases.

How I Use Custom Conversions

I create custom conversions for all of my custom pixel events, which allows me to track and optimize for those events.

I also create a custom conversion for every product I sell and free registration I offer. In each case, the rules of these custom conversions use URL rules based on the thank you page. These are what I use for tracking and optimization when promoting those products.

Of course, what I do is not necessarily right for you. Hopefully, this post has inspired ideas of how custom conversions can be most beneficial to your business.

The post Facebook Custom Conversions: The Ultimate Guide appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Facebook Pixel Events: An Introduction

Jon Loomer — Tue, 08 Sep 2020 19:48:32 +0000

The Facebook pixel allows advertisers to better track, optimize, and target. These are the three most critical aspects of advertising, leading to the success or failure of your efforts. To make the most of the pixel, you need to utilize the Facebook pixel and events on your website. Not only must you utilize events, but you must do it right.

This post is your introduction to Facebook pixel events. It will help you better understand what pixel events are and how to use them.

First: The Base Facebook Pixel Code

If this is your first exposure to the Facebook pixel and events, know that pixel events can’t live independently. You must first have your base Facebook pixel code installed on every page of your website.

The base pixel code is what identifies the data as being connected to your ad account.

If you haven’t done this yet, read this post that outlines three primary methods to get the base pixel code added to your website — including what I do.

What Pixel Events Are

The base Facebook pixel code is what alerts Facebook that someone loaded a page on a website connected to a particular ad account. If you only have the base pixel code, your website sends page views, and nothing more.

If you use pixel events, you can define actions that occur on your website. The most common events we think of might be purchases, registrations, or leads. When using events, Facebook knows when these actions occur.

You notify Facebook of these actions with the addition of a pixel event. Most often, these pixel events fire when specific pages with their related code loads (though they could fire on button clicks or other custom actions).

For example: A visitor hits a landing page for a product (View Content event fires by visiting this page). They add the product to their cart but haven’t completed the purchase yet (Add to Cart event fires). They then submit their payment info and complete the purchase, redirecting to a confirmation page (Purchase event fires).

Sending this information to Facebook helps in three primary ways…

1. TRACKING: You’re able to connect your advertising to actual sales that occurred on your website because Facebook associates a person who saw or clicked your ad with a conversion.

2. OPTIMIZATION: Since Facebook knows who has converted on your website, you can optimize to reach other users similar to them.

3. TARGETING: You can target the specific people who performed these events.

Standard Events

At the time of publication of this blog post, there are 17 predefined standard Facebook pixel events (18 if you include Page View, which is included within the base pixel code). Facebook is likely to add more, as they already have during the evolution of pixel events.

Add Payment Info
Add to Cart
Add to Wishlist
Complete Registration
Contact
Customize Product
Donate
Find Location
Initiate Checkout
Lead
Purchase
Schedule
Search
Start Trial
Submit Application
Subscribe
View Content

Here’s a grid that includes all of the standard events, what they mean, and the code for implementation (with parameters, as necessary).

Standard events are helpful for a couple of reasons. First, the predefined code makes it easier for publishers to add events to their website.

Second, an event utilized on websites around the world means more data for optimization. If a person has shown to make online purchases on other websites, they may also be more likely, combined with other factors, to purchase on yours.

Custom Events

If you have an event that falls outside of the 17 standard events, you can create a custom event. This, of course, will be a bit more technical. While most often used for targeting (you can create a Website Custom Audience based on standard and custom events), you can still track or optimize for custom events if mapped to a custom conversion.

We’ll go into more detail on custom conversions in a separate post. However, you can read about two custom events that I have created for my website (and how you can create them, too):

Parameters

So far, we’ve discussed how to notify Facebook when a conversion occurs. Facebook may know, for example, that someone completed a purchase. But, how do we provide details of that conversion? That’s where parameters come in.

Parameters provide details like currency, value, quantity of items purchased, and the actual name of the product purchased or acted on.

It looks like this…

Only certain parameter are valid for each conversion event. In most cases, parameters are optional. The exception is the Purchase event, which requires currency and value.

More details can be found here on which parameters are available for each event.

Adding Events to Your Website

Event code needs to be added after the opening BODY tag. There are three primary ways to add events to your website:

Manually
Partner Integration
Event Setup Tool

Ideally, you can utilize partner integration that makes this easier, particularly for standard events. For example, if you have an e-commerce website on Shopify, much of the work is likely done for you.

You could use the Event Setup Tool, which is Facebook’s codeless method for adding pixel events. As of this writing, the Pixel Event Setup Tool is far from perfect (generally related to bugginess and a lack of parameter flexibility).

If given the option (and no partner integration), I prefer to set up events manually. Unfortunately, Facebook scrapped their tool that seamlessly provided the code you’d need when creating events. My team created a new option for you, called the Pixel Event Generator. Try it out!

Some Notes on Tracking, Optimization, and Targeting

I want to add some clarification regarding tracking, optimization, and targeting related to pixel events…

TRACKING: You can add columns for standard events within Ads Manager, but not custom events. Also, you can’t add separate columns based on parameters. For custom events and specific products, you’ll need to map your events to custom conversions for tracking purposes.

OPTIMIZATION: Like tracking, you can optimize for a standard event, but not custom events. Optimization would be for the aggregate of all purchases, for example, rather than the purchase of a specific product. Once again, you could optimize for a custom event or specific product purchase by first mapping the event to a custom conversion.

TARGETING: Understand that you can’t just drop a name of a pixel event in your ad set targeting. You need to first create a Website Custom Audience and select the pixel event. You would then use that audience for your targeting.

We’ll get into more details on these topics in separate blog posts.

Facebook Analytics and Attribution

One final point. Know that the pixel and events aren’t only helpful for advertising. They also help with analysis of organic content. When using Facebook Analytics and Facebook Attribution, you can measure your performance, regardless of whether the source of traffic came from an ad.

These are two very deep topics on their own that will be discussed separately.

The post Facebook Pixel Events: An Introduction appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

The Value of Facebook Pixel Events

Jon Loomer — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 19:26:30 +0000

A few days ago, I wrote about Facebook’s new Event Setup Tool that simplifies adding pixel events to your website. This is a huge development because Facebook pixel events aren’t fully utilized by marketers as they should be.

Why do you need to use pixel events? How can events benefit your marketing? Let’s break down a few of the primary ways…

[Learn more about how to master the Facebook pixel for 2019 in my upcoming training. SIGN UP HERE.]

1. Advanced Website Custom Audiences

If you have the base pixel installed on your website, you can create audiences like…

All website visitors
Visitors based on URL visited
Visitors based on time spent

All are great! But, if you add events to your pixel, you can also create Website Custom Audiences based on these actions.

You could, for example, create an audience of all people who have performed any purchase on your website during the past 30 days.

Of course, it could be a search, lead, registration, or any other event that happens on your site.

For extra credit, you can add event parameters, which provide more details to the transaction. For example, adding the “Purchase” event allows you to create an audience of those who performed any purchase. Add parameters, and you can create audiences of those who purchased a specific product or spent over a certain amount.

Here’s an example of an audience that consists of people who performed purchases that, in aggregate, were equal to or greater than $100…

2. Conversion Optimization

One of the powers of Facebook ads is the ability of the algorithm to optimize to help you reach your ideal audience. One way Facebook can do this for you is optimizing to show ads to people most likely to convert — or perform the specific conversion action you want.

If you want to use the Conversions objective, you’ll need to select a pixel event to optimize for…

While you can optimize for a Custom Conversion (typically a specific product), optimizing for a broader event action (like “Purchase”) gives Facebook more data to help you effectively optimize.

3. Conversion Tracking

How effective are the Facebook ad campaigns that you’re running? Without the pixel and events, your focus is likely on a combination of Cost Per Click, Click Through Rate, and Engagement Rate. But these may have little, if any, connection to whether conversions occurred.

If you use pixel events, you can add a column specifically for the total number, unique number, value, cost, and unique cost of any standard event.

And if you use event parameters and utilize a product catalog, you can break reporting down by product ID.

While you can (and should) track results by Custom Conversion, you are limited to 100 of them per ad account. There are no such limitations to events.

4. Facebook Analytics

Facebook Analytics is a pretty awesome marketing tool. It’s a free tool (described by my friend Andrew Foxwell), “designed to help you visualize your entire sales funnel, understand the lifetime value of users, and see how your organic and paid strategies intersect.”

Facebook naturally has valuable data from interactions with your Facebook page and posts (organic and paid). But, how valuable are those interactions? Do these people buy from you? Are some reactions and interactions more valuable than others?

Well, you won’t know the answers to these questions without the Facebook pixel and events.

The number of valuable reports that you can generate with Facebook Analytics is too many to cover in this blog post. But, you can create funnels to view the percentage of your top of the funnel that ultimately converts…

You can track customer lifetime value…

You could also look at a breakdown of age, gender, and country by purchase value…

You can create a cohort of those who registered and then eventually purchased a product…

You can run a breakdown of the demographics of those who make a purchase to view info based on age, gender, country, city, language, and more…

Compare the stickiness of someone who registered for something to those who made a purchase…

This is just scratching the surface regarding the reporting available to you with Facebook Analytics. But none of it is available without the use of pixel events.

5. Facebook Attribution

Facebook Attribution is yet another powerful tool that not enough marketers are using and benefiting from. As I described in my introduction to this tool, Facebook Attribution is designed to help you understand the impact of your content and ads across multiple publishers, channels, and devices. Note that this includes and goes beyond Facebook — not only the organic referrals from Google and others, but your non-Facebook advertising efforts.

There are limitless use cases of Facebook Attribution, but let’s lay out a few.

View the top sources of website purchases by channel…

View the number of conversions that occurred on mobile after viewing your content from desktop…

Or vice versa…

In order to get any of this information, you’ll need to utilize Facebook pixel events.

6. Dynamic Ads

If you manage ads for an e-commerce brand, dynamic ads are invaluable. They allow you to dynamically show ads to people based on their interaction with that or other similar products in the past. This is done, in part, with ad templates and product catalogs that are provided to Facebook.

These are most useful for those with dozens, hundreds, or thousands of products, particularly those with high ad spend. You don’t need to manually create ads for all of these products, or focus only on a select few. You can hyper-target those expressing interest with a highly relevant ad.

You shouldn’t be surprised to learn this, but you need the Facebook pixel and events to utilize dynamic ads. This is how Facebook knows what stage of the funnel a visitor has reached (add to cart, add payment info, add to wishlist) and organize what products were viewed by product ID.

Your Turn

The reality is that Facebook pixel events aren’t only beneficial, they are required for any serious Facebook advertiser. The benefits are simply too great, and I’m undoubtedly missing some here.

Are there any other benefits of Facebook pixel events that I’m missing here? Let me know in the comments below!

The post The Value of Facebook Pixel Events appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Facebook Analytics, the Pixel, and Events

Jon Loomer — Sat, 02 Dec 2017 23:16:47 +0000

Facebook Analytics is a terrific tool that not enough marketers are using. Andrew Foxwell documented a few of the benefits recently. But, how do you get the most out of it?

In this post, I’m going to provide a few examples of some powerful Facebook Analytics reports and how it all comes back to the Facebook pixel and Events. Ultimately, I’ll help you understand how to get those Events set up so that you can start getting the most out of Facebook Analytics today.

Let’s dive in…

Examples of Facebook Analytics Reports

Andrew provided a couple of examples in his post of reports that you can create with Facebook Analytics. Let’s detail a few more ways you can use it.

Here’s an example of a funnel from a Facebook post comment all the way through a website purchase…

Maybe you want to know how much a typical visitor is worth. Well, here’s a look at Customer Lifetime Value over time…

You could also look at a breakdown of age, gender, and country by purchase value…

Go ahead and create a cohort of those who registered and then eventually purchased a product…

Not sure how long people stick around? Here’s a look at user retention following the initial interaction…

Who are your best customers? Well, run a breakdown of the demographics of those who make a purchase to view info based on age, gender, country, city, language, and more…

Here’s a comparison of the stickiness between those who registered for something and those who made a purchase…

Amazed yet? Well, this is just a sampling. You can add limitless segments and variables to find every possible needle in the haystack.

Facebook Analytics, The Pixel, and Events

At this point, you might be thinking… “Wow. Amazing. But creepy. How in the world does Facebook know all of this?”

I have one word for you: Events.

When people think of Facebook Events, they usually do so in connection with Facebook ads. Events are snippets of code (added outside of the Facebook pixel) that help Facebook identify when a specific “event” occurs.

For example, you create a “Purchase” Event. That code is added to the confirmation page signifying a purchase has completed. That page loads. Facebook knows that a purchase happened.

Events that you can create:

Purchase
Generate Lead
Complete Registration
Add Payment Info
Add to Cart
Add to Wishlist
Initiate Checkout
Search
View Content

In each case, you can add parameters (conversion value, currency, content ID, etc.) to provide more details. For example, the purchase was for Product X and the value is $100.

Typically, you’ve added the Facebook pixel and Events for your advertising. This allows Facebook to track how many conversions occurred (was the campaign effective?). It also allows Facebook to optimize for a particular conversion.

But we haven’t been able to use this for organic activity. Paid engagement may make up a small percentage of your traffic, registrations, and purchases. Facebook Analytics, of course, doesn’t care whether the activity was paid or organic.

Making more sense? Yeah, you need to take advantage of Events.

Set Up Facebook Events

Hopefully, you now see how important it is that you add Events to utilize the powerful data within Facebook Analytics. Let’s do that!

If you haven’t installed the Facebook pixel on your website yet, there are numerous ways to do it (click that link for a few). At the moment, I use the Pixel Caffeine WordPress plugin (it’s free). Do whatever is best for you.

Just installing the pixel, though, isn’t enough — at least if you want to take advantage of Facebook Analytics. As mentioned above, you also need to be sure to use Events.

To utilize Events, you’ll need to inject code (in addition to the base Facebook pixel code that should already be on your website). As a result, when someone loads a page with an Event code on it, Facebook can report that the Event has occurred.

While viewing your pixel, click the “Set Up” button at the far right.

If you use an integration or tag manager (Google Tag Manager, Shopify, WooCommerce, etc.), great. Click that option for instructions on how to get everything set up.

But otherwise, click to “manually install the code yourself.” In the second step, Facebook provides information for adding your Event code.

Example: Set Up Purchase Event

We could go through every Event, but it’s not necessary. If you understand how to set this up for one, you’ll understand it for them all. Let’s start with a purchase.

Click the option for “Purchase.”

The nice thing is that as you add info for parameters, Facebook spits out the code you’ll need to use. Above is what I’d need for the purchase Event for my Facebook Analytics training program.

Then Facebook provides details on where specifically to add that code (after the opening BODY tag)…

You can also test it after adding the tag to make sure it’s working.

Inline Events

Are there examples where users aren’t redirected to a confirmation page? In that case, you’ll need to generate an inline Event. These Events execute when a button is pushed.

At the top of Event creation, you’ll see the option for “Track Event on Inline Action.”

You will then be shown the inline code to use…

Integration and Tag Managers

The instructions above are for doing all of this manually. But adding Events may actually be much easier — if not automated — depending on your integration or tag manager (assuming you use one).

As I mentioned earlier, I use the Pixel Caffeine WordPress plugin. Creating Events with this plugin is very easy.

Under Conversions/Events, fill out the area to “Add New Tracking.”

You won’t need to add any code. Just tell the plugin what Event to create and you provide the parameters. Click “Pass Advanced Data” to send even more details to Facebook…

And that’s it! Event created.

If you use any of these other integration methods, click for those details.

Your Turn

How are you using Facebook Analytics? What reports are you creating?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Facebook Analytics, the Pixel, and Events appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.