Last month, Facebook rolled out an update to its pixel—code you can enable through Business Manager that allows you to pinpoint activity your potential customers have made on your website, grow a base of potential future are audiences and track other online activity that can help the performance of your business and marketing plans.
The update, created in response to changes to Safari that blocked some of the capabilities of the original pixel code, has expanded the function of the pixel from a code using third-party trackers to a code making use of first-party data as well.
So, what does this mean?
If you advertise with Facebook, it means you have the option to expand the data you’re receiving from the pixel, allowing your account to learn about which products have been viewed on your website, with the purpose of improving future audience targeting and ad performance. The combination of first and third-party data, which your account will have access to through the update, will improve data reporting, and allow for new conversion attribution capabilities.
According to Facebook, “45% of digital touchpoints are missed by traditional measurement.” The new Facebook Attribution capability will help bridge that deficit and should help you learn more about how well your ads are working—even if your customers aren’t following a traditional pattern, such as clicking through an ad to complete a purchase, and are instead seeing the ad but not clicking on it, but being affected by it anyway.
Keep in mind that this attribution function will allow you to understand how your Instagram, Audience Network, and Messenger ads are affecting users, too, so the user purchase data will be a more complete picture of your ads’ effect across the web.
Try It Out
Enabling the update will help you get the right kind of data to ensure your ads show to the right audience, especially if that audience has visited your website before. To make sure your account is using the pixel update, go to your Business Manager Page and click through Measure & Report, then Events Manager, and then Pixels, and make sure the first and third party trackers are selected.
