By Tommy Griffith / Last Updated: April 14, 2019
There’s a thousand things we could discuss about when it comes to Facebook. Love it or hate it though, it’s very likely your business could benefit from running Facebook Ads.
This blog post is about how you can easily install Facebook Pixel to your WordPress website, which will enable you to set up Facebook Ad campaigns geared specifically at people who visited your website (or, in other words, it will enable you to retarget your site’s visitors once they’ve left it). Furthermore, the same pixel can be used to track conversions as well – but in this blog post, we’ll cover the basics of how to install a new Facebook pixel, rather than how you can use it.
So, if you’re selling pink elephants with unicorn tails and someone has visited your website, adding a Facebook Pixel will help you remind them, via Facebook advertising, that pink elephants with unicorn tails exist, and they’re for sale on your website.
Even if you’re not ready to set up a Facebook ad campaign, it’s still very advantageous to add a Facebook Pixel to your WordPress website – it will allow you to start pixeling your users and get that audience ready, so that when you decide to set up an ad campaign, you can advertise to all those people that have already been on your website.
So, let’s get going.
The basics to know before you add the Facebook Pixel to your website
Adding a Facebook Pixel to your WordPress website shouldn’t take more than 5 to 10 minutes.
So, the high-level goals of this procedure include:
- The goal: (obviously) to install Facebook Pixel to your WordPress site
- The ideal outcome: to do the above properly, without any technical issues
- The prerequisites: for the purpose of this example, I chose to add the Facebook Pixel using the Google Tag Manager. So, if you don’t have that set up just yet, check out our blog post on how to install Google Tag Manager. Note: You can install the Facebook Pixel code through other methods as well – but I find Google Tag Manager to be the best, most advantageous solution.
- The importance of this action: Facebook Pixel is crucial if you want to run a Facebook ad campaign (and, as mentioned in the beginning, you really want this). The FB pixel will eventually help you with your Facebook retargeting, as well as measuring conversion rates and, later on, using your data to create custom audiences that are similar to those that have already purchased from you.
- Where this is done: This is done in Google Tag Manager and your Facebook Ads Manager.
- When this is done: You only have to do this once.
- Who does this: Whoever is responsible for managing your website, your Analytics, your paid advertising – and that person might as well be you, if you don’t have a dedicated person assigned for this type of tasks.
Get This Entire Walkthrough and All the Resources in This Post
Aside from the fact that you should have Google Tag Manager set up, you should also make sure to:
- Have your Facebook Ads account set up;
- Install the Facebook Pixel Helper Chrome Extension. We advise using the Chrome browser for this procedure (and the vast majority of the digital marketing-related procedures) – so if you haven’t installed that, make sure you do it before you move on.
Installing the Facebook Pixel to your website
Now that you’re all set up, it’s time to move to the middle of the action.
- Log into your Facebook account and go to your Facebook Ad Manager account.
- Go to the “Ads Manager” section, then click on Pixels.
- Once you’re in the Facebook Pixel Command Center, if you have never done this before, you will see a green button saying “Create a Pixel” – go ahead and click on that and create your first pixel. You can name it whatever you want (and yes, you can change the name later as well.)
- Once you did that, go back to the Command Center, and click on “Set Up”.
- On screen, you will see three options:
- Use an Integration or Tag Manager,
- Manually Install the Pixel Yourself,
- and Email Instructions to a Developer.
Click on the first option.
- Click “Google Tag Manager”.
- Click “Quick Install”, log into your account, and click on “Allow”.
- Click the account associated with your Google Tag Manager.
- If you haven’t created a Google Tag Manager container, click on “create a new container within Google Tag Manager” and then select it from the list. If you have already done this, you will simply have to select it from the list.
- Configure Advanced Matching if you need to. Most people don’t do this the first time, so you can click “Next”.
- Add or edit new tags if you need to. Again, most people don’t need this when they do it the first time, so you can click “Next” on this one as well.
- Click “Publish”.
Now you’re basically done with the Facebook Pixel installation – and almost done with this walkthrough.
QA your installation before you close everything
To make sure your Facebook Pixel is properly installed, do this:
- Go to your website.
- Click on the Facebook Pixel Helper Chrome extension.
- Check to see if the extension shows a pixel installed on your page. If it does, you should see this on your website:
And that’s it! You’ve successfully installed the Facebook Pixel on your site using Google Tag Manager. Now, you will be able to start building remarketing audiences and setting up conversions for your Facebook Ads campaigns.
Even More Resources
If you’re JUST getting started with paid advertising, be sure to take a look at our digital advertising guide, as well as our world-famous SEO checklist.
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