Facebook Conversions 101
Facebook conversions are your bread and butter for justifying a marketing ad budget, and tracking your results overall.
These conversion goals are fully customizable, but we will focus on redirecting traffic to an unlinked thank-you page for this particular lesson. The reason why we do that is it’s useful in tracking Ecommerce sales, lead generation, monthly donor subscriptions, and really anything you want.
Unlinked thank-you pages seem like a bit of a mouthful – so I’ll break it down for you (it’s actually pretty simple). Facebook conversions track certain actions, like pressing a button or visiting a page, then counting it as a win (aka a conversion). So you spend $100 on your ad driving traffic to your page, and you sell 5 pairs of shoes for $100 each, and next time around you can spend $1000 and maybe get 50 pairs of shoes sold.
You could just track the “Buy” button on those pair of shoes, so when anyone clicks buy it counts as a conversion. But as marketers we want to get as deep into the data as we can to make sure when we make decisions based on the data it is accurate. To do that, a popular way to track only a real true sale is to redirect your website traffic over to a page on your website that they can only reach after a purchase is fully complete (we are talking credit card filled out, cart full, payment confirmation complete). Then we know they didn’t just click Buy and then change their mind when they couldn’t dig up their mom’s credit card.
All of that is awesome – but first you need to know how to set up the Facebook Conversion Goals in your Facebook Business Manager. But no worries, Facebook rolled some anti-code options that make this way easier than it used to be.
Set Up Facebook Pixel Events Manually Using Code on Your Website
After you create and install the Facebook pixel base code on your website, you can set up standard and custom events. Learn about the differences between standard and custom events.
- If you want to set up custom events, visit the custom events section on Facebook for Developers.
- If you want to set up standard events, you can use the instructions below. Learn more about the available pixel standard events and their event code.
Note: If you want to add standard events and parameters to your website but don’t want to add pixel event code, you can use the point-and-click Event Setup Tool instead.
To manually set up event codes on your website:
- Go to Events Manager.
- Click the pixel you want to set up events for.
- Select Set Up in the top-right corner.
- Select Set Up New Events.
- Click Manually add event code.
- Optional: Select a business category to see recommended events.
- Select an event.
- Select Track Event on Page Load or Track Event on Inline Action.
- Track Event on Page Load: Choose this option if the action takes the user to a specific landing page, like a confirmation page after completing a purchase.
- Track Event on Inline Action: Choose this option if the action requires someone to click something (like an add to cart or purchase button).
Note: If you’d like your Facebook pixel to fire on specific button clicks, you’ll have to update the code to tie an event to an action. Learn more on Facebook for Developers, under the Track In-Page Events section.
- Add event parameters, like conversion value or currency, to measure additional information about your event (recommended).
- Copy this event code and paste it on the relevant page of your site. Be sure not to modify the pixel code you’ve already placed in the header of your website.
- For page load events: Place the code just below the closing header section of the page. For many websites, this will be right after the opening <body> tag.
- For inline action events: Add the event code between script tags next to the action you want to set up (like a button).
- Repeat steps 6 through 9 for any other events you want to set up on your website.
- Click Go to Test Events to verify your event setup in real time and troubleshoot any issues in Events Manager.
- Click Done.
Grow sales
Get people to complete transactions on your website.
Prompt an action
Define the action you want people to take—from visiting your site, to adding something to their cart.
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Increase traffic
Encourage people to visit a specific page or explore your whole website.
Make it a done deal
The Facebook website conversion objective helps you grow business on your website. Whether you want page visits, sales or another action, website conversion ads encourage people to go to your website and do something.
To grow business in your mobile app, learn more about app engagement ads. To collect leads on Facebook, read about lead ads.
Install the Facebook Pixel
Website conversion ads work with the Facebook Pixel on your website, so you can reach site visitors who are most likely to take your desired action—and keep track of how many people convert.
Learn more about installing the Facebook Pixel on your website.
Best Practices for Pixel to Drive Website Sales
After you implement the Facebook pixel, you’re able to access a variety of new advertising tools and techniques. One of the most powerful is optimizing your ad sets for conversions (“conversion optimization”), which can drive sales on your website. This series of guides shows you how to do this, from laying down the foundations for success to refining your campaigns for maximum efficiency.
Important: Ensure your pixel is working correctly before proceeding.
Choose the right guide
Your approach to driving website sales should be guided by how much activity is happening on your website. Find this out by checking how many pixel events occurred on your website in the last month. A pixel event occurs when someone takes an action on your website (ex: viewing a page, adding an item to their cart, completing a purchase). Learn how to check your pixel activity in Events Manager.
Here are some benchmark numbers to give you context and direct you to the right guide:
- If there were less than 500 pixel events on your website in the last month, you should build up data and an online customer base before you start using conversion optimization. Our introductory guide shows you how to do that.
- If there were more than 500 – but less than 10,000 – pixel events on your website in the last month, you should start experimenting with conversion optimization and intent-based targeting. Our intermediate guide shows you how to do that.
- If there were more than 10,000 pixel events on your website in the last month, you’re in a position to make conversion optimization the focal point of your advertising strategy. Our advanced guide shows you how to refine and scale up your campaigns. Note that if you have this many monthly pixel events but have never used conversion optimization before, you may want to start with our intermediate guide as you learn how conversion optimization works.
Note: The number of pixel fires you see is a measure of all the activity on your website, not just the activity driven by Facebook ads.
Choose the right guide by clicking the appropriate link above to get started. With patience and a willingness to test and adjust, you can succeed.