These days, pretty much everyone wants to be an entrepreneur, and start a business to generate passive income. One easy way to get into entrepreneurship? Starting a Shopify store.
That said, you can?t just set up shop, then sit back and expect customers to magically stumble upon your store. You?ll have to drive traffic to your store — that?s where the Facebook pixel comes in.
In this guide, we?ll walk you through what the Facebook pixel is about, and how you can install the Facebook pixel on your Shopify store to start doing digital marketing. Read on to find out more!
In a nutshell, the Facebook pixel is an analytics tool that helps you track your website visitors (and the actions they take on your site).
Once you?ve installed the pixel on your site, you can then retarget your website visitors with Facebook ads, and drive more traffic and conversions for your Shopify store.
This is fairly straightforward — installing the Facebook pixel allows you to start doing digital marketing and running Facebook ads, and this opens up a whole range of possibilities.
In the short run, you can get more eyeballs on your store and increase your number of transactions; in the long term, your ads will help you generate more awareness about your brand, and build a name for yourself.
In fact, because the Facebook pixel collects so much data, many business owners consider it one of their most valuable marketing assets. Well seasoned pixels essentially give you a goldmine of data, and these pixels are worth millions.
If you can?t remember whether you?ve installed the pixel on your site, there?s an easy way to figure this out.
All you have to do is install the Facebook Pixel Helper in Google Chrome, then navigate to your website, and click the Pixel Helper icon in your toolbar.
If you see a notification saying that a pixel has been found (like the one above!) then you?ve already got the pixel installed. If the pop-up says ?No pixels found?, then you haven?t got it installed.
Assuming you have a pixel installed on your site, the next step is to check that you own and control your Facebook pixel.
If you?re the only one working on your business, this is probably the case. But if you?ve previously engaged the services of a marketing agency or a freelancer, then they might have set it up for you, so you?ll want to check to see if this is the case.
To do this, navigate to Facebook?s Business Manager, click into your ad account, then click on the hamburger icon to open up the full menu.
From here, click on ?Pixels and Events? under ?Measure & Report?:
Here, you?ll be redirected to a page where you can view all your data sources. If you see a pixel that belongs to your store, then it?s all good:
If you don?t see your store?s pixel here, however, then this means someone else has got access to it. Unfortunately, Facebook no longer allows advertisers to delete a pixel from their business manager, but what you CAN do is make sure you?re no longer using the old pixel on your Shopify store, and create a new one to use instead.
Installing the Facebook pixel on your Shopify store is a pretty simple process, even for those who have no technical skills or coding knowledge.
Step 1: Create Facebook ad account
If you haven?t already done so, create a Facebook business manager, and then create an ad account within your business manager.
Step 2: Create Facebook pixel
Next, tap on the hamburger icon from your ad account, and click on ?Pixels and Events? under ?Measure & Report?.
From here, click on ?Add new data source? > ?Facebook Pixel?, and go ahead and input the name of your pixel and your website URL.
Step 3: Add pixel to Shopify store
To add your pixel to your Shopify store, click on ?Connect a partner platform? on the next screen.
On the next screen, you?ll see a list of eCommerce platforms — scroll down and choose Shopify.
From here, Facebook walks you through the whole process, so just follow along.
Basically, you?ll log into your Shopify account, copy and paste your pixel ID, and save it. Once you?ve done that, enter your website URL to send test traffic to the site, and once Facebook records activity on its end, you?ll know that your pixel is working properly:
If your Facebook pixel isn?t working, then you can use the Facebook Pixel Helper to troubleshoot the problem.
Quick recap: to use the Facebook Pixel Helper, install it in Google Chrome, then navigate to your website, and click the Pixel Helper icon in your toolbar.
Once you do this, you might see an error message along the lines of:
Here, we?ll walk you through how to solve each error message.
#1: No pixel found
This means you haven?t successfully placed the Facebook pixel on your site. Go back and install the Facebook pixel again, and make sure you?ve saved the pixel on Shopify before navigating away.
#2: Pixel did not load
This could mean that there?s an error in your pixel base code. Simply delete the code from Shopify, and add it back again.
#3: Not a standard event
This means that there?s event code on your site that doesn’t match Facebook?s standard events. Learn more about Facebook’s standard event names, and make sure you?re using the right code on your Shopify site.
#4: Pixel activated multiple times
This means that your Facebook pixel sent the same signal multiple times, which may result in double-counting. Make sure that you’ve only included the Facebook pixel on your site once, and check that you haven?t placed the same event code multiple times on the same page.
#5: Invalid pixel ID
This means that your pixel ID isn’t recognised by Facebook. Re-install your Facebook pixel, making sure you?ve copied the right ID without any typos.
When you install a Facebook pixel on your Shopify store, it automatically starts tracking several standard events, which are:
Website actionDescriptionAdd payment infoThe addition of payment information in the checkout flowAdd to cartThe addition of items to a shopping cart Add to wishlistThe addition of items to a wishlistComplete registrationThe submission of a registration formContactA telephone/SMS, email, chat or other type of contact Customize ProductThe customization of products through a configuration tool or other application DonateThe donation of funds to your organisationFind LocationA web or app search for one of your business locations Initiate checkoutWhen someone enters the checkout flowLeadWhen someone expresses interest in your offeringPurchasePurchases or checkout flow completions ScheduleThe booking of an appointmentSearchSearches on your website, app or other propertyStart trialThe start of a free trial of a product or service you offer Submit applicationA submitted registration form for a product, service or program you offerSubscribeThe start of a paid subscription for a product or service you offerView contentKey page views
Obviously, some of these events work better at conveying purchase intent than others. If Customer A views your product page, for example, this doesn?t say much, but if they initiate checkout, then that?s a good sign that they?re likely to make a purchase.
If you?d like to track additional actions outside of the standard events, you can do this by setting up custom conversions.
Say you own an apparel store on Shopify. You can use the ?View content? event to identify the website visitors who are viewing your clothing collections in general, but if you want to segregate visitors who are viewing men?s clothing vs women?s clothing, that?s where your custom conversions would come in.
Here, you can use a URL rule to create a custom conversion for these specific customer segments:
To learn more about setting up custom conversions, check out Facebook?s guide.
Give yourself a pat on the back? you?ve made it all the way to the end of this guide, and you?re (unofficially) an expert on Facebook pixels!
Now, before we wrap up, here?s one final tip: when you start running Facebook ads, start off with the ?drive traffic? goal, instead of optimizing for conversions right off the bat.
What?s the rationale behind this? Facebook recommends that you wait till you have enough traffic to hit 500 events per week before you start optimizing for conversions, so that the platform has enough data to accurately optimize your campaigns.
Alright, that?s all we?ve got for you on the topic of Facebook pixels. Remember: the Facebook pixel is an excellent asset for all eCommerce store owners, so if you haven?t got it installed on your store yet, you?ll want to do this ASAP!
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