Did you know Shopify has a Facebook Pixel integration that can help you measure the effectiveness of your paid ads?
The Shopify Facebook Pixel is an analytics tool that helps marketers understand how their ads perform on Facebook. It tracks conversions, sales, and other aspects of marketing campaigns to provide invaluable insights for growing businesses.
In this blog post, we will walk through everything you need to set up Shopify Facebook Pixel, so it integrates with your Shopify store correctly.
Let’s jump right into this Shopify Facebook Pixel tutorial!
Table of Contents
What is Facebook Pixel?
The Facebook Pixel is a tracking code generated from your Facebook ad account and embedded on your Shopify store’s website.
It records users’ activities on your site and provides you with data to help you improve your Facebook and Instagram advertising efforts.
You may use your Facebook Pixel’s data to target ads to distinct audience segments depending on their Shopify purchase activity. You can also utilize custom audiences you’ve created based on your Pixel data to build lookalike audiences and acquire new consumers.
The Facebook Pixel is built and maintained using the Facebook Business Manager.
Why should I add a Facebook Pixel to my Shopify store?
The Facebook Pixel has a significant impact on audience development, measurement, and optimization.
Let’s look at the five primary advantages of incorporating the shopify Facebook Pixel into your Shopify store.
#1. Create custom audiences for better ad targeting
Wouldn’t it be fantastic to be able to advertise to people who have expressed an interest in your business?
With Pixel-based custom audiences, you can now do just that.
Retargeting your visitors after they’ve visited your business and encouraging them to make more purchases can significantly improve your conversion rate and boost your income.
Furthermore, audiences have various product interests unless you offer a single product. Even if you offer only one product, audience behavior in your store may vary considerably.
Using audience segments based on your targeting data, you may also target custom audiences by age, gender, location, interest keywords, or past purchase history.
Example: You may build a custom audience of individuals who expressed interest in your store’s men’s shirts or general men’s apparel if you run an apparel shop and want to promote a new line of menswear. For example, you might generate a custom audience of customers who purchased different menswear items and display ads promoting your new men’s apparel to boost sales.
#2. Retargeting using dynamic product ads
It may not always result in a purchase. Even if that is the case, you may collect your store visitors’ actions and retarget them with dynamic product advertisements.
Facebook Pixel helps you do that. It’ll note individuals who have merely viewed an item or added it to their cart but haven’t completed the purchase.
You can use the data supplied by your Facebook Pixel to run dynamic product advertisements showing these individuals the exact items they abandoned in their carts to entice them to return and finish their purchases.
#3. Lookalike audience creation
Using Facebook Pixel data to create lookalike audiences is one of the most effective methods for generating new consumers.
Lookalike audiences are Facebook users with similar characteristics to those in your source audience, such as those who visited your business and took action.
Facebook has a wealth of data on its users’ characteristics, which it may use to assist you in identifying precisely the individuals with a higher potential to convert.
Example: You may also make a lookalike audience of individuals with similar qualities if you create a bespoke audience for your Shopify store’s customers. As a result of these people’s buying behavior, they are far more inclined to make purchases in your store, which is an excellent method to expand your client base.
#4. Optimize your ad campaigns for conversions
One of your goals with advertising is to reach an audience that will likely convert.
The Facebook Pixel allows you to target audiences more likely to interact with your goods and convert. It will show your advertisements to individuals more likely to take desired actions, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.
Example: You can utilize Facebook’s audience targeting to make your campaign more effective for purchase by asking the social network to optimize it. Based on your Facebook Pixel data and Facebook’s database, your advertisements will be shown to individuals who are likely to make purchases and are interested in sectors similar to yours. Based on user behavior, Facebook targets these individuals and displays your ads to an audience with excellent conversion prospects.
#5. Understand what actually works
You’re basically shooting in the dark if you don’t analyze your advertising performance and take action based on your findings.
You can use the Facebook Pixel to monitor your advertisements’ effectiveness, and you should take advantage of that data to improve future advertising efforts.
When you use Shopify’s rich marketing features, tracking ad attribution to conversions will show you which ads are effective and which aren’t, allowing you to allocate your advertising budget more effectively and enhance your outcomes. This data will also help you prepare for future initiatives.
You may also compare your results to other variables such as age, gender, and location. This can help you refine your audience targeting.
Example: If you have 5 different ad sets in a campaign, but only one of them results in purchases on your Shopify store, you may pause all the others and concentrate on the top performer. You can also limit yourself to examining only your successful advertisements at the ad level.
This is a quick rundown of the significant benefits of utilizing the Facebook Pixel.
How to add your Shopify Facebook Pixel to the Shopify store
To keep things simple, I’ve broken down how to locate, add, and utilize your Facebook pixel on Shopify into three easy steps.
Step 1: Find your Facebook Pixel ID
Go to your Facebook Business Manager first.
Select all tools from the drop-down menu in the top left corner. On the bottom right of the menu, click on All Tools.
Search for “Pixels” under “Measure & Report.”
Select the Pixel ID from the drop-down menu, and you’ll be able to see it.
If you see the screen below it indicates that you’ve most likely attempted to set up a Facebook pixel on your online store before but never completed it (as it happens to the best of us).
This is a simple fix.
If this is you, you’ll need to finish installing your pixel code on your website before receiving your pixel ID.
You can either:
- Use a Tag Manager or Integration When Using the Facebook Pixel
- By yourself, manually install the code., or
- Hire a developer to accomplish it for you.
The easiest method is to use Tag Manager.
Go ahead and click on that option
It’ll bring you to this page, where you may select Shopify.
The following screen displays your Facebook Pixel ID…
Make a note of it and go to the next step!
Step 2: Enter your Pixel ID on your Shopify store
Go to your Shopify store’s “Preferences” category.
To the left of that, click “Facebook Pixel ID,” then type in your pixel ID.
Almost done!
Step 3: Check your Pixel status on Facebook
Select “Pixels” from the drop-down menu one last time, then take a look…
If the status reads “Active,” you’re good to go.
If your pixel’s status reads “No Activity Yet,” it indicates that it isn’t functioning (yet). Changes may take up to 20 minutes to be reflected, so be patient!
If it’s still not working, you can try a few things. If it is functioning (congratulations!), go to the following page to learn how to maximize your new pixel!
Is Shopify Facebook Pixel not working?
#1: Try the Facebook Pixel Helper Chrome extension.
Here’s how to use the Facebook Pixel Helper Chrome Extension to troubleshoot your Facebook Pixel issues using this solution.
You’ll have to download Chrome if you haven’t already.
Go to the Chrome Web Store, and type in the extension’s name.
Then, click the Add to Chrome option in the Chrome browser window.
After that, an Added banner will appear in the upper left corner…
On your browser’s address bar, you’ll notice a new symbol.
Finally, go to your Shopify store and click on the icon; it will tell you whether your pixel has been activated successfully.
If you see something like this:
Then congrats, youre all set!
If the Facebook Pixel Helper informs you there are problems with your pixel, keep reading for additional troubleshooting tips.
#2: Facebook Pixel did not load
The good news is that you got your Shopify Facebook pixel on your site.
The worse news is that it isn’t passing any data.
There are two possibilities here:
The first thing to consider is that your pixel may be firing on a dynamic event (which means it may fire only when someone clicks on a specific button on your page rather than when they load the page).
If that’s the case, remedying it is simple:
Simply follow the on-screen instructions to generate your pixel code connection, then click the button where you’ve added it…
Click the Pixel Helper once more to see if everything’s still okay.
If you’re still getting the “The Facebook pixel did not load” message, there’s a chance your pixel base code is incorrect.
Here is what you should do:
Remove and re-add the Facebook pixel code to your site.
#3: Not a standard event
If you see this alert, it means the Facebook Pixel Helper discovered an event code on your site that isn’t one of the nine standard ones.
Here’s a list of the 9 most common events:
Because the typical event codes are case sensitive, you must type the code exactly as it appears.
Here’s an example:
The most common event code for monitoring page views is fbq(‘track’, ‘ViewContent’); as seen in the table above.
If you inadvertently add fbq(‘track’, ‘view content’); to one of your Shopify store’s pages, you’ll receive a new event called “view content” in your advertising.
…and this will be reported as a custom event rather than a formal event.
Make sure you get your code correct, and that should solve the problem!
#4: Pixel activated multiple times
This implies that your pixel sends the identical signal to Facebook multiple times, resulting in incorrect numbers appearing in Ad Manager.
This is a common problem:
The Facebook Pixel code should not be included on your checkout or product pages (instead of integrating the Shopify Facebook pixel into their stores)…
…which causes this issue.
If you’ve completed this, don’t worry: it’s simple to reverse.
Simply follow the instructions below to remove any existing Shopify code from your pages.
Start by going to your Shopify account’s “Themes” section.
From the top right corner of the page, click on the “Actions” button and choose “Edit Code” from the drop-down list.
Click on the theme.liquid file, then ctrl+F for “Facebook Pixel Code.”
This will take you to the portion of the code that’s no longer needed, which will resemble the Facebook pixel code example (the entire #2 section!) as seen in the figure below:
Image from Shopify.com.
Delete the section of code below, then save the document.
You still have some work to do – removing any code from your admin panel.
Go to Settings and Checkout from your Shopify admin.
Scroll down just a little farther to the Order Processing section, and then look for your “Additional Scripts” text box.
If it’s empty (like in the screenshot above), youre in the clear.
Delete the Facebook Pixel code (once again, ctrl+F and search for “Facebook Pixel Code”) before saving if it’s present.
That’s it – youre done!
#5: Facebook Pixel is not paired with any product catalog
If you’re seeing one of the following messages or any other version…
- Unable to Find Product Catalog
- No products found for a given content
- Pixel Doesn’t Have a Product Catalog Pair
…The data returned by your Facebook pixel does not have a product ID, which means that the Shopify Facebook pixel could not find one in a product catalog or create one.
If you’re not running any Facebook Dynamic Ads, ignore this alert. (I advocate for their use, but I’ll get to that later).
You’ll need to double-check your product feed if you’re running these advertisements to make sure everything is in order.
Here are some specific things to look out for:
- The Shopify Facebook pixel, the product catalog ID, and the content_id parameter should all be used in the same way.
- Your product catalog should include the product ID.
- The catalog should be associated with the same pixel ID used on the Shopify site.
#6: Pixel Took Too Long To Load
This is a straightforward problem with a simple solution.
Essentially, if your pixel takes too long to load, it’s usually because its location isn’t ideal.
The explanation is a little bit technical, but bear with me:
If you put your pixel code later on the web page, it implies that all of the other components on your site will be loaded before your pixel.
This raises the chances that someone who visits your Shopify shop will close it, click on a link, or go elsewhere before the pixel event is triggered.
The Shopify Facebook pixel, on the other hand, will not measure this action under these circumstances.
Here’s what you should do if you want to be rid of this issue (and avoid missing out on any of your activities):
Instead of inserting your pixel code between the body and footer tags, place it before the closing </head> tag.
That’s all there is to it!
#7: You Have Opted Out of Tracking
You’ve chosen to opt out of Facebook’s tracking.
Image from Facebook.com.
The Facebook Pixel Helper program cannot operate correctly because the website you’re on is too complicated.
Fixing it is simple:
Go to your ad settings and agree to have Facebook show you interest-based advertising.
How to maximize your Shopify Facebook Pixel conversions
Now that you’ve set up and activated your Shopify Facebook pixel (and it’s working properly!), let’s talk about how to make the most of the data it generates.
#1: Have Sufficient Events On Your Pixel
Once they’ve installed their pixel, most Shopify store owners are eager to get started.
They’re ecstatic to start setting up Custom Audiences, developing advertisements, and optimizing as they go along.
The first step is to ensure that there are enough events on your pixel.
Here’s why this is important:
You won’t have enough data to paint an accurate picture if there aren’t enough pixel events on your site.
For example, if four of eight people who visit your website make a purchase, this is called a conversion.
That is, in fact, a 50% conversion rate – yet it isn’t statistically significant. At this preliminary stage, you wouldn’t want to make any predictions or develop any plans based on this figure.
So how many pixel events are you aiming to get?
According to Facebook, 500-pixel events or more each week is enough for you to get started with conversion optimization.
If you haven’t hit 500 per week?
You’ll probably want to focus on increasing the number of visitors to your site (using the “traffic” goal)…
When your goal is to improve traffic and revenue, content isn’t yet optimized for conversions (with the “conversions” objective).
#2: Fix any other problems with your Facebook Pixel
While the Facebook Pixel Helper I previously discussed may alert you to any major problems your Pixel is having, it doesn’t give full error details.
You’ll need to go to the Pixel section of your Facebook dashboard, select it, and then click on the “Diagnostics” tab to work out the other little details.
Youre hoping to get this message
If you’re looking at a list of mistakes, don’t start stressing.
I’ll walk you through all the issues you might be having and how to fix them.
1. Invalid Currency Code
This indicates that the currency code for one (or more!) of your events is incorrect.
You can fix this in a jiffy:
After that, click the View affected URLs option. This will display which pages and parameters are causing the problem.
Match the standard 3-letter ISO currency codes after you’ve corrected the problematic currency identifiers (so “USD” rather than “The US” or “US$”).
2. No Event Name Specified
Every event (whether it’s a standard or a custom event) must have an identifying name.
You can also remove old events by clicking the Delete button for each of them. Make sure you’ve entered all of your events’ names.
3. Invalid Event Value
If youre getting this error message, there are two possibilities:
For a campaign, the value or currency parameter is almost entirely absent…
If the value or currency parameter isn’t correctly formatted, this is what you’ll see:
Make sure that all of your code samples feature both a value and currency parameter.
To generate a successful event, you must ensure that the value field is set to a number greater than or equal to zero (letters, special characters, currency symbols, or commas are not allowed).
4. Almost Standard Event
This is Facebook informing you that one or more of your standard events is comparable (but not absolutely identical!) to one of Facebook’s standard events.
If you intend to use the event code snippet as is, replacing the custom event code with standard event formatting, go ahead.
I’ve previously stated this, but remember that the event code is case-sensitive and that Facebook interprets “Purchase” and “purchase” as separate events.
5. Missing Event Value
You don’t have a set cost for your event defined.
When defining custom event codes, it’s typically a good idea to change the default value of USD 0.00 to something else.
Why? This helps you track the value of your conversions to calculate your Return On Ad Spend.
6. Redundant Events on Page Load
This warning appears when your pixel records five or more different activities in response to a single action taken on your site.
If you’ve previously used the Facebook Pixel Helper and found any problems, you shouldn’t receive this warning.
However, if this warning appears, it indicates that you need to tidy up your code and remove superfluous code fragments from pages where the action does not occur.
7. Redundant Purchase Events
This is one of the more critical errors you can encounter, so take note:
When a person makes a single purchase on your website, the Redundant Purchase Events signal that your pixel detects 3 or more purchase events.
Your accounting information may become corrupt because of this problem, which makes it impossible to keep track of your sales through Facebook and Shopify.
To prevent this, ensure you’re only using your purchase event code on pages in your store that indicate that someone has made a purchase…
Do not include each of these strings in more than one part of your website (for example, thank you pages, checkout pages, and inline actions like the “Buy Now” button clicks).
And that’s it for diagnostic errors!
#3: Play around with custom audiences and lookalike audiences
Ask any Facebook marketer, and they’ll tell you that Custom Audiences are the bomb. They’re also known as audience segments.
If you don’t have a Shopify Facebook Pixel, you’ll need to provide a list of email addresses, phone numbers, or Facebook user IDs to build your Custom Audiences.
But the email service providers don’t seem to want anybody else to know about their partnerships. For some Shopify store owners, all of this is a pain in the ass, and for others, it’s nearly impossible (those who haven’t built up an extensive base of newsletter subscribers yet).
The process of adding your Custom Audiences is simple with your Pixel.
Navigate to Audiences…
Click “Create Audience” under “Audiences.” Then, select a Custom Audience from the drop-down menu.
And then Website Traffic.
From there, you may choose whether you want your list to include:
- Everyone who has visited a specific page in your store
- If you’ve ever visited my Shopify store, then
- Or Those who have spent the most amount of time browsing through your store
Regardless of the sort of advertisements, you show to these men, they’ll almost certainly do well (at least than ads that you display to a non-targeted audience)!
But for best results, I recommend Dynamic Product Ads.
Let’s look at Lookalike Audiences before we call it a day. I’ll get into that later, but let’s go over Lookalike Audiences first.
The conversions-versus-exposure problem may be handled using Lookalike Audiences.
In essence, if you devote your entire advertising budget to Custom Audiences, you’ll undoubtedly be able to improve conversions and sales…
…You would be reaching out to the same people (mostly!) repeatedly, so you don’t expose your business to new consumers.
You’ll typically be reaching a broader audience when you run advertisements without utilizing Custom Audiences, but this group will almost certainly be less qualified, lowering your conversion rate.
Enter Lookalike Audiences.
In a nutshell, Lookalike Audiences are made up of individuals who are pretty similar in terms of demographics, likes, dislikes, and shopping/browsing habits to the people currently in your Custom Audiences.
They’re probably unfamiliar with your brand, but they’re still quite likely to buy something.
So, how do you create a Lookalike Audience?
Go back to the same Audiences tool and choose “Create Audience” > “Lookalike Audience.”
Choose the Custom Audience list you wish to use as a source for your Lookalike Audience.
Select a source you’d want your Lookalike Audience to come from.
Decide on the size of your target audience. (The Lookalike Audience that 1% generates is quite similar to your Custom Audience, but it limits your audience size. On the other side of the coin, 10% provides a Lookalike Audience that is much bigger, but less similar to your Customer Audience.)
Pro Tip: There is no such thing as the “optimum” audience size; it varies greatly across industries and businesses. To determine which gives you the best results, I propose creating numerous Lookalike Audiences (you may start with 1%, 5%, or 10%).
#4: Use your Facebook Pixel to run dynamic product ads
Think of Dynamic Product Ads as a more targeted version of your Custom Audiences.
These are ideal for Shopify retailers who are new to advertising and want to boost their sales and conversion rates.
Let’s assume you’re a Shopify merchant who sells men’s shoes, and you want to improve your dismal cart abandonment rates.
Retargeting is a type of digital marketing in which you retarget users who have previously visited (or even added items to the cart!) your website with customized advertisements.
Here’s how it works:
Someone is looking at your website, and one of your elegant leather shoes captivates their attention.
They’ve nearly completed the checkout process when they press the “add to cart” button, and they’re about to take out their credit card and make a payment…
…Then, when their boss texts them and asks about the 10-page report that is due today, they become sidetracked.
You’d definitely have to say goodbye to that sale if you don’t use Dynamic Product Ads.
However, with Dynamic Product Ads, you may present the same goods your client was looking at to them again (on their Facebook newsfeed!)
Image from eBoostConsulting.com.
There’s a good chance that this client will return to your website and make their purchase:n
According to data, customers are 50% to 60% more likely to convert if they view a retargeting ad rather than a non-retargeting ad.
Retargeting advertising also increases the conversion rate by 70 percent. Furthermore, retargeted visitors are 70% more likely to convert than non-retargeted visitors.
Those are some pretty good odds, huh?
To utilize Facebook Dynamic Ads, you must create and upload a product catalog to your Business Manager.
The product catalog should include all the goods you’d want to promote; among other things, each item’s ID, name, category, availability, product URL, and picture URL must be provided.
Pro Tip: When creating your product catalog, you’ll need to choose between a single upload or scheduled recurring uploads.
If your business needs you to update your products frequently (for example, if you’re a fast-fashion company that releases new collections every week), scheduled regular uploads are the way to go. You may also manually add these types of items after they’ve been inserted into Automated Uploads.
Choose Single Upload if your product catalog is more or less permanent and you don’t regularly add new goods.
#5: Use custom conversions
Facebook’s basic conversions are pretty advanced, but Shopify stores may find that creating unique conversions is beneficial in certain circumstances.
Let’s assume you run a Shopify store that sells dog accessories and toys.
You’ve been doing well in business, but you want to aim higher and begin selling cat accouterments and toys.
Heres is whats going to happen:
If you sell 5 items relating to cats and 10 items relating to dogs on your store at any moment, your Facebook pixel will register 15 purchase events for each.
Why is this problematic?
But you won’t know how your various ad creatives and passages influence the performance of each product category.
Will this increase your revenue by appealing to a broader audience of dog-loving customers? Does it make sense to include two dogs and one cat in your product banner when it would only appeal to a narrow demographic with one dog and two cats?
What are the effects of adjusting the objective to “pet accessories store” rather than “dog and cat accessory store”?
The only means of finding out is to set up your own conversions so that you may access the relevant data.
To do this, go back to the Pixels tool and select “Custom Conversions.”
Set your base rule as URL contains, then decide on your trigger rule.
If you want to customize a conversion for a certain category (as in the example I just showed), it’ll appear like this:
For additional information on how to create your own conversions, check out this article.
Key takeaways on Shopify Facebook Pixel
In conclusion, integrating a Facebook Pixel into your Shopify business is essential if you want to use Facebook advertising. You now know that it’s not as difficult as it appears.
Using the Facebook Pixel in your business will assist you in targeting, broadening your client base, and increasing conversions.
Facebook and Shopify make it simple to get your Pixel up and running.
I’ve also included important information on the events you can monitor with your Pixel and alternative approaches to identify and repair Pixel-related problems.
So, I believe you’re good to go now. Good luck!
