YO! This post is out of date. I hope you’ll forgive me if I sent you here myself. The good news is that the up-to-date instructions are right here:
- for Wordpress sites
- for Squarespace sites
- for Leadpages pages (if you’re NOT using the drag-and-drop builder in Leadpages, some of the screenshots below will be useful)
Thanks for your understanding! Good luck with your campaigns. ?
Facebook Ads can be a great way to grow your business. You can get the word out about your offerings, grow your list, and even make sales.
What you can’t do is figure out which ads work best for your business if you aren’t tracking conversions!
“What exactly is conversion tracking?”
First you have to figure out what the “conversions” in your business are. For most online businesses, conversions are usually when a prospect converts to a customer. In other words, when someone buys something from you.
But you have a lot of other important conversions as well, such as:
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after visiting your website, I sign up for your newsletter
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instead of just browsing your online store, I actually add something to my cart
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I opt in to your free or reduced-price trial membership
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my visit to your website lasts more than a certain number of minutes
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I download a piece of your content
You set the conversions in your business, and usually you add them as “goals” in your Google Analytics account.
For your Facebook ads, however, it’s REALLY easy to see not only which ads are netting you the most conversions, but how much each one of those conversions in costing you.
Before you can run ads, though, you have to set up your conversion tracking. Here’s how it’s done:
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Go to the Ad Manager and click on Conversion Tracking in the menu on the left.
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Click on the green Create Conversion Pixel button at the top right of your screen.
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Name this particular conversion then determine which kind of conversion you’ll be tracking. You’ll see 6 options, but I’d say about 95% of people only need to worry about tracking Checkouts and Registrations/Leads
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Checkouts: a purchase of any kind
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Registrations or Leads (these are the same thing; I usually choose Leads): any time someone gives you their email address (for a newsletter or free trial) that DOES NOT involve a monetary transaction
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Key Page Views: use this if you want to track how many people viewed a specific page, like your sales page
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Adds to Cart: any time a visitor adds one of your products to their cart (this is an important goal for ecommerce businesses)
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Other Website Conversions: you can determine something like the time spent on your site, number of pages viewed, etc.
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NOTE: If you have multiple products or multiple ways someone can become a lead that you want to track with Facebook ads, you need to set up individual conversion tracking for each one.
For example, if this ad campaign is focused on building your list using a free webinar as your piece of opt-in content, the conversion you need set up is just for that free webinar.
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If the conversion you’re tracking is a purchase, add the value of that purchase. If you have an approximate value that you’ve identified per lead, add that.
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Click “Create Pixel.”
Here’s where the technical magic comes in. DON’T RUN AWAY JUST YET! If I can do this, you can do this. I’m going to walk you through it right here:
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Your pixel needs to go on the “thank you” or “success” page of the conversions. You know how when you buy something online or sign up for someone’s newsletter, you get directed to a page that says “Thanks for your purchase!” or “You’re now signed up for our newsletter!” That’s the “thank you” page. You should have one set up for each of your conversions.
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If your site is built on Wordpress, first you need to install and activate a free plugin called Facebook Pixel Conversions for WordPress. (If you’re using Leadpages for your landing page and thank you page, jump down to the section on setting up tracking with Leadpages.)
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In your Wordpress dashboard, find your thank you page for this particular conversion. If you scroll down, you’ll see this box:
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Check the box, and copy and paste your conversion pixel code into this space.
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Test that your conversion tracking is set up correctly by visiting your thank you page in an incognito window of your browser (right click on your browser icon and select “incognito” or “secret window”). You know you placed the pixel correctly if it shows as Verified in the Ads Manager.
BOOM! You’re tracking conversions. (Now’s a great time to try out a new list building campaign.)
To set up conversion tracking in Leadpages:
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Go to your list of pages you’ve created by clicking here.
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Find the thank you page you made for this conversion and click the blue “Edit” button on the right side.
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Click on Lead Page Optins in the left menu.
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Select “Tracking Codes” from the options on the pop-up. Then paste your conversion pixel code in the box below Head-tag tracking code.
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Click “Done” and then save your page.
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Test that your conversion tracking is set up correctly by visiting your thank you page in an incognito window of your browser (right click on your browser icon and select “incognito” or “secret window”). You know you placed the pixel correctly if it shows as Verified in the Ads Manager.
DONE! Now YOU’RE tracking conversions.
Got questions? Running into some technical difficulties? Let me know in the comments below and I’ll do my very best to help you sort ’em out.
And don’t forget to grab your FREE guide to Facebook ads that grow your list right here:
Thank you so much. This has been SO helpful. I have been trying for months to find our exactly how to place the tracking pixel into Lead Pages (and whether it was necessary to put some code into the second box; which no-one seemed able to tell me :-)
So pleased to have come across your article :-)
Thanks Vanessa! I had some trouble with Leadpages for a while and was glad to finally figure it out. Hope you’re having some luck with Facebook ads!
Hola Claire! Technical difficulties here. I downloaded the WP plug-in and believe I have placed the code in the proper place. However FB is still saying unverified. Thoughts?
The easiest way to verify the pixel is by visiting the page you’ve got the code placed on in an Incognito window. Give it ten minutes or so and if it doesn’t verify, shoot me another email!
Thanks so much for this VERY helpful post! Like Vanessa, I was also having a hard time figuring out the Leadpages tracking. I have had sporadic success with ads, hopefully this sheds some insight.
No problem, Kelly! Unfortunately ads have a learning curve but hopefully I can help you figure out what is or isn’t working.
Wow, Claire. This was SO helpful. As a new Leadpages user (for that matter a new fb ad promoter), I am so grateful to have found your post! Woohoo! Thanks a ton!
You are so welcome. Do let me know if you have any other questions as you dive into the wonderful world of FB ads. :)
Awesome work. I assumed this would go on the page after someone would confirm their Double Optin.
Could that also work?
Hey Stephen,
You can put the tracking code on either the page ppl see after they confirm their email addresses, or on the page that they see right after opting in that directs them to confirm their email.
When I started running my own ads, I went with the first option, but I noticed that Facebook wasn’t tracking all of those conversions for some reason, and I could never figure out why. So then I switched it to option 2. The downside there is that FB will track the conversion even if someone doesn’t confirm their email address. So my solution is to have two goals set up in Google Analytics, one for each of those pages. Does that make sense?
Let me know if you have any other questions!
Got it working so all good! My god there’s about a 50% difference from confirmed/unconfirmed emails!
Glad I worked it out!
Wow 50%? Very interesting. Want to link me to the page people see after they sign up? Lots of times the call-to-action to go confirm your email address isn’t clear enough.
Using the default LeadPages one! But I managed to tweak it a bit, so it’s sitting at 75-80% now. Much more acceptable
Hi, Claire.
I’m running leadpages on my own domain by using their wordpress plugin. I’m struggling to make google analytics tracking code to work with this setup, as I have to insert GA code on leadpages but track this very same page running on my domain.
Do you have any clues on how this can be properly set up?
Thanks! :)
Hey David, can you give me a little more detail about the problem you’re running into? I always add the GA tracking code to the section inside Leadpages and then it works fine, even if the pages are published to my domain.
Let me know!
Hi Claire,
I’ve added the GA tracking code on leadpages.net (on the head section of my squeeze page), but it doesn’t work when I load this page on my domain (not the leadpages URL) through their wordpress plugin.
Have you tested running a leadpages squeeze on your own domain?
I actually ran into this very problem yesterday with a client’s conversion tracking pixel. Try putting the GA code in the section, don’t forget to save it, and the let me know if GA starts to track that page!
Hello from Spain, Claire!
Your guide is incredible! Thank you so much.
I downloaded the WP plug-in
and believe I have placed the code in the proper place. However FB is
still saying unverified ;(
Any idea?
Thanks!
Hola Vero! Awesome to have you here. :)
Try this: visit your thank you page (the page your tracking pixel should be on) in an incognito browser window. Wait a few minutes, and then go back to Facebook and refresh the conversion tracking page. It should be able to verify it then.
Avísame si no funciona!
Thanks thanks thanks!
You’re like Harry Potter, magic :P
AHHHHH BEST. COMPLIMENT. EVER!!
Hi Claire !. This works in HTML pages? The code is the same for HTML LeadPage?
Hi Eviss,
I’m not familiar with HTML pages but the code itself is the same. What you want to look for in HTML pages is a box for code that goes in the Header section of your page (also known as between the and tags. You should paste the code from FB into that box in the backend of HTML pages.
Hope that helps!
If you aren’t collecting emails, but rather trying to lead people to subscribe to a youtube channel can you not use the power editor?
You can definitely use the Power Editor, you just can’t track website conversions. So when you start your campaign, choose “Clicks to Website” as your objective instead of website conversions. That way Facebook will optimize your ads to be shown to people more likely to click!
Great post. Thanks!!!!
My pleasure, Kevin [spoken with a hilariously incomprehensible French accent]! :)
Thank you! I was searching for the answer to this exact question regarding where to put the FB tracking code in LeadPages and so glad to have found this. Only follow up question I have is how would this be different from setting up a Custom Audience to Your Website tracking pixel in Facebook? for that one you need to add the same code to every page on your site right?
Yes exactly. Do you have a wordpress site? If so, a good plugin is Headers and Footers – once you install that bad boy you can just plug the new pixel into the Header section and it’ll show up on all of your pages. Let me know if that answers your question!
Thank you! I’ll install that plugin :) I guess my only remaining confusion is how the Custom Audience To Your Website is different than the Conversion Pixels because with the custom audiences you can set it up so it tracks people who visit certain pages but not others. How are these different?
Hello, Thanks for the tutorial! I am a bit confused about the goal of FB conversion tracking. I have followed the instructions and set up a new tracking pixel for my “thank you for contacting” page in Wordpress and after testing it by navigating to the page in an incognito window it says the pixel is active. I initially set up a tracking pixel in the header.php for my whole site per facebook’s instructions but it is tracking all of the web traffic, not web traffic directly from facebook ad clicks. (I just set up the tracking pixel on my thank you page so I haven’t received any data on the tracking pixel yet, therefore I can’t tell if it is again going to track all traffic that goes to the thank you page or specifically the traffic that came directly from a facebook ad to the thank you page.) Did I set the tracking pixels up incorrect or am I misunderstanding what the tracking pixel is intended to do? Any clarification you can offer is greatly appreciated! Thank you.
Hey Maddie, there are two types of tracking pixels: one that tracks who has visited your site (called a Website Custom Audience pixel) and one that only tracks the people who 1) clicked on your ad AND 2) signed up or took the action you wanted them to (this is the conversion tracking pixel). The WCA pixel goes on every page and the conversion tracking pixel goes only on the “thank you” page. Which one did you set up, do you know? And if you don’t, which one did you WANT to set up?
Hi Claire, Thanks for getting back to me so quickly I really appreciate that! I’m pretty sure I set up a conversion tracking pixel because I created it under the conversion tracking pixel section of the facebook ads manager panel. My goal is to track people who clicked on the facebook ad and then submitted a contact form so it sounds like the conversion tracking pixel is in fact what I need to be using. My contact page tracking pixel is now showing 1 visit under activity so it seems like its working how I would like.
When I look at the activity of the first pixel I set up by adding the code provided to my header.php file it is showing a much higher number of visits so I think I may have set this one up as a WAC pixel.
So my next question is this, how do I link the conversion pixel to my ads so I can view conversions in the reports section? I know thats a bit outside what this tutorial covers but I didn’t see an option to link the pixel to ads anywhere when I set it up so I am a little unsure of where to do that.
Thanks for clearing that up for me, I’m new to facebook ads.
Any help you can offer is greatly appreciated. Thank you :)
You’ll find it where you edit your ad in the Power Editor under Creative.
Thank you!! I am so glad I found your site, you are very helpful. I will certainly be reading blog so I’m not such a FB ads noob :)
Hi Claire. Thank you for this great post. It answered so many questions I had. I still have a doubt I installed a conversion pixel in my sales pages I made With leadpages using the key pages view and it worked :). However I also want to create an audience of the people who saw the sales pages so I can retarget them with my ad, can I use two pixels in a lead pages (the conversion and wca) or they can not be used together? Can I track conversion and create an audience at the same time? Thanks a lot! Love your site!!
Yes you can put both pixels on any page on your site! So glad to hear you’re getting in deep with targeting options. There’s more about retargeting people who saw your sales page in this post: clairepells.com/advanced-lookalike-audiences/
Best of luck!
Hi Claire,
Thanks for this great post. I have a question related to the FB Pixel. here is my situation :
1- i am running a campaign with banners from 3 Forums and all the banners are the same and with same url target (my landing page)
Can i use FB pixel/ Google Analytics Goal pixel to track each banner performance ? i can clone my landing page to 3 to see how many people convert from each Forum ?
Thanks
Simo
Hey Simo, let me see if I understand: you are running the same images and ad copy to three different target audiences?
If this is the case, you don’t need to create different landing pages or pixels. Use the same pixel and url, but separate the targeting into different ad sets. You’ll see which one converts best based on the results inside each ad set.
Does that answer your question? Let me know!
Hello Claire,
Can I prevent a competitor with fewer Likes from adding my business to their Facebook ad targeting. I have worked hard to cultivate my following.
Nope, there’s no way to do that without taking down your Facebook page.
I wouldn’t worry about competitors targeting your fans – you have a distinctive relationship with your fans – after all, they came to you on their own.
Wow thanks a million for this! It was SO helpful!
I’m so glad to hear that Lisa! Just love it when people take the time to set this stuff up, it’ll come in so handy in the future! :)
Claire, thank you SO MUCH for such a detailed and helpful explanation! I found you through your webinar with Jackie Johnstone, and I’m so excited to keep following your stuff in the future :)
You’re so welcome, Katie! Just glad I could help, especially with this super important piece of FB ads!
Merci Claire! Found you via Hélène Scott and just created my first pixel! :) Now back to creating a FB ad with your guide :)
Awesome, glad to hear it Sonia!
Thank you for a very clear breakdown of how to create a Pixel. I do however have a problem as the conversion I want to track is how many people are converting by booking a ticket online for a Theater show. But the thank you page of the booking is not on my URL, it’s not Wordpress or Leadpages either. It’s just a provider our client is using for the bookings. So how do I solve this? I do seem to remember leading something like this on one of your blogpost but I can’t find the post anymore? Kind regards, Virginie
Sorry Virginie, you won’t be able to add a pixel to your thank you page if that page is hosted on a different site. If you can choose a page on your site for people to be redirected to after they buy tickets, then you’ll be able to do some conversion tracking.
So instead of choosing Website Conversions as your objective, you should choose Clicks to Website since FB won’t be able to track any conversions.
Hi Claire! Quick Q – I’m using ClickFunnels instead of LeadPages. Don’t these services track conversions on their own? If you link one ad to one opt-in page (I’m running two separate funnels), shouldn’t the service itself be able to track conversions? This is all totally new to me!
Hi Amanda! I haven’t used ClickFunnels but conversion tracking for FB ads does more than track conversions on a landing page, but rather it sends info back to FB about what’s working and what isn’t. So you should try to get the code on the backend of your thank you page regardless!
Worked like a charm!! Thanks, Claire! Now back to the your guide. You are a rock star! =D
Hi Claire.. Thank you so much for this great info!! I am trying to set up my first ad and have gotten all the way to creating the ad set. It looks like the FB interface has changed a bit since you posted this… I am in the window for the ad set, have the pixel verified and all the info on there but the create box won’t light up to allow me to click. So, I am stuck here. I don’t know if you are on FB today, but I am desperate to get this up today!!
Hey @danielhagadorn:disqus, were you able to figure it out? If not, post a screenshot here of the Create box that won’t let you click.
Thank you Claire.. I did figure it out…appreciate you getting back to me!
Hi Claire, your post is very helpful. I liked the simplicity in which you have presented your tips for Facebook ads conversion. Also here are 5 tips to maximise click-throughs and conversions from your Facebook Ad campaigns – http://www.gdata.in/blog/beginner%E2%80%99s-guide-facebook-ads-conversion. I hope this blog post will be the useful while planning Facebook Ads Marketing.
Hey, Claire. Quick question. Is this plugin still useful? Or is there a better way of doing it now? Thank you for all of your help!
I still use it for myself and my clients! For me it’s the way to go.
Hi Claire, How many Conversion Pixels can I put on a Leadpages Thank You page? I want to track which Ad Set is converting the best.
Thanks,
Ashley
Hi Ashley! You only need one conversion pixel per thank you page, even if you have multiple ad sets and/or ads. The conversion here is a sign up for something, right? Your thank you page should only exist for corresponding opt-in page, so it’s just one pixel. With that one pixel in place, Facebook will be able to track which ad set’s working better!
awesome thanks so much!!! x
Hi Claire! Thanks so much for this! Do you know how to set up conversion pixels for squarespace?
Hi Leah! I thought I had posted this on the blog but it seems I only made it to YouTube! Here are the instructions if you’re still looking for them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sBDWx3JMCU
So crazy that I’m just now seeing your response! Thank you, lol :).
So I hired someone to set up my site and they used Weebly. I understand that I can’t use the Facebook Pixel for tracking with Weebly, but I can use it with Lead pages? So, could I set up a Lead page connected to my Weebly site that I can put the Facebook pixel on? Please excuse my lack of technical jargon. I’m still setting all this stuff up in preparation for the launch of my e-books.
Yup, you can definitely add the conversion tracking pixel to a Leadpages page! I don’t know how to connect one to a Weebly page – for Wordpress they have a particular plugin to use – but I’m sure the people at Leadpages will have the answer on how to get it set up!
Thanks Claire! I went to the plugin and it says ”This plugin hasn’t been updated in over 2 years. It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when used with more recent versions of WordPress.”
Do you still use it?
Yes I do! Soon I’ll be coming out with some info that will make this way of tracking conversions obsolete but until then, you should use that plugin without reservation!
Hi I cant seem to get my facebook conversion pixel to work.. wondering if you have any ideas! your tutiorials are great thank you! I have installed it correctly as confirmed by lead pages support .. however its showing as inactive still in my facebook ads manager .. despite lots of traffic to the thank you page? Michelle
Thanks for the guide, Claire! You are awesome!
I am feeling a bit stupid, but…
“-Go to the Ad Manager and click on Conversion Tracking in the menu on the left.
– Click on the green Create Conversion Pixel button at the top right of your screen.”
I don’t see any Conversion Tracking in the menu on the left. What am I missing? :/
Thanks and sorry for the dumb question :/
Hey Daniel, not a dumb question! Things have shifted around since I wrote this post. You want to click on Tools and the top, then Pixels, then Conversion Tracking Pixel (old), then the grey Create Pixel on the top right.
Wow, thanks a lot!! ;)
Pixel Helper says, “Conversion Pixel pixel activated multiple times on this web page, which can cause errors in your even tracking.” How do I fix this issue with my conversion pixel? Thanks :D
I can’t be sure but my guess is that you have the Conversion Pixel on your page more than once. You can right click on the page, click View Page Source and search for pixel. You should find all the pixels that way!
How would I set up the pixel for an e-commerce site? Trying to track Web conversions?
Theoretically it’s the same way: you put the pixel on the page people see after buying. But it can be tricky with different kinds of products. What platform is your ecommerce site on? Shopify?
I have no idea? How would I find out?
Talk to the person who set it up for you in the beginning!
Thanks for the stellar walk through Claire!!!
You’re so welcome, Sarah!
Hey Claire,
first of all thanks a lot for all your great content. And I hope all is going well with your pregnancy, I bet you’re already really excited.
I have a question regarding conversion tracking with the new Facebook pixel. I know you don’t recommend using it just yet but as I’m basically just starting with ads on FB I thought it’s not worth implementing the old pixel. So I’ve installed the FB pixel on my entire site and I’ve placed the standard event code on my thank you pages.
What I don’t really understand with the new pixel is how I can track conversions for specific ads. Is that only possible by using one of the 20 custom events?
When I create an ad with the goal of website conversions, it basically only lets me choose the standard event pixel. But what if I have several thank you pages on my website? How will these conversions/leads be tracked back to a specific ad similar to how the old pixel worked? Do I need to use one of the 20 custom events for that? Naturally I’m hesitant to do that as they can’t be deleted or edited at the moment.
Hi Petra! You’ve pinpointed the exact reason I recommend people continue to use the old conversion tracking pixel. Otherwise you’ll have to use custom conversions if you want to know which thank you page people landed on after visiting your site from an ad.
I’m also hesitant to use custom conversions, so that’s why I still use the old method. Hopefully they’ll improve this soon!
Ah ok, thanks a lot! I thought I was just not understanding it completely. So I guess I’ll use the custom conversions and maybe a second advertising account if the 20 aren’t enough.
Have a great weekend!
Hello Petra ,
I am starting a Facebook ads campaign. I want people to subscribe the newsletter and download a free guide about “fighting cancer or adjusting to your Survivor status” The only problem is that the user is redirected to Aweber marketing tool for the thank-you page. So can i add the pixel code to the Aweber thank-you. Will it work or not for effective tracking for lead generation???
See the screenshot of the thank-you page if it can help you to give me better suggestions.
Things have changed a little bit since this artcle. Here is a new, more detailed explanation of the Facebook Pixel. http://fissionads.tumblr.com/post/140869211622/track-conversions-with-facebook-pixels
Hi Claire, I use wordpress.com for my blog that doesn’t take pixels. Are there other things I can do?
Thanks!
Hey Claire, I’m trying to set up my conversation, I click on the green button that says create custom conversion , then the image that I’ve attached shows up. Can’t seem to get past this part.
Hi there – is this content still relevant as I cannot find these links on my facebook page – has Facebook changed everything since this?!