We didn't find any errors and your message was successfully sent! Someone will be in touch with you shortly.
March 1, 2021
Have you ever wanted to follow your website visitors after they leave your site?
Or to tailor your Facebook ads so they target your ideal customer, every time?
How about tracking your visitors’ activity so you can see what links they click on, and what parts of your site they spend the most time on?
If this sounds like some mystical superpower, think again. All of this and more can be accomplished using tiny snippets of code known as tracking pixels.
If you’ve spent any time on the internet, you’ve come in contact with pixels, even if you didn’t know it. When you see a Google ad for that product you were just looking at on Amazon, that’s because a pixel connected your browsing activity on Amazon with your presence on Google. This allows Google to show you ads that are uniquely relevant to you.
Of course, if you’ve done any research on digital marketing, you’ve probably heard about tracking pixels before. But do you know which ones you should be using on your website?
This article will attempt to answer that question. To find out which tracking pixels are right for you, keep reading.
We’ve already established that tracking pixels help advertisers target their ideal audience more effectively. But what are some other tracking pixel benefits, and how do they work?
Tracking pixels monitor the online behavior of specific users across different websites. Pixels are most often used to gather data about people so they can be served ads that are more relevant to them. But pixels can also be used to track how website visitors respond to certain parts of a webpage, and how much time they spend on the site.
There are two main types of tracking pixels: retargeting pixels and conversion pixels.
Retargeting pixels focus exclusively on the behavior of your website visitors. They are usually used to retarget past visitors with ads on platforms like Facebook and Google.
For example, if someone visits your online store and adds a product to their shopping cart, you can then serve them Facebook ads for that product if you had the Facebook pixel installed.
Conversation pixels come into play after someone actually places an order. They are used to track sales from specific advertising campaigns, so you always know which ads are producing results.
Conversion pixels are always placed on the post-checkout page, usually known as the “thank you” page. When a visitor reaches this page, they activate the pixel, which signals to the advertiser that a purchase was made. If lots of purchases are made as a result of the same ad set, the campaign is considered a success.
Importantly, people will only be tracked for advertising if they’ve previously given their permission for this to sites where they have an account, like Google and Facebook.
Whether you want to track users on or off your site, the following are some of the most popular tracking pixel examples.
Google Tag ManagerGoogle Tag Manager is a flexible tag management system for websites and mobile apps. You can use it to quickly update tags and code snippets, such as pixels, on any website or mobile app you own.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about Google Tag Manager is that it allows you to manage analytics and advertising tools in apps you’ve published. You can do this without rebuilding them from the ground up, or resubmitting them to the app marketplaces.
Although Google Tag Manager is a Google service, it doesn’t limit you to using Google tags alone. It lets you use and manage many third-party tags through built-in templates, including several of the pixels we mention below. However, even if there’s no template for the tag or pixel you want to use, you can add your own custom code.
Probably almost all website owners use Google Analytics. It’s an essential free service that gives you an inside look into how people use and interact with your content.
But before you can use Google Analytics on your website, you’ve got to install its tracking pixel.
The Google Analytics tracking code allows you to collect important data from your visitors’ behavior. You can then use this data to make informed business decisions, from what product to launch next to new design changes to make.
There are four types of metric reports that Google Analytics offers: audience, acquisition, behavior, and conversions.
Audience reports tell you about the people coming to your website. Acquisition reports tell you how and why you acquire new users. Behavior reports explain what website visitors do on your site, and conversion reports tell you how many people take desired actions, such as buying a product.
Facebook Custom AudienceIf you sell products through your website, chances are you’ve used Facebook Ads in the past.
Facebook’s advertising platform is revolutionary because it allows you to find and target very specific kinds of people. While there’s a market for almost anything, finding that market in the first place is usually difficult. But Facebook makes it as easy as it’s ever been, providing businesses with in-depth information about the demographics that use its platform.
Like Google Analytics, however, you’ll need to install the Facebook custom audience pixel on your website to get the most out of Facebook Ads.
With the Facebook pixel, you can identify the Facebook users who clicked through to your website from your ads. You can see which webpages they went to, and which pages they avoided. It also allows you to track successful sales, which is integral for an effective ad campaign.
If you use Facebook Ads, the Facebook custom audience pixel is a must-have.
TradeDesk and Simpli.fi are separate but similar platforms that you may want to consider using in your marketing campaigns.
TradeDesk is an online advertising network that connects advertisers with websites and apps that feature ads. While anyone can set up ads on search engines and social networks, placing ads alongside websites or in mobile apps is more complicated. TradeDesk does the work for you, and it utilizes a powerful pixel that you can install on your website to track visitors and conversions.
Simpli.fi is a similar platform to TradeDesk, but with a smaller user base. They offer software services, largely targeted at ad agencies, for a more hands-on approach. They also provide effective retargeting tools, including a pixel, to continue targeting people who’ve interacted with your website in the past.
Retargeting previous website visitors is one thing. Facebook, Google, and other companies offer services that make it easy to track visitors across the web, often for free. But what about when you need to track website activity that crosses over to the real world?
That’s where DataZapp comes in. DataZapp is a multi-channel direct marketing platform that combines email and social marketing with telemarketing and direct mail. With its pixel, it uses a Reverse IP Append service that recovers lost website visitors who leave without joining your mailing list or buying your product.
Their powerful suite of tools then allows you to retarget these missed contacts in the real world through direct mail, as well as email and social media campaigns. It’s an indispensable service for reaching your target audience in the most effective ways possible.
Google owns the lion’s share of the market when it comes to search, but Bing has its own user base who can’t be reached with Google Ads. Because of this, a comprehensive PPC campaign really isn’t complete without Bing Ads.
Bing’s Universal Event Tracking (UET) tag is a website pixel that monitors your website visitors’ activity after they click on your ad. This is valuable because it helps you understand what kinds of people click on your ad, and what they expect after landing on your website.
UET tags also work as remarketing pixels, which means you can target the exact same Bing users who visited your website before. Together, these features help you make more informed decisions for your ad budget.
Mouseflow Mouse Tracker and Heat MapHave you ever wondered what sections of your homepage or landing page get the most attention?
While many pixels will show you when a customer visits specific webpages, being able to track a user’s activity on each page is less common. That’s where Mouseflow steps in with its flexible behavior tracking pixel.
Mouseflow records every session that any user has on your website. It then generates heatmaps for all pages automatically to show you what sections get the most attention from visitors. Using their Friction Score, you can then identify and resolve problems that may be causing people to ignore certain parts of your website, or making them leave without a purchase.
By finding out where website visitors click, scroll, and place their attention the most, you can gain valuable insight to inform future design decisions. This means your future website redesigns will always be in line with real data from real potential customers.
Many marketers and business owners focus so much on digital media that they forget about the real world people interact in. Services like DataZapp help remind you that there are more ways to connect with potential customers, including telemarketing and direct mail.
CallRail is another such service that bridges the gap between digital and real-world media.
CallRail is a phone call-tracking program that provides call analytics to marketers. Complete with its own website pixel, CallRail can show you where your visitors are coming from (online or print media), keywords they might have searched for, and any ads they saw, whether digital or print.
By putting all this data together, a savvy marketer can use CallRail to figure out which of their marketing efforts are generating success, and which ones aren’t.
Did you know there are scammers who will send fake clicks to your ads, wasting your advertising budget?
Known as click fraud, this occurs when a legitimate business’s competitor creates a bot to find their ads and click through to their website automatically. After a few days, or even just a few hours, your ad budget can be exhausted, all without any of the payoff that would come from genuine customers.
Obviously, this is something no business owner can risk happening. Fortunately, a service like ClickCease protects legitimate websites against click fraud.
ClickCease is compatible with Google Ads. It automatically reports fraudulent IP addresses to Google, preventing petty competitors from even seeing your ads. It also blocks “brand haters”—ordinary internet users who dislike your business and click your ads to waste your money—from seeing your ads.
While not simply a website pixel, ClickCease is an essential service for serious businesses to protect their assets and ad campaigns.
Get Help With Tracking Pixels and MoreAs you can see, pixels can do many different things, from tracking mouse movement to targeting ads. You have a lot of options to choose from—and this article only covered some of the most popular ones.
Although there are many benefits of tracking pixels, they can be complicated. Choosing the right pixels is one thing, but adding tracking pixels to your site can be a headache.
You can’t afford to take any chances with your digital marketing. From tracking pixels to ad design, contact us today to get a website and strategy that’s aligned with your goals.
