Pixel? What Pixel?

There is a lot to online marketing, especially with giant platforms like Facebook and Instagram. In an industry that is constantly changing, you need to stay informed on the latest tools, trends, and tricks to make your advertising budget worth every penny. 

It's January and if you're anything like our team, you've already made a huge list of New Year's resolutions and you are ready to build the perfect infrastructure to reach all of your goals. Don't overwhelm yourself, we are cheering you on from the sidelines. A new year and new goals are very exciting, but they can be a little scary too. What does 2020 look like for you and your company? Let's start this new year by focusing on one of the most important things you need to continue working on, and that is online social media ads. I can hear you groan through the computer screen! Don't worry - it can be very tricky to use every penny of your advertising budget wisely when Facebook and Instagram keep rolling out changes. But we are here to help. Today we are going to be talking about Pixels and why they are one of the most important tools you might not have heard about yet. 

What is a Facebook Pixel you might ask? It is a code that you place on your website that collects data that helps you track who visits your website because of your Facebook ads. They help you optimize ads, and they help you build a target audience for future ads based on this information you've gathered. It can also help you market again to people who have already followed through with your call to action to visit your website. It is another important analytical tool that you need to add to your world and toolbox if you haven't already. The data that is collected gives you fresh insight on how you keep visitors returning to your site from your Facebook ads and they allow you to track what these visitors are doing on your website when they visit. They can help mold what kind of ad campaign you need to create for the best-optimized numbers and help you pick what demographic your Facebook ad needs to be shown towards. This tool can be located on the ads management page for your Facebook account, so keep your eyes open for it. In the long run, Pixels help you get the most out of your Facebook ad budget. 

Let's break it down a little bit more. It physically works by placing and triggering cookies to track users as they interact with your website and Facebook ads. What's the difference between a cookie and a pixel? Cookies are tiny pieces of text that store information on web browsers and enable Facebook to offer products to you when you are on Facebook. They are used to understand the information received from your website visitors and so on. Pixels, on the other hand, deliver information or behaviors to the server itself. Cookies store that information in the user's browser so the user can read and visit the information again in the future. 

Beyond some of the benefits we listed above, what else can the use of Pixels do for you? 

• They help target your audience with accuracy and efficiency 
• They help retarget ad campaigns to increase website views, increase follow through on calls to action, and increases your follower count
• They help create more effective Facebook ads 
• They collect important information about the people who are visiting your website
• They help you create custom audiences and lookalike audiences based on these website visits, events, and conversions
• Events and offers can be sent by using Pixels
• Allows you to turn visitors into followers, buyers and a consistent audience 
• Conversion, Conversion, Conversion! 

This is just a list of the big-time effects Pixels can have on your company. Needless to say, we would recommend them for your continued ad campaigns for 2020. The amount it can do for you is so significant, and it's not too difficult to add them into your workflow. You can create up to 100 Pixels at a time - but in the end, you really only need one at a time. 

Pixels have become such a huge topic that there are tons of YouTube videos and other resources out there for you to learn more about them. So many in fact that we wanted to share a few of them with you. To learn more, follow the link's below to learn more via YouTube. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fpFwE-GyNo#action=share

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5BeNCBpRNs&feature=emb_rel_pause

Here's to 2020 and continued learning. We are happy to share these tidbits of information with you, and are excited to hear back from you if you'd like to share! Until next time, stay caffeinated, driven, and ready to use social media like you never have before!