It’s Hot! Facebook’s Brand New Conversion Tracking Tool
Tracking the return on advertising dollars is a vital component to analyzing the success of any marketing campaign. Facebook announced last month that it is offering a brand new tool for advertisers to help them substantially in this arena. If your company is participating in Facebook Ads, you now have the ability to create snippets of code through the Facebook Ad tool, place them on the pages of your website where conversions happen (such as a Thank You page after completing an order), and Facebook will then track conversions back to your company’s Facebook ads. So, you’ll not only be able to see that customers are clicking on your ads (which was the previous limitation), but the number of successful conversions afterward. So this is a big improvement! 
How to create your tracking code (Facebook calls them “Conversion Pixels”):
- Click the Conversion Tracking tab from power editor, or go to https://www.facebook.com/ads/manage to access power editor from your ads manager.
- Click “Create Conversion Pixel” (in the top right corner of the page).
- Name your Conversion Pixel and select a category from the drop-down menu.
- Click “Create”.
- A pop-up box will appear. Click “View Pixel Code”.
How to install your tracking code:
Place the HTML or JavaScript code snippet into the <body> tag of the page on your website where the conversion action that you want to track will happen (such as a Thank You page after checkout). For Nexternal customers, place this in the Settings / Policies, Addenda and Disclaimers / Order Affiliate Addenda field.
How to activate your tracking code:
In Power editor, go to any existing or new ad. In the creative section, any ad that points to your website will have a box to enable conversion tracking. Check that box and select event types that you want to track for the ad.
Facebook has been beta testing this new conversion tool since late last year with select clients, including Fab.com. Fab.com reported great results, including reducing their cost per new customer 39% by targeting their ads through the Optimized CPM option. Optimized CPM allows marketers to target their ads to audience segments who are most likely to convert based on similarities between people that have responded to the ad well in the past. To read more about optimized CPM in Facebook.
Lanette Willis is a Senior Account Manager at Nexternal. Before joining Nexternal she spent nearly a decade working in market research and professional services marketing, before running her own successful eCommerce apparel business. Lanette is passionate about helping people and businesses thrive.
