Do you want to run Facebook campaigns to your Shopify store? Before running any campaigns, make sure that your Facebook Pixel is installed on your Shopify e-commerce site and the Pixel events are set up correctly.
In this guide, we will not show you exactly
- how to install and set up the Facebook Pixel to your Shopify store
- we will also talk about the disadvantages and the limits of using the standard method of installing the Facebook Pixel
- what you can do instead to get better and more accurate tracking
- why setting up the Facebook Pixel is crucial for every Shopify store owners regardless of their Facebook advertising levels.
In the end, we will also answer some of the most frequently asked questions related to Facebook Pixel on Shopify webshops.
How to Install Facebook Pixel on a Shopify store?
Update:
Shopify has changed how you can add a Facebook Pixel to a Shopify store. Here you can find a great tutorial on how to install the Facebook Pixel to a Shopify site:
The process thanks to the Shopify Partner integration is actually very simple:
- Create a Business Manager Account and a Facebook Ad Account if you haven’t done so
- Generate a Facebook Pixel to your Ad Account
- Add the Facebook Pixel ID ID to your Shopify Admin
- Sit back and let Shopify do its magic
The first two steps are the same for any kind of business, so we don’t go into details here. If you haven’t created your Facebook Business Manager yet or haven’t generated a Facebook Pixel yet, just click on the links above and you will get instructions on how to do them step by step.
Once you have your new Pixel ID, it is really easy to install it to your Shopify website:
- Just sign in to the Shopify Admin area.
- Click on Online store then on Preferences.
- Scroll down to Facebook Pixel section and paste the Pixel ID you have just created.
- Click on Save
You can check if you installed the Facebook Pixel the right way by installing the Pixel Helper Chrome Extension to your Chrome browser. Once you installed it, open up your website and check the extension if it can detect the Pixel code and events on your website.
If you installed the Facebook Pixel to your Shopify store the right way, the Pixel Helper icon will turn blue and a green number will indicate that a Pixel Event was fired as it is shown below.
How to set up Facebook Pixel to a Shopify website?
Once you installed the Facebook Pixel to your Shopify store by the easy method we have outlined above, you are pretty much done with the work. Shopify will automatically send in the most important Pixel Events to your Facebook Ad account without you having to do any technical setup.
These Facebook Pixel Events include the most important events related to e-commerce websites:
- Pageview
- View Content
- Add to Cart
- Initiate Checkout
- Payment Info
- Purchase
Facebook Pixel Shopify Partner integration limitations
As you can see installing the Facebook Pixel and setting up the most necessary Pixel events for a Shopify store is very easy with partner integration. However, there are some limitations you have to keep in mind when you install the Pixel code in this standard way.
Missing Pixel Events in Shopify Stores
One of the disadvantages of the standard installation of the Facebook Pixel to Shopify is that it is almost impossible to customize the Facebook Pixel.
There are Pixel events that are not tracked when you are using the standard implementation that can be crucial for some e-commerce businesses.
Lead and Registered events
The two most important events that are missing from the standard partner integration installation are Leads and Registered Pixel events.
For example, if you have a sales process where the majority of your sales come from an email list, you might try to send traffic to the website with a lead objective to get new subscribers. Without a custom implementation, you cannot do this as there are no Lead events by default when you implemented the Facebook Pixel on your Shopify store with the standard installation.
The same can be said about Registered events. Let’s say, you also have a membership section on your website where you require users to register for your website. You can’t set this up as a Pixel event if you only have the standard Pixel implementation of Shopify.
Multiple Pixel codes on a Shopify Website
Another limitation of the standard implementation is (as you saw in the setup section) that you can only place one Facebook pixel ID to the admin area of your Shopify store. This means that there is no way to use multiple Facebook pixels on one Shopify store with the standard Shopify Facebook partner integration.
Again, you need some custom implementation for this as we will show in the next section.
Shipping Costs reporting
A third problem that you have to face when you use the standard implementation of Facebook Pixel is that the Pixel won’t be able to report shipping costs with the purchase value.
If you are charging shipping fees in your Shopify e-commerce website, this can lead to inaccuracies in your ROAS calculation.
Alternative methods to Set up Facebook Pixel Shopify
There are two main ways how you can install and set up Facebook Pixel to Shopify with a custom implementation. One of them is via Google Tag Manager the other one is using Facebook Pixel Shopify apps developed specifically for Shopify stores.
Google Tag Manager to Install Facebook Pixel to Shopify
The difficulty with using Google Tag Manager to implement Facebook Pixel to a Shopify store is that Shopify doesn’t send any useful dataLayer parameters by default. So, first, you have to make sure that the right dataLayer parameters are sent in before you can implement the Facebook Pixel with Google Tag Manager.
There is one Shopify app that can help you with setting up a well-customized dataLayer if you don’t want to do yourself. It is called:
- Google Tag Manager Suite: For a one-time charge of 199 USD, they will implement a full dataLayer and also provide 20+ pre-built containers which includes Facebook as well.
When you have the dataLayer events set up correctly, you can create tags in Google Tag Manager to trigger the specific Facebook Pixel events you want to track.
Best Facebook Pixel Apps for Shopify Stores
If you are not familiar with Google Tag Manager, the easiest way to customize your Facebook Pixel is to use a Shopify Facebook Pixel app. Some of the most popular Facebook Pixel app for Shopify stores are:
- FBTrack – Facebook Pixel Apps: For 7.99 US per month, you can use multiple Pixel codes on your website. You can also report shipping costs
- WinAds : Facebook Pixels: It has multiple pricing options ranging from free to 99.95 USD per month. It also allows you to install multiple Pixel events to your website. You also get new custom events such as an abandoned cart, Time Spent, Page scroll etc.
- Trackify X Facebook Pixel App: Subscription costs from 9.95 to 299.95 USD per month. Features include multiple Pixel installations, Audience and Feed building, Server-side API events, etc.
Why Facebook Pixel to Shopify Store is important?
Before wrapping this blog post up, I would like to reiterate that it is very important to install and set up the Pixel Events to your e-commerce website even if you are not running any Facebook ad campaigns now and you are not even planning to start any in the future.
If you are running Facebook ad campaigns it is a must to have the Facebook Pixel on your Shopify store installed and set up.
Without the Pixel, you wouldn’t be able to run any conversion campaigns that tend to be the most effective for Shopify e-commerce stores. You wouldn’t be able to track the performance in your Facebook Ads manager and Facebook wouldn’t get any conversion data which could help its algorithm to further optimize the performance of your campaigns.
Even if you are currently not running any Facebook campaign right but might do it in the future it is still recommended to place the Pixel code on your Shopify website now, as when you decide to start running campaigns, Facebook will have more info on your customers so it is easier for the algorithm to find new customers.
As we said, even if Facebook ads are not part of your marketing strategy, it is still worth placing the Pixel code to your Shopify store. You can get further information on your customers by checking out Facebook Analytics that will get you similar insights as Google Analytics. And who knows, you might change your mind about Facebook ads in the future.
Facebook Pixel to Shopify: Frequently Asked Questions
How to delete Facebook Pixel from Shopify?
It is really easy to delete a Facebook Pixel from your Shopify store if you installed your Pixel code in the standard way. All you have to do is go the Shopify Admin area, click on Online store then Preferences and scroll down to Facebook Pixel. Here, remove the ID you can see there.
How to place multiple Pixel to your Shopify Webshop?
You can’t place multiple Facebook Pixel on you Shopify store using the standard implementation. You either have to custom code the Pixel to your website or use any of the premium Shopify apps that will allow you to use multiple Facebook Pixel in your Shopify store.
