As a digital marketer, you know that there are a plethora of important actions your visitors perform on your website that you can track, such as clicks on certain buttons, logins, form submissions, and much more. If you're doing ads through Meta Ads, then you ought to make use of the Meta Pixel, a powerful analytics tool that can track these important actions so you can gain the insights to power your campaigns. This step-by-step guide (with screenshots) will show you how to track Events & Custom Conversions via the Meta Pixel in two ways: 1) Event Tracking and 2) Custom Conversion. Without further ado, let's dive in!
Before we get started, in case you find yourself in need of some video guidance, here's a quick 8-minute tutorial from XYZ Lab's Youtube Channel!
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What you need to get started in setting up Event Tracking in Meta Ads Manager
Before you can set up Events Tracking, you need to ensure that the Meta Pixel is already installed on all your website pages. You can check out XYZ Lab's Youtube tutorial on how to Install the Facebook Pixel via Google Tag Manager (GTM)! Once that's done, we can move on to the next steps!
How to set up Event Tracking in Meta Ads
There are two ways we can track events in Meta Ads. The first way we will be exploring is through registering events so we can track any action and interaction users do on your website.
Step 1: Navigate to Events Manager
1. Navigate to your Facebook Business Manager and go to your Events Manager.
2. Navigate to Data Sources and select the Pixel where you'd like to set up Events.
For this tutorial, we will be using an example from our website to track the people who come to the website and click on Contact Us button.
Step 2: Click on "Add Events" and select "From the Pixel"
Step 3: Select "Open Event Set Up Tool"
Step 4: Copy and paste the website URL where the Event lives in the box and click on "Open Website"
You will see your website with a popup of the Event setup tool. You have two options here, you can either track button clicks or the exact URL as an event. For example, you can track any button on your website like the Contact Us button, or a specific URL such as the Thank You page URL. Let's try tracking a button.
Step 5: Click on "Track new button"
Once you click on Track new button, the system will highlight all the buttons that it can recognize.
Step 6: Select the Button you would like to track
For this tutorial, we will be using the Contact Us as the button we'd like to track.
Step 7: Label the Event
1. Label the button as an event accordingly. In our example, we will be labeling the Contact Us button click as a "View content" event.
2. Include or not include a value depending on the button. In our example, we don't include value as we don't make any money when people click on the Contact Us button.
3. Click Confirm.
Step 8: Finish Event set up
1. A checkbox will appear with information about the Event tracker that we set up previously.
2. Click on Finish setup. The system will show you a preview of all the events that have been added in the previous steps. In our example, we are tracking how many people come to our website from Meta Ads that click on the Contact us and See our plans buttons.
3. Navigate back to Events Manager. Here, you will be able to see the Events that you have previously set up registered under the View content category. Now, every time you run a Meta Ads campaign, you will be able to track how many of the users who clicked on your ad took one of these actions on your website.
Now that we've got the first method covered. We will discuss the second way to track the key actions on your websites, which is through Custom Conversions. Let's learn how to set it up!
How to set up Conversion Tracking in Meta Ads
Step 1: Access your Events Manager
Navigate to your Facebook Business Manager and go to your Events Manager.
Step 2: Navigate to "Custom Conversions"
Custom Conversions are relevant to actions that correspond to certain URLs; when a user performed an action and landed on a specific page on your website. For example, if a user submitted a form and landed on a Thank You page.
Step 3: Click on "Create Custom Conversion"
Step 4: Give your Conversion a name
Name the relevant action you'd like to track on your website.
As an example, we want to track all URL traffic that goes on our website and lands on the CoFounders Matching page, so we will name it Co-Founders Visits.
Step 5: Select the URL conditions
Input the URL condition of the page that you'd like to track.
In our example, we set up the condition as all URL traffic that goes to our website and lands on a URL containing /co-founders-matching.
Step 6: Click "Create"
This is how your completed Custom Conversion tracking should look on your Events Manager.
And that's it! Two simple ways to set up events and conversion tracking in Meta Ads. Now you can start exploring your website to see which actions are crucial to be tracked, uncovering various insights into your campaigns, and discovering new ways to optimize your results!
With precise tracking, you can see exactly which actions resonate most with your audience, leading to smarter ad strategies. For event promoters, this is especially useful—imagine promoting Amsterdam events or the Amsterdam NYE Party and having real-time insights into what’s driving clicks and conversions. This powerful tool lets you fine-tune your approach, ensuring you reach the right people and make each campaign count!