If you’re already using one, fantastic! You’ve got a fantastic tool in your marketing arsenal. If you’re not, you’re in luck — I’m about to explain everything you need to know about the Facebook Pixel and why you need it for your business.

Big Brother is Watching You…

“This is SO weird. I was thinking about what to buy you for your birthday and it suddenly appeared as a Facebook Ad!”

“Is Facebook listening to what we say through our phones?”

“How does Facebook KNOW so much about me?”

You’ve probably heard people say things like these before. But, believe it or not, Facebook is not some sort of ghoulish dystopian Big Brother, hovering just out of sight and knowing everything we say or do.

It all comes from the power of retargeting.

What is retargeting? And is it the same as remarketing?

Essentially, remarketing is a strategy in which a business remains in contact with a potential client or customer after they’ve already engaged with them or their website.

Remarketing is basically marketing to the same prospect again and again — whether it’s with ads, email, or even personal calls.

Retargeting is, more specifically, targeting a certain prospect with ads connected to what they were interested in on your site.

Retargeting is a sort of subset of remarketing, but when using the Pixel, you can do both.

What is the Pixel?

Put simply, the Pixel is a snippet of code that you insert into the backend of your website (or funnel). It’s deceptively tiny, but it packs a punch!

When you have a Pixel installed, you can track anyone who’s visited your website. Not only that, but you can ALSO track the actions they’ve taken when browsing your site.

For example:

Darren is searching for someone to teach him how to brand and build his own business. He comes across Udemy, where you can find thousands of courses on demand. He browses through a whole bunch of courses and decides to sleep on it.

The next day, he visits Facebook and is greeted by this:

This was done with RETARGETING. The Facebook Pixel fired when Darren visited Udemy, and tracked the types of courses he was browsing through.

Now Darren couldn’t forget about Udemy if he tried — and after seeing ads like this for the next few days, he figures, “Well, why not?” and buys the course.

Is It REALLY That Simple?

Of course not. If this course cost $5000 and was 76% off, that would be very well and good but now it’s a much bigger investment. Darren would probably want to know more about the person who created the course and how well they are known for their expertise.

(In the above example, Gary Vaynerchuk is someone who you can be pretty darn sure will give you what you need to grow. He’s Gary Vee!)

However, had Udemy not retargeted him and reminded him that they existed, or that they had great deals on comprehensive courses, he may have gotten distracted with life, his family, his job…and they would have lost a customer.

You may have heard the common sales phrase “It takes 6–8 touches to make a sale.” People do buy things on impulse, that’s true. But, more commonly, they’ll take their time to think it over, research their different options, and THEN make a buying decision.

When you continue to get in front of them and “remind them” that your product or service is the one they want to buy, they’ll be much more likely to pick yours over another, or even just to make the purchase in the first place.

The Power of the Pixel

Are you starting to understand the power of the Pixel?

Not only can you retarget people who just visited your site or funnel. You can find out

• which pages they visited
• whether they bought something or not
• HOW much they spent
• whether they signed up for your email list or not
• A lot more

…and then you can retarget them based on their actions!

Another example:

Julie Stoian is selling her course The Digital Gangsta (which I highly recommend if you want to become a digital marketer). You’d love to learn more about digital marketing, so you click on an ad for her webinar, all about how to build a business online.

Her funnel starts with a webinar to provide value and then offers her course with bonuses for a limited time afterwards.

You watched the webinar and have a look at the sales page. You take note of the price, and decide that you’ll sit down tomorrow and look at your budget to decide whether you can afford it.

Julie can now target you with specific ads asking how you liked the webinar and what was stopping you from buying her course.

How does she know?

Because using her Pixel and the Facebook Ads Manager, she can tell that you watched her webinar and visited her sales page, but have not yet hit her thank you page i.e. you DID NOT BUY.

As soon as you buy, those ads won’t be targeting you anymore, because they aren’t relevant to where you are in the buying process.

Isn’t this genius?

Okay, I get a little excited about this.

The Best Part About Retargeting (and Facebook Ads in general)

Do you know what the best part about retargeting is?

That it’s REtargeting. You are targeting people that you already KNOW are interested in your product or service, so you’re not wasting your ad budget on people who have zero interest in what you have to offer.

But why would I even try to get my stuff in front of people who aren’t interested?

Businesses do it all the time.

• With billboards
• With newspaper or magazine advertising
• With flyers

When you’re using Facebook Ads, once you get your targeting locked down and continue to target and retarget the people who are most likely to buy your product or service, your ROAS (return on ad spend) can be astronomical.

Want to know how Facebook Ads and retargeting can help YOUR business?

Book a no-commitment call with me to discuss how we can work together to explode your business growth and get you those leads and customers you’ve been looking for.