Setting Up Retargeting Pixels for Adwords and Facebook

Retargeting works by placing a image pixel or code snippet on your website. You can then launch advertising campaigns targeted at those specific users that have visited the page and “seen” the hidden pixel. This is how to set it up…

Facebook

1. Go to Ads Manager > Audiences > Create Audience > Custom Audience > Website Traffic
2. Set in the last to a max of 180 days if required
3. Enter an audience name

You’ll get a code like this:

<script>(function() {
var _fbq = window._fbq || (window._fbq = []);
if (!_fbq.loaded) {
var fbds = document.createElement(‘script’);
fbds.async = true;
fbds.src = ‘//connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbds.js’;
var s = document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(fbds, s);
_fbq.loaded = true;
}
_fbq.push([‘addPixelId’, ‘152526665439’]);
})();
window._fbq = window._fbq || [];
window._fbq.push([‘track’, ‘PixelInitialized’, {}]);
</script>
<noscript><img height=”1″ width=”1″ alt=”” style=”display:none” src=”https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=1525266639&amp;ev=PixelInitialized” /></noscript>

It’s best to use the whole code but what I like to do a lot of the time is just take the pixel part which is more flexible. You can find that at the end between the <noscript> tags.

<img height=”1″ width=”1″ alt=”” style=”display:none” src=”https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=152526639&amp;ev=PixelInitialized” />

You can then paste this in to your website or there are some other places you can put it too which I’ll go into at the end.

Google Adwords

1. Adwords > Shared library (bottom left) > Audiences > +Remarketing List
2. Where it says “People who visited a page with any of the following:” enter either your domain or a part of your url like /index.php or /cart/
3. Set membership duration, max is 540 days
4. Click Save

One thing to note is that Google uses a single pixel which is separated by your criteria set in the url previously. So if you set it to / and have two lists they’ll get cross infected with each others users. Setting the URL is key so that the right users go to the right remarketing list. If my explanation makes no sense visit: https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2454064?ctx=tltp&rd=1

The code can be found in:
Adwords > Shared library > Audiences > View Tag Details (top right) > Setup > View adwords tag for websites

<script type=”text/javascript”>
/* <![CDATA[ */
var google_conversion_id = 94059;
var google_custom_params = window.google_tag_params;
var google_remarketing_only = true;
/* ]]> */
</script>
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”//www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion.js”>
</script>
<noscript>
<div style=”display:inline;”>
<img height=”1″ width=”1″ style=”border-style:none;” alt=”” src=”//googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/viewthroughconversion/94059/?value=0&amp;guid=ON&amp;script=0″/>
</div>
</noscript>

Again you can take the img pixel from between the <noscript> tags.

So now we have two remarketing pixels for the two biggest ad networks on the planet.

<img height=”1″ width=”1″ style=”border-style:none;” alt=”” src=”//googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/viewthroughconversion/94059/?value=0&amp;guid=ON&amp;script=0″/>
<img height=”1″ width=”1″ alt=”” style=”display:none” src=”https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=152526639&amp;ev=PixelInitialized” />

So what can we do with these, here’s some ideas to get you started.

• Put them in every conversion iframe you have to build a big list of “users that convert”
• Put them in emails so you can see who has opened/clicked your emails and launch remarketing campaigns aligned to the content of the emails.
• Build targeting lists for certain demographics. So if you are running traffic which you know has almost 100% Male 18-40 demographic, drop the pixels on your landing page and build a demo audience.
• Use PPV traffic to build a list of users that visit a particular site.

The possibilities are endless with retargeting, it really is a huge opportunity for performance marketers.