Setting Up A Tracking Pixel

What are tracking pixels?

A tracking pixel is a small, invisible piece of code or image snippet placed on a webpage or within an ad's creative content. Its purpose is to monitor and record user interactions with online advertisements to gather data for campaign optimization and measurement. Within the Ads Manager platform, you are able to create 2 different types of tracking pixels: Conversion pixel and Site retargeting pixel.

Difference between a Conversion Pixel and a Site retargeting Pixel:

A conversion pixel is focused on tracking and measuring specific actions or conversions resulting from an ad campaign, while a site retargeting pixel is designed to re-engage users who have interacted with a website but did not complete a desired action, by showing them relevant ads across different online platforms. Both types of pixels play important roles in optimizing and maximizing the effectiveness of digital advertising campaigns.

• Conversion Pixel:

  • Purpose: A conversion pixel is used to track specific actions or conversions that occur as a result of an ad campaign. Depending on where the pixel is placed, it allows brands to track and report on user actions like completing a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or filling out a contact form.
  • Function: When a user clicks on an ad and subsequently completes the desired action on the advertiser's website, the conversion pixel is triggered. This records the conversion event, allowing advertisers to measure the success of their ad campaigns in terms of achieving their objectives.
  • Reporting: Both click-through and view-through conversions.

• Site retargeting Pixel:

  • Purpose: A site retargeting pixel is used to re-engage users who have previously visited a website but did not complete a desired action. It's employed to target these users with relevant ads to encourage them to return and convert.
  • Function: When a user visits a website with a site retargeting pixel and then leaves without completing a purchase or other conversion action, the pixel tracks this behavior. Advertisers can then use this data to display targeted ads to these users on other websites or platforms, reminding them of the product or service they showed interest in.

Conversion Pixels in Ads Manager

Creating a Conversion Pixel

In order to create a conversion pixel, please follow these steps:

1. Click on the hamburger menu and go to 'Account Setting'.
2. Select the 'Tracking Pixels' tab and click on 'New pixel'.
3. Enter your website URL and the name you would like to give for the tracking pixel. Please enter your website URL with http:// or https:// (recommended) or it will not save. You can create as many pixels as you need and label them in such a manner that makes sense for your website. 
4. Select ‘Conversion tracking pixel’ as pixel type and click Save. 
5. You'll see your newly created pixel appear under 'Existing pixels'. You can click on each individual pixel you create to see pixel details.
6. Please click on 'Export Pixel Tags'.It will download an Excel file containing both a script tag and an image tag.
   • The script tag can be placed directly on your client's website or in a tag manager that supports script tags or custom HTML tags. When setting up as a custom HTML, please enable the "Support document write" option.
   • If using the image tag, please replace the {TIMESTAMP} in the tag with the appropriate Timestamp or Cachebusting Macro according to your tag manager's specifications.
7. Add your pixel to the header section of web pages you want to track in order for GroundTruth to count the conversions. Please note that for the pixel to fire, it needs to be added right before the </head> portion of the header code.

Adding a pixel to your ad group or campaign

The tracking pixel you created is not yet linked to an ad group or campaign. To add it to an ad group or campaign, please follow these steps:

1. Go back to your dashboard and click the eye icon to edit your ad group.
2. Go to the 'Budget & Schedule' section of your ad group, and click the plus icon next to 'Tracking pixels'.
3. Add the tracking pixel - Note: The tracking pixel must be added to ALL ad groups of a campaign.
4. Make sure you save.

Validating your pixel

We recommend using Chrome’s Developer Tools or Google Tag Assistant to verify if your pixels are firing.

Go to the page where the pixel is placed. Right-click and select "Inspect". Click on the "Network" tab and refresh the page. Once the page is fully loaded, search for "xad".

A 200 status code indicates that your pixel has successfully fired.

Reporting

Track and report on the actions of users who visit your page(s) after viewing your CTV ad or clicking on your ad. This allows you to track pixel activity across the entire conversion path and optimize.

In Ads Manager

1. Select ‘Web Conversions’ in the Report drop-down menu. Note that this report is only available at the campaign and ad group levels.
2. You have the option to view conversions for all of your tracking pixels or for individual pixels by using the Pixel drop-down on the left-hand side.
3. The graph will have one line showing web conversions per day.  You can change the start and end date of the report in the ‘Duration’ drop-down button.
4. You can export all pixel data using the export function within the dashboard, choosing ‘Report Data’. The report will include the following: ID: Pixel ID | Name: Pixel Name | Campaign Name: Shown at campaign level | Ad Group: Shown at Ad Group Level | Date: Only shows when row is expanded | Web Conversions: Total of both view and click conversions | View Conversions | Click Conversions

Difference between click-through conversion and view-through conversions

• Click-Through Conversion:
  • Click-through conversion, often referred to as post-click conversion occurs when a user clicks on an ad and then takes a desired action on the advertiser's website or landing page. This action is typically a conversion goal, such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or filling out a contact form. Click-through conversions are directly attributed to the ad click, meaning that the user's action is directly tied to the initial click on the ad. Conversions are tracked with a 14-day look-back window.
• View-Through Conversion:
  • View-through conversion, also known as a post-impression conversion, occurs when a user is exposed to an ad (typically in the form of an impression or display ad) but does not click on it. Instead, the user later converts by taking the desired action on the advertiser's website. View-through conversions are attributed to the ad impression rather than the click. The time frame within which a view-through conversion is tracked on our ad platform is 14 days after the ad impression.

Site Retargeting Pixels in Ads Manager

In order to create a site retargeting pixel, please follow these steps:

1. Click on the hamburger menu and go to 'Account Setting'.
2. Select the 'Tracking Pixels' tab and click on 'New pixel'.
3. Give your site retargeting pixel a name. The name you give the pixel will be the name of the audience created. 
4. Enter your website URL. Please enter your website URL with http:// or https:// (recommended) or it will not save. You can create as many pixels as you need and label them in such a manner that makes sense for your website. 
5. Select ‘Site retargeting tracking pixel’ as pixel type and click Save. 
6. You'll see your newly created pixel appear under 'Existing pixels'. You can click on each individual pixel you create to see pixel details.
7. Please click on 'Export Pixel Tags'.It will download an Excel file containing both a script tag and an image tag.
   1. • The script tag can be placed directly on your client's website or in a tag manager that supports script tags or custom HTML tags. When setting up as a custom HTML, please enable the "Support document write" option.
      • If using the image tag, please replace the {TIMESTAMP} in the tag with the appropriate Timestamp or Cachebusting Macro according to your tag manager's specifications. 
8. Add your pixel to the header section of web pages you want to track for GroundTruth to build a retargeting audience. Please note that for the pixel to fire, it needs to be added right before the </head> portion of the header code.

Adding an audience created via a site retargeting pixel to an ad group

Once a site retargeting pixel is added to a website page, the audience segment created is immediately available for targeting.

1. Create a new ad group
2. Select "target by audience" as the targeting goal
3. Select your device type
4. In the 'Select audiences' selection box, enter the name of the site retargeting pixel to find your audience. The audience created can be found in the 'Segment' tab and will show as [Pixel Name] | Site Retargeting.

Please Note:

• Audiences created via site retargeting pixels are available to users for targeting immediately.
• Audience segments are updated daily.
• Audience segments are only available in the account that the pixel was created in.
• Audience segments can be used for targeting across all device types.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Are conversion and site retargeting pixels supported across all device types? Yes, our pixels are supported across Mobile, Desktop, and CTV/OTT.
   
   
2. Can pixels be reused across several campaigns? Pixels can be reused across several campaigns and ad groups within the same account.