How To Check Facebook Pixel

You've installed your Facebook Pixel, but how do you know it's working properly?

If you still need to set up a Facebook Pixel, I recommend reading my article that demonstrates how to set up a Facebook Pixel. In this article, I'll demonstrate how to verify if your Facebook Pixel is working, as well as fix any errors that might come up.

To verify that your Facebook Pixel is working:

Open up the Chrome Browser
Search for "chrome web store Facebook pixel" or click the following link: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/facebook-pixel-helper/fdgfkebogiimcoedlicjlajpkdmockpc?hl=en
Visit your website. It should say "one Facebook Pixel found".

Now let's start troubleshooting!

1. What do I do if it's not showing that a Facebook Pixel was found on my website?

Do not fear. Sometimes there was an issue with the way that it was set up, other times there is simply an error. Here are the steps to take if it isn't showing up.

If you just installed the pixel, you may need to wait a few minutes before the pixel will show up. If you are still having issues, try installing again and follow the steps outlined in the following video.

If you installed your Facebook Pixel as a plug-in, but you get the "No Pixel Found" error:

The plug-in may be interacting with other plug-ins. You can briefly deactivating plug-ins to see if that solves your problem.
You can alternatively install the Facebook pixel via code in your header. https://www.facebook.com/business/m/pixel-set-up-step-2#step-2

If you installed your Facebook Pixel as code in your header, but you get the "No Pixel Found" error:

Make sure the code was installed correctly. The code should be placed at the bottom of your header right above the closing </head> tag.
If it still isn't recognizing the code, go through the steps of setting up and sending traffic to your Facebook Pixel again.

2. How to fix: "We detected event code but the pixel has not activated for this event, so no information was sent to Facebook":

This is typically caused by an ad blocker. If you disable the ad blocker, the error should go away.

3. How to fix: "Pixel Activated Multiple Times":

Your Facebook pixel code should only appear once on each page you'd like to track. You'll want to change the code in the header for the impacted pages so that the Facebook Pixel code appears only once.

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4. How to fix: "Invalid Pixel ID":

Make sure your Pixel ID in your code is identical to the ID on your Facebook Business page.

Go to your business settings homepage on your Facebook Business Manager. On the left side, click "Data Sources>Pixel"
You'll see the your Pixel ID for each pixel.
Go into your webpages' header. In your code, there is fbq('init', 'Pixel ID');. The Pixel ID number in this section should match your Pixel ID. If it doesn't, alter the header code so they match.

5. How to fix: "Not a Standard Event":

You'll get this message if you created a custom conversion that's different from Facebook's standard events. You'll want to change your events so they match Facebook's standard events. It's recommended to use Facebook's official standard events to track registration, purchases, contacts, and page views.

Here's a complete list of standard events on your Facebook Pixel.

Add Payment Info
Add to Cart
Add to Wishlist
Complete Registration
Contact
Customize Product
Donate
Find Location
Initiate Checkout
Lead
Purchase
Schedule
Search
Start trial
Submit Application
Subscribe
View Content

In the rare case where you need to track a custom event that does not fit under Facebook's standard events, you can ignore this error message.

6. How to fix: "Multiple Events On an Action"

You'll need to change your events. Your Facebook Pixel should only have one event for each action. You'll be able to see which pages are dealing with this issue. Go into your business manager and modify your event so that there is only one event for each visitor action.

7. How to Fix: "Invalid Email Provided":

This error may appear when a user provides an invalid email address. You can either ignore the message, or set up advanced matching features to match visitors with emails.

8. How to fix: "Redundant Purchase Events"

You'll receive this error if there are more than 4 events connected to a single purchase. You should only have purchase events on pages that demonstrate that someone has made a purchase. You also can add this event code to a specific button such as a "Purchase Now" button on your website. Fix the error by going into your events and removing irrelevant events from the pages that are receiving 4 or more events.

9. How to use Google Analytics to check if you're Facebook Pixel is Reading your page views correctly:

While the numbers won't be identical between the two, your page views on your Google analytics and Facebook Pixel should be similar.

Here's how to open up your Facebook Pixel data to check it against your Google Analytics Views:

To open your Facebook Pixel in your Facebook Business Manager:

Open your Facebook Business Manager. Click "Business Settings" in the top right corner.
On the left side, click "Data sources>Pixel".
Select your Pixel, then click "Open in Events Manager" in the top right corner

Once your Pixel is open, you'll see an overview of your total page views. If you just installed your Facebook Pixel or have very little traffic, you may see very few page views.

By default it will show an overview of your events. These events will simply be page views unless you've created custom conversions. Log into Google analytics and on your homepage you'll see "Users" and "Sessions". This should be similar to your page views on your Facebook Pixel.

10. Why aren't my Facebook Pixel Page views the same as my Google Analytic page views?

There are a few reasons your Facebook pixel page views will be different:

If a user has an ad-blocker, the Facebook Pixel may not fire.
A Facebook Pixel and Google Analytics have different criteria for measuring a page view. Google will measure 1 user clicking on the website multiple times within a 30 minute window as 1 session. Facebook would see those as 2 different Page Views.
There could be discrepancies as a result of cookies not being enabled.

Expect the numbers to be different, BUT if you're seeing 12,000 page views on Google analytics and only 200 on your Facebook pixel, there may be a problem with how it's set up. Google discusses how page views are measured and how that data is collected in their online course.

Conclusion: Use Facebook Helper to check the status of your Facebook Pixel

The easiest way to check if your Facebook Pixel is working is to install Facebook Pixel helper from the Chrome Web Store. You can then navigate to your webpage to see if your Facebook pixel is working correctly. If no pixel is found, double check that it is installed properly and not interacting with other plug-ins on your website. There are a number of pixel errors, but most are easy to fix and related to the way events and custom conversions are set up. You can also see how your Facebook Pixel data compares to your Google Analytics data. The page views won't be identical since they track visitors differently, but they should be similar.

What's Next?

Do you need help installing your Pixel on Shopify and setting up events and custom conversions? Check out this step-by-step guide.

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