Loopholes in Facebook tracking pixel and how they can impact your reports

It is quite great news for business owners to have a means of tracking conversions from the efforts put forth on social media platforms. With Facebook specifically, the Facebook pixel is a code you use on your website, one that lets you track the performance of your Facebook ads as regards conversions.

This kind of technology has been cheered on by webmasters, which raises the question; is Facebook tracking all that people say it is? There is a lot of good to squeeze out of the code, but that does not rule out certain loopholes, some of which can have impacts on your overall reports. Here is a look at a couple of them:

Duplicate pixels

Often, it is not quite clear to website owners how many pixels are recommended to have on one site. While there is no specificity on the exact number, it is important to note that you can have multiple pixels on your website. What you want to avoid is having many similar pixels. If for instance, you decide to add the same code several times on your site, then you will result in duplicate pixels.

The duplicate pixels will end up gathering duplicate data from your ads, and this will result in inaccurate results that could suggest a high conversion when in reality, your performance is very poor.

Double-firing

Have you realized a magical result from your conversion reports? Well, something is definitely wrong. The truth is that Facebook conversions are not magical, but factual. If you notice that you are continuously receiving twice the purchases than the add-to-carts each day, then the chances are very high that your pixel is double-firing. Double firing is what happens when

For example, if you have 15 add-to-carts and 30 purchases, the numbers are erroneous. Consider using the Facebook Pixel Helper to help you dig out such errors, which for a long while could mislead you in the reports you generate.

Tracking all conversions

Facebook tracks all conversions by default, for all users who create ads. By directing Facebook to optimize for a specific conversion, you may still realize that it does not only report those specific ones. when you post an ad, some of your target audience will buy the product, some perform a different conversion, perhaps on a different product, and others do multiple conversions.

In this situation, Facebook will generate reports for all the conversions and not just the one you advertised. Such a situation will misguide your results, leading you to operate on false rates. However, you can customize the settings in such a way that you can view individual conversion types.

Pixel miscounting

Facebook Pixel miscounting is a common fault in the conversion tracking process, one that most webmasters have not underlined yet. Ideally, you can identify the errors from definitive figures. For example, you could notice that from your results, 100% of the purchases made are from a millennial group, and worse, a group you did not target with your product, for example, millennial men.

Another error could be that you are receiving a chunk of traffic from one location, and zero from any other place. In such cases, the reports you receive are very misleading, sometimes exaggerated, and other times undervalued. Check to ensure that you did not accidentally install the Pixel several times on one page.

Slowed-down site speed

After the continuous SEO efforts to get your web pages loading under three seconds, it is frustrating that embracing new technology can sabotage your progress. Take the instance of an e-commerce website. Such a site generates millions of dollars as revenue in a year.

The technology takes time to load on itself, and sometimes, reports like ‘Pixel did not load’ can keep popping by your screen. For every second or minute that the Facebook Tracking Pixel has to slow down your site, a significant loss is incurred.

A slow site will not only cause your losses in revenue, but also, a decline in the traffic rates you receive, and worse, affect your purchase margins.

Pixel loading too often

In some instances, you may realize inaccurate conversion reports due to the Pixel loading too often. Such a case gives you inflated results, sometimes even double the correct value. However, this would be a miscalculation in your conversions and not quite Facebook’s fault. The correct determination of the conversion numbers is completely in your control, given that Facebook is only aware of the number of conversions generated because you define the action taken when a conversion happens.

An example is when your customers complete their purchase, and afterward, they are redirected to the member’s area home page, instead of a thank you page. In this case, the conversion has already been deemed as completed. The problem comes when the users continuously visit this page, and for each time, Facebook reports a conversion. Technically, the more times your Pixel keeps loading, the more conversions will be made. If you use these results to determine your conversion, your reports will always be faulty.

Security vulnerability

Other than privacy invasion concerns that have been raised as regards the matter of Facebook tracking, there are security vulnerability issues involved. Ideally, as a website owner, using a Facebook Tracking Pixel means sourcing out for third-party services to gather information on the progress and performance of your marketing and advertising efforts on Facebook, which is inviting vulnerabilities for unsolicited hacks.

However, it is not so apparent that your website will be hacked, but this loophole can significantly compromise the success of your venture. The good news is that you can always be a step ahead of the security loopholes, taking up precautionary measures like encrypting accounts and setting up a firewall.

Faulty encoded characters

A tag or a CSM system responsible for encoding information on your platform can encode a piece of information that has already been encoded. For example, it can encode information like ‘&’ into ‘&’. These encoded characters could result in wonky figures and produce misleading reports.

Conclusion

If you have just discovered about this new technology, good for you. However, you must remain on your toes because the learning curve may not be as exciting as the discovery. If you work in light of these loopholes, then you are better off in making informed decisions from the reports you generate.