Most marketers understand how important it is to know your audience and how customers are interacting with your brand. Before the development in technology, marketers basically had to rely on their gut feeling when devising their strategy. However, nowadays, they can make informed decisions based on real-time data. Rather than guessing, “I think customers will like this,” advertisers can now confidently say, “I know they will like this.” This is all thanks to tracking pixels.

With 4.57 billion people using the internet, it was crucial to come up with technology that would analyze user behavior online. It wasn’t enough just to know that someone subscribed to your newsletter. No, the digital marketing world had to get down to the nitty-gritty to help their respective businesses grow. And why did they have to take this step? The answer to this question is quite obvious.

Understanding who your target audience is helps marketers reach prospects like them. And when you know your audience, your marketing campaigns can feel more personal. Then, knowing how your content is performing helps marketers serve more relevant topics. For instance, if your emails have low opening rates, this indicates that it’s time for a change.

But you wouldn’t have insight into any of this if it weren’t for tracking pixels. In this article, we’ll discuss all things you need to know about them and why they are beneficial for your campaign.

Without further ado, let’s start!

What Are Tracking Pixels?

A lot of people love to purchase products online. Sometimes they put something in a cart, but decide not to buy it after all. However, ads for this product then inexplicably show up on almost every other website they visit. Well, it’s not really inexplicable. This is all due to sophisticated technology used by marketers to remind consumers of their brands. But, what are tracking pixels specifically?

A tracking pixel is an HTML code snippet embedded on a site or email. To be specific, it’s a tiny pixel-sized graphic that is invisible to the naked eye. These pixels contain a tag that tracks user behavior online, telling you which pages they visited, actions they took, and their purchasing history. Tracking pixels tie all the information they gather to the unique IP addresses of each visitor.

As you might know, this is extremely beneficial for advertisers as well. This data helps them track conversions, ad impressions, email opening rates, and other web activities. In a nutshell, it gives you all the necessary analytics to form your strategy. It’s particularly helpful to have this information for ads. Namely, with the behavioral data, you can deliver paid ads that your users actually want to see. In this way, you can combat banner blindness and build trust with your customers.

Let’s now go over the technical side of things.

How Do Tracking Pixels Work?

You’re probably wondering, “How do tracking pixels work?” Well, we’re here to answer that question!

It all begins when you add the pixel code to the site’s HTML code or email. Within this code, there’s an external link that is tied to the pixel server. So, when a customer visits your website, their browser processes the HTML code. Then, the browser follows the link stored in the code and opens the graphic. The server registers this activity in its log files.

Also, this method transmits different information regarding the visitor. Namely, users unknowingly request the server to download the tracking pixels with every action they take on the website. The data collected help businesses create better content and improve online ad experience for their customers.

Here’s some of the data  tracking pixels can obtain:

• Type of operating system
• Type of email or website used
• Exact time when a website was visited or email was opened
• IP address
• Actions the visitor took while on the website

The above goes to show just how useful these pixels are for businesses and their success.

Types of Tracking Pixels

Now that you have an understanding of what tracking pixels are, let’s talk about the types of pixels you should know about. We’ll focus on those types you will likely encounter. And they are:

• Conversion
• Impression
• Retargeting
• Click tracking

The technology behind them is basically the same. The server records every activity and connects the pixel to either one of these categories. We discuss the types below.

Conversion Pixels

A conversion pixel tells you what happens after your targeted audience interacts with your ads. Most ads include a call-to-action that encourages consumers to complete a desired goal after they end. However, brands can’t really know whether their customers took some action without detailed data. This is where conversion pixels come into play.

They identify the source of conversions and can even measure the success of a specific campaign. Also, they tell marketers whether customers purchased a product, responded to a survey, or downloaded an app. So, they show which ads, keywords, or campaigns succeed in driving customer activity. As you know, without conversion rates you won’t know whether you should keep investing in the existing campaigns.

Impression Pixels

An impression pixel is a code that measures the number of times an ad unit displays on a customer’s screen. So, the server records an impression each time a user visits a website that has impression pixels on it.

The goal of this pixel is to provide advertisers with a precise number of impressions that have been served. With this information, advertisers can determine whether an ad was successful or not.

Retargeting Pixels

A retargeting pixel pays close attention to the behavior of your site’s visitors. Marketers rely on it to re-display their content to consumers. Namely, this pixel comes into play when someone visits your site. Once they leave it, the tracking pixels serve ads that are based on the pages they visited while on your website.

For instance, let’s say that you want to buy a new TV, so you find an online store that sells them. All of a sudden, you decide to open your social media account only to see ads that are TV-related. This is how retargeting pixels work. Their main function is to monitor your behavior. Once they do this, they are able to deliver paid ads that are likely to catch your attention.

Click Tracking Pixels

A click tracking pixel measures the exact number of clicks on your URL, email links, ads, or text links. This information is especially helpful if you run the same ad on various websites and want to know which site generates the most click.

For instance, you decide to run a banner ad and add a tracking pixel to it. You will then know how many people viewed the ad and how many actually clicked on it. In the end, this will tell you whether your ad was successful and if you should run it again.

Lastly, those users who click on the ad are valuable to you and you can retarget them with your offers.

Benefits of Tracking Pixels

Tracking pixels are beneficial for brands, email senders, and website operators. Specifically, the data collected helps them improve their strategy, make their site user-friendly, and adjust their offers to the used browsers. Here are the most important benefits:

• Website personalization
• Improved ad targeting
• Better user experience

These pixels can also inform your email marketing strategy as well. Once you send a newsletter, examine how many subscribers opened the email. The number can help you improve your newsletters to make them more interesting to your customers.

Of course, your ads benefit the most from tracking pixels. When you attach a pixel, you’ll know how many people saw the ad or bought a product or service. In case of high views and low conversions, you can always change targeting or ad placement.

The TargetVideo Native Ad Unit: Tracking Pixels

As customers are spending more time on the internet, it’s important to place ads in the heart of editorial content. This will help you not disrupt consumers’ time online. To take things to the next level, we recommend the TargetVideo Native Outstream Unit. Not only will your ads resemble the unique look of websites, but there is also an additional perk.

Specifically, when you set up a native ad unit, you can also add tracking pixels to understand how your ads are performing. You can set up the following pixels with our Native Oustream unit:

• Impression pixel
• Viewability pixel
• All quartile pixels
• Click tracking pixel

Once in place, these pixels can help you improve your strategy and focus your attention on those ads which are bringing the best results. So, join TargetVideo to transform your business!

Closing Thoughts

Although appearing as a tiny speck invisible to the naked eye, tracking pixels have a major role in today’s digital marketing world. So, if you want to up your game and provide a better user experience, turn to these pixels for help. And remember, don’t underestimate the power of the pixel.