Digital marketing term
Pixel (Meta Pixel)
A Pixel is a small piece of code placed on a website that sends user behavior data, such as page views and purchases, to an ad platform for measurement and optimization.
Detailed explanation
This code is placed on every page of a site, or on specific pages such as add-to-cart or purchase-complete, to send user actions to the platform on an event-by-event basis. The ad platform uses this data to measure which ads are actually driving results.
This code also forms the foundation for building remarketing and lookalike audiences from visitors to the site; without it, these audiences can't be created and conversion optimization doesn't work properly.
As browser privacy restrictions have increased, server-side tracking has become a common complement to this code, and the two methods are now typically used together to preserve data quality.
Frequently asked questions
- Can remarketing be done without a pixel?
- No, this code — which sends on-site user behavior to the platform — is required to build remarketing audiences.
- What is pixel data used for?
- It's used for conversion measurement, audience building, and feeding the ad optimization algorithm.
Related terms
Internal links for the topic cluster — read these concepts together.
- Event TrackingEvent Tracking is the process of recording specific actions users take on a website or app, such as button clicks, form submissions, or video views, individually and sending them to analytics tools.
- RemarketingRemarketing re-engages people who previously visited your site by showing them tailored ads based on their interest or on-site behavior.
- Lookalike AudienceA Lookalike Audience is a targeting method that uses data from existing customers or followers, along with a platform's machine learning algorithms, to find new potential users with similar behaviors.
- ConversionA conversion is when a visitor who arrived via an online ad (or other channel) completes a desired action—such as a purchase, signup, or subscription.
- Attribution ModelAn Attribution Model is a measurement framework that determines how much credit for a conversion should be assigned to each channel or ad a user interacted with during their purchase journey.