Send Facebook Pixel Purchase Event via Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager

In this article, I will show you how to track the sales generated on your website by Facebook users in Facebook via Google Tag Manager

Following is the process in a nutshell:

Step-1: Deploy Facebook default pixel code on your website via GTM

Step-2: Add data layer on the order confirmation page which pulls sales data from your shopping cart.

Step-3: Pull sales data from the data layer via a data layer variable.

Step-4: Send ‘Purchase’ Facebook event to Facebook along with the sales data.

Step-5: Test the Facebook pixels

Step-6: Add the purchase columns to your Facebook report.

Step #1: Deploy Facebook default pixel code on your website via Google Tag Manager

I have explained this step in great detail in this article: Learn to set up Facebook Tracking via Google Tag Manager

Step #2: Add data layer on the ‘order confirmation’ page which push sales data from your shopping cart

If you are already using a data layer to measure product purchase via enhanced ecommerce tracking then this step is optional.

Otherwise add the following data layer code in the head section (<head>…</head>) of your ‘order confirmation’ page, above the GTM container code:

<script type=”text/javascript”>

dataLayer = [{

‘revenue’: 24.35

}];

</script>

Ask your developer to pull the sales data from your shopping cart on page load.

He is going to add some server side script to the data layer in order to complete this task.

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Step #3: Pull sales data from the data layer via a data layer variable

Create a new data layer variable in GTM and name it ‘Product Revenue’.

Use following similar configuration:

data layer variable

This data layer variable is meant to pull sales data from your order confirmation page.

Note: The data layer variable name used in your data layer may be something other than ‘revenue’. If that is the case then use that data layer variable name.

Step #4: Send ‘Purchase’ Facebook event to Facebook along with the sales data

#1 Create a new custom HTML tag in GTM and name it ‘Sending Website Sales generated by Facebook users to Facebook’.

#2 Add following code in the HTML text box:

<script>

fbq(‘track’, ‘Purchase’, {

value: {{Product Revenue}},

currency: ‘USD’

});

</script>

The whole set up may look like the one below:

whole set up

#3 Click on ‘Advance Settings’ and then click on ‘Tag Sequencing’:

advanced settings gtm

#4 Select the checkbox named ‘Fire a tag before Sending Website Sales generated by Facebook users to Facebook fires’ and then select ‘Facebook default pixel code’ in the ‘Setup Tag’:

tag sequencing

Here ‘Facebook default pixel code’ is the tag I created to fire Facebook pixel code via GTM.

You can find more details about creating this tag from this article ‘Learn to set up Facebook default pixel code via Google Tag Manager’

Through ‘tag sequencing’ feature of GTM, I am making sure that the Facebook ‘Purchase’ event is fired after the Facebook default pixel code has fired.

If you try to fire the Facebook ‘Purchase’ event before the Facebook default pixel code is fired then the event will not be triggered.

#5 Select the checkbox ‘Don’t fire Sending Website Sales generated by Facebook users to Facebook if Facebook default pixel code fails’.

facebook pixel purchase event

The whole set up may look like the one below:

#6 Fire this tag only on the order confirmation page:

order confirmation page

#7 Test whether this tag fire on the order confirmation page. If it does then publish the container.

Step #5: Test the Facebook pixels

Navigate to the ‘order confirmation’ page and then with the help of the ‘Facebook Pixel Helper chrome extension’ test whether or not the ‘Facebook default pixels’ and ‘Purchase pixels’ are firing and what sales value is being sent to Facebook:

facebook purchase

Note: If the ‘Facebook default pixels’ and/or ‘purchase pixels’ are not firing on the ‘order confirmation page’ then the sales data won’t pass to Facebook.

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Step #6: Add the purchase columns to your Facebook report

#1 Navigate to your Facebook Adverts Manager page, click on the ‘Performance’ drop down menu and then select ‘Customise Columns’:

customize columns

#2 Type ‘Purchase’ in the search box and then select the following three check boxes:

  1. Purchase (Facebook Pixels)
  2. Cost Per Purchase (Facebook Pixels)
  3. Purchase Conversion Value (Facebook Pixels)
search purchase
purchase cost per purchase

Here,

Purchase (Facebook Pixels) => number of purchases.

Cost Per Purchase (Facebook Pixels) => average cost of each purchase.

Purchase Conversion Value (Facebook Pixels) => the total value of the purchase.

How to use Funnels for your Facebook Ad Campaigns

This section is in conjunction with the article ‘How to Setup Funnels in Facebook Ads Manager’ where I described, how to create funnel pages in Facebook Ads Manager, step by step.

Today I am going to show you, how to use funnel pages for your Facebook ad campaigns.

Let us suppose the following are your funnel pages:

https://www.example.com/cart

https://www.example.com/checkout

https://www.example.com/complete

Let us also suppose you created a custom audience for each of these funnel pages (as described in this article How to Setup Funnels in Facebook Ads Manager):

funnel pages corresponding facebook audience

Prospects usually drop off at different steps of a funnel.

Some prospects will exit your sales funnel after viewing your shopping cart page (shopping cart visitors).

Some prospects will exit your sales funnel after viewing your Checkout page (checkout visitors). 

Some prospects will not exit your sales funnel and actually complete the purchase and when they complete the purchase they see the order confirmation page hosted on your website (customers).

Now people who are exiting your sales funnel have a high propensity of making a purchase on a return visit to your website provided they are retargeted with the right offer and at the right time.

This is where Facebook custom audiences (based on funnel pages) come in handy.

For example, let us suppose you want to retarget all of your website visitors with Facebook ads who saw the checkout page but who didn’t make a purchase on your website.

Now how you will do that? You can complete this task by using the following two custom audiences:

  1. Checkout Visitors
  2. Customers

While creating your ad set in Facebook, set your audience targeting to, like the one below:

custom audience facebook1

Let us suppose you want to retarget all of your website visitors with Facebook ads who saw the shopping cart page but not checkout page and they are also not your existing customers.

Now how you will do that? You can complete this task by using the following three custom audiences:

  1. Shopping cart visitors
  2. Checkout visitors
  3. Customers

While creating your ad set in Facebook set your audience targeting to, like the one below:

custom audience facebook2

Ideally, you should create one Facebook ad set for each funnel page so that you can uniquely retarget prospects at different stages of a sales funnel with different ads and offers.

That’s how you can use funnels in your Facebook ad campaigns.

Other articles on Facebook Pixel Tracking

  1. facebook.com Referral Traffic in Google Analytics Explained
  2. Facebook Attribution and Conversion Windows Tutorial
  3. Facebook ROI Calculation, Analysis and Examples
  4. How to set up the Facebook Attribution Tool
  5. How to Setup Funnels in Facebook Ads Manager
  6. How to use funnels for your Facebook Ad Campaigns
  7. How to advertise on Facebook for FREE with unlimited budget
  8. Secret to Setup Facebook Pixel Tracking Correctly in Google Tag Manager
  9. Facebook Pixel vs Google Analytics Data Discrepancies
  10. facebook.com Referral Traffic in Google Analytics Explained
  11. Learn to set up Facebook Pixel via Google Tag Manager
  12. Open Graph Protocol for Facebook Explained with Examples
  13. Tracking Facebook ‘Likes’ and ‘Unlikes’ in Google Analytics
  14. Google Analytics for Facebook Tutorial
  15. Facebook Attribution Models Tutorial
  16. GTM Server Side Tagging for Facebook Tutorial
  17. The impact of Apple IOS 14.5 update on Facebook Ads
  18. How to add Facebook Pixel to WordPress Website
  19. How to add Facebook Pixel to WordPress without a Plugin
  20. How to track Facebook events via Google Tag Manager
  21. How to use the Facebook Event Setup Tool
  22. How to use the Facebook Pixel Helper to Test Facebook Events
  23. How to automatically turn off Facebook ads on weekends
  24. How to name Facebook Ad Campaigns like a Pro

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About the Author

Himanshu Sharma

  • Founder, OptimizeSmart.com
  • Over 15 years of experience in digital analytics and marketing
  • Author of four best-selling books on digital analytics and conversion optimization
  • Nominated for Digital Analytics Association Awards for Excellence
  • Runs one of the most popular blogs in the world on digital analytics
  • Consultant to countless small and big businesses over the decade