Solved: Facebook Pixel Tracks All Events?

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out!

That's a really good question you've asked, and tbh it's a point of confusion for a lot of people when they first get started with Meta ads. Getting your head around how the Pixel works versus how Ads Manager reports on it is probably one of the most fundamental things to grasp. Get this wrong and you end up making bad decisions based on the wrong data.

So, I'm happy to give you some of my initial thoughts and clear it up. The simple answer is one thing, but what it means for your advertising is a whole other can of worms.

We'll need to look at the Pixel's real job... It's a spy, not a judge

First off, the direct answer to your question: Yes, the Pixel tracks all events from every single person who visits your website, wether they've seen an ad or not.

Think of the Pixel as a simple bit of code, like a security camera you've installed at the entrance of your shop. Its only job is to record everyone who walks through the door and note down what they do – whether they look at a product, put something in their basket, or go to the till. It doesn't care how they got there. They could have seen a flyer (your ad), been told by a friend (word of mouth), or just wandered in off the street (organic search). The camera records it all.

So when you look at the total events in your 'Events Manager' inside Facebook, you are seeing the total activity on your website from ALL sources. This is why that number will often be much, much higher than the conversions you see reported inside a specific ad campaign. This is normal and exactly how it should work.

But that leads to the more important question you're probably really asking: If the Pixel tracks everyone, how does Meta know which sales to take credit for in my ad reports?

And the answer to that is a little thing called attribution.

I'd say you need to understand attribution... This is where the 'magic' happens

Attribution is Meta's process of connecting the dots. When your Pixel records a purchase, Meta's system quickly looks at that person and asks, "Have we shown this person an ad recently?".

This "recently" part is defined by your 'attribution window'. By default, it's usually:

• 7-Day Click: If someone clicked on one of your ads and then converted within 7 days, the conversion is credited to that ad.
• 1-Day View: If someone saw one of your ads (but didn't click) and then converted within 1 day, the conversion is also credited to that ad.

So, Ads Manager isn't showing you what the Pixel tracked in total. It's a filtered view. It only shows you the events that the Pixel tracked *and* that happened within your chosen attribution window. It's Meta's way of judging which of those security camera recordings were likely caused by the flyer it handed out earlier.

This is a concept that trips a lot of people up, so I've put together a quick flowchart to show you the difference between what the Pixel sees and what Ads Manager reports.

You probably should stop trying to make the numbers match...

This is the next lesson that saves advertisers a ton of headaches. Your Ads Manager data will NEVER match your Google Analytics data, or your Shopify data, or any other analytics tool. And you will drive yourself mad if you try to make them.

Why? Because they all measure things differently and have different ideas about who gets the credit.

• Meta Ads Manager: As we've discussed, it uses a multi-day click and view window. It's keen to take credit if an ad played a role at any point in the journey. It's a "multi-touch" model.
• Google Analytics (default): This typically uses a "last non-direct click" model. This means it gives 100% of the credit to the very last channel the person clicked before buying. So if someone clicks your Facebook ad on Monday, then clicks a Google search ad on Tuesday and buys, Google Analytics will say "100% Google Ads", while Facebook Ads says "100% Facebook Ads".

Neither is 'wrong'. They're just different models telling different parts of the story. A common mistake is to think one of them is broken. The expert view is to understand what each one is telling you. Use Ads Manager to judge how well your ads are influencing people and to let the algorithm optimise. Use Google Analytics or your shop's backend as the 'source of truth' for how your business is actually doing overall.

You'll need to use this knowledge to your advantage...

Okay, so that's the theory. But how does this help you run better ads? Well, in a few massive ways.

1. Better Optimisation: Meta's algorithm learns from the attributed conversions. By giving it both click and view data, you're giving it more signals to learn from, which helps it find better people to show your ads to, faster. If you were to only use "last click" data, the algorithm would have much less information to work with, making it harder to optimise.

2. Smarter Audience Building: Because the Pixel tracks everyone, you can create incredibly powerful audiences for retargeting. You can create an audience of "All website visitors in the last 30 days" and show them a special offer. This audience includes people from Google, direct visitors, referrals—everyone. This is a far bigger and more valuable group than just "people who clicked my ad". You can also build lookalike audiences from these pools of data, which are often much more effective.

3. Understanding the 'Halo Effect': Sometimes, your ads don't get the final click, but they plant a seed. Someone sees your ad on Instagram, doesn't click, but then remembers your brand a few days later and Googles you. Google Analytics would credit Google Search, but your ad did the initial heavy lifting. The 1-day view attribution tries to capture some of this, but you can also see it by looking at the difference between your total backend sales and what your ad platforms are reporting. The gap is often the 'halo effect' of your combined marketing efforts.

To help you visualise this, here's a little calculator. Pop in your actual numbers to see how the cost per result changes when you only look at what Meta attributes versus the bigger picture.

As you can see, obsessing only over the 'Cost Per Attributed Conversion' can give you a skewed view of performance. Sometimes an ad campaign can be lifting your entire business, even if it's not getting direct credit for every single sale.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below in a table to make it a bit clearer.

Getting this stuff right is the difference between an ad account that struggles and one that scales profitably. It's not just about setting up a campaign and hoping for the best; it's about understanding the data, knowing what it's telling you, and making informed decissions based on that.

This is where professional help can make a huge difference. An expert can look at your specific setup, analyse your data across different platforms, and build a strategy that's based on a true understanding of your performance, not just what one platform is reporting. We do this day in, day out, and can often spot opportunities or issues that aren't obvious at first glance.

Hope this helps clear things up for you! If you'd like to have a chat and get a more personalised review of your ad account and strategy, we offer a free initial consultation where we can go through this in more detail.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh