Tracking pixels offer many advantages to those using them. They deliver valuable data on user behavior, on page traffic, on page performance, and can be used for the optimization of online strategies and advertising campaigns. Webmasters and web designers can use this data to improve page performance and the page layout of online offers and shops. Social media activities and search engine optimization (SEO) also benefit from tracking technology: In combination with web analysis tools such as Google Analytics and Facebook-Pixel, a broader database and with that deeper insights into important marketing and customer insights can be generated. Targeting methods in marketing are a further field that greatly benefit from the solid data provided by pixel-based tracking, since scattering loss is kept to a minimum when reaching target groups. In addition, the placement of advertising elements on websites or in search engines can be successfully targeted.
Tracking pixels are particularly efficient in supporting sales and e-commerce strategies, as tracking pixels enable the customer journey to be traced. If on-site pixels are placed on all pages of an online store, the activities of individual customers can be recorded without gaps. So-called “conversion pixels” are placed on strategically important pages that customers can only access after registering or after making a purchase (e.g., on the thank you page after the purchase). These kinds of website pixels can be used to reliably measure whether and how often customer interest leads to a product purchase (sales conversion).
Since success and failure can be concretely measured for practically all pages of an online store, the use of website pixels can be an important step towards conversion rate optimization. Continuous and ongoing customer tracking can very precisely identify jumping-off points in the customer journey and weaknesses in the design of the user experience and in the usability of a web offering.
In addition, pixel-based tracking can also gain information that is helpful when it comes to selecting advertising media and in selecting the appropriate advertising contexts. In addition, it can improve customer acquisition and support the generation of leads (leads are the initiation of contacts).
By analyzing the tracking data, the customer journey can be visualized in the form of a customer journey map and the interactions between customer and brand can be illustrated. This is valuable information for companies, allowing them to analyze and assess their sales and marketing activities from the perspective of their customers.
Besides the relatively straightforward implementation and deployment of simple pixel counting, further technical advantages include the fact that the triggering of tracking pixels on web pages, emails, and ads works even when JavaScript is blocked. In addition, a tiny pixel tag has almost no impact on the page loading time of a website.
However, you shouldn’t overdo the use of tracking techniques. For example, if you use numerous marketing pixels for different purposes, this can slow down the loading of a page. That’s because the browser communicates with different software interfaces and servers when the page is called up, which should be easily accessible and not overloaded at that moment. Performance can also be adversely affected if tracking tools from several providers are used simultaneously (e.g., Google Analytics, WP-Statistics, Facebook Pixel).
Often delays are the result of the incorrect implementation of tracking pixels and JavaScript tags in the source code. If you use a special plugin for tracking in the CMS, it should be proven and performance-optimized, otherwise it may take too much time to load and trigger the pixel tag. One of the disadvantages of the tracking method is that the triggering of tracking pixels is prevented by blocking images. This option is more often used on mobile devices to reduce the data traffic of volume tariffs and save costs.
Unfortunately, tracking pixels are also commonly misused and implemented into spam emails, to check on email addresses. When a user opens a spam email, the tracking pixel is loaded, and the email address is marked as valid and registered within the hacker network. Now, more and more unwanted spam and phishing emails can reach the verified account. In addition, when pixel-based counting technology is used, targeted manipulations can take place, e.g., through visitor exchange systems or click software.