How to Use Google Tag Manager to Manage the Facebook Pixel and Events

For the past couple of years now, I’ve used Google Tag Manager to manage the Facebook pixel and events (both standard and custom events). In this post, I’m going to walk through exactly how I do that.

I wish I would have started using GTM to manage my Facebook pixel and events sooner. It provides a ton of flexibility and ability to get creative in ways that you can’t while sticking with standard events only.

Install the Base Pixel Code

In order to take advantage of Google Tag Manager for standard and custom pixel events, you’ll first need to add the base Facebook pixel code.

Within the Google Tag Manager workspace for your domain, go to Tags.

Google Tag Manager Tags

Click to create a “New” tag.

Google Tag Manager Tags

Click “Tag Configuration.”

Google Tag Manager Tags

Select “Custom HTML.”

Google Tag Manager Tags

This is where you’ll need to paste your base Facebook pixel code. Go into Facebook Events Manager and select your pixel as the data source.

Then click the “Add Events” drop-down and select “From a New Website.”

Google Tag Manager Tags

Choose to “Install Code Manually.”

Google Tag Manager Tags

Click the green “Copy Code” button.

Google Tag Manager Tags

Then paste that code back into the HTML field of the tag you were creating in GTM.

Google Tag Manager Tags

Under “Advanced Settings,” choose “Once per page.”

Google Tag Manager Tags

At the bottom, click into “Triggering.”

Google Tag Manager Tags

Select the “All Pages” page view trigger.

Google Tag Manager Tags

Name your tag (something like “Facebook – Base Pixel”) and save it.

Google Tag Manager Tags

Then click to submit your changes.

Google Tag Manager Tags

Create Standard Events

First, you can technically use the Facebook Pixel Setup Tool to create standard pixel events without code. I’ve personally not had a lot of luck with that tool and choose to do it manually in Google Tag Manager.

We created a Facebook Pixel Event Generator tool to help with this process. Let’s assume that I want to create a ViewContent event for the view of my training landing page.

I select “ViewContent.”

Google Tag Manager Facebook Pixel Events

Everything else is optional, but I’ll also provide the name of the landing page for “content_name.”

Google Tag Manager Pixel Events

The code I need is now at the bottom of the page. Copy that.

Google Tag Manager Pixel Events

Here’s a video of how to use that tool if you need it…

Now, create a new tag in Google Tag Manager. Once again, it should utilize custom HTML. Paste the code we just copied from the Event Generator.

Google Tag Manager Events

Let’s name the tag before we go further. This is for you, so name it whatever you want. Make sure it’s descriptive so you know what it is.

Google Tag Manager Events

Under Advanced Settings, expand Tag Sequencing and check the box for “Fire a tag before [your tag] fires.”

Google Tag Manager Standard Events

We want the base Facebook pixel code to fire first or the events won’t work. Click to select a tag and then choose the base pixel tag that we created earlier.

Google Tag Manager Standard Events

Click into Triggering and then click the “+” to add a new trigger. This trigger will be the view of the specific page that will result in the ViewContent event firing.

First name it. Then click Trigger Configuration. Select “Page View” as your trigger type.

Google Tag Manager Standard Events

Select “Some Page Views” and then “Page URL” from the drop-down. You’ll use Page URL “contains” and then paste in everything from your landing page URL after the domain name (including “/ and /”).

Google Tag Manager Standard Events

When you’re done, save and submit your changes.

You can do this with any standard event. I also create events for CompleteRegistration and Purchase using the page view of the thank-you pages as the trigger events.

Create Custom Events

One of the really cool benefits of Google Tag Manager for managing your Facebook pixel is the custom events that you can create. I’m not going to use this space to detail how I created all of my custom events because I’ve already written individual blog posts on each one.

I’ve created a custom event to trigger when someone views a page of my website for at least 60 seconds. It uses a special Google Tag Manager timer trigger.

Google Tag Manager Timer Trigger

I’ve also created a custom event to trigger when someone scrolls at least 70% deep into a page. This event utilizes the Scroll Depth trigger.

Google Tag Manager Scroll Depth

And finally, I created an event that triggers when someone watches YouTube videos embedded on my website. These events use a YouTube Video trigger.

Google Tag Manager YouTube Video

I’m sure there’s still way more that I can do with custom pixel events using Google Tag Manager, but these are really nice tools to help me track, optimize, and target quality actions on my website.

Test Them

You can test whether the pixel and events are working using the “Test Events” tab in your Events Manager. But I find it’s easier to simply use the Facebook Pixel Helper Chrome plugin.

If you use the plugin, simply navigate to the page that should fire the event you’ve added.

Facebook Pixel Helper Chrome Plugin

If everything is working properly, all expected events will fire and display with a green checkmark.

GTM + Conversions API Gateway

While the Conversions API Gateway isn’t part of Google Tag Manager, I wanted to note that the two play nicely. Once I set up the Conversions API using the API Gateway, it automatically detects all of the standard and custom events that pass through the pixel.

Watch Video

Your Turn

I’m a big fan of using Google Tag Manager to manage my Facebook pixel and events. Have you used it to create other powerful custom events that I haven’t?

Let me know in the comments below!