How do I test that the Facebook pixel is working on my website?

There are two ways to test that the Facebook pixel is firing properly on your website. The first way is the simplest way but involves using the Facebook Pixel Helper and requires the Chrome browser. The second way will work on any browser using its Inspector. Both methods are outlined below. Check that the pixel is working on every page on your website that is associated with a step in your user funnel (e.g. PageView, Lead, Add to Cart, Purchase, etc.).

Using the Facebook Pixel Helper

The Facebook Pixel Helper is a troubleshooting tool that helps you find out if your pixel is working correctly. It's a Chrome plugin you can use to see if there's a Facebook pixel installed on a website, check for errors, and understand the data that's coming from a pixel.

Install the Pixel Helper

Before getting started, you'll need to have the Chrome web browser. If you don't have it yet, install the Chrome browser then follow these steps: 

1. Go to the Chrome web store and search for the Facebook Pixel Helper.
2. Click + Add to Chrome.

3. Click Add extension.

Once you've successfully installed the extension you'll see a notification that the plugin has been added to Chrome and a small icon will show in your address bar.

Check that your pixel's working

1. After you've installed the Pixel Helper, click the Pixel Helper icon in the address bar.
2. Check the popup to see any pixels found on that page, and whether they've been set up successfully.

If the Pixel Helper finds a pixel on your site and there are no errors, then you're ready to start creating Facebook ads with your pixel.

If you see a notification that no pixels were found on your site or that there's an error, then check out the troubleshooting section below for more help.

Troubleshooting Pixel Errors 

The Facebook Pixel Helper reports common errors than can happen when you install a pixel on your website. These errors mean that the person who manages your website will need to fix something for your pixel to start working correctly.

No Pixel Found

If you click the Pixel Helper icon in the address bar and see a message that no pixels were found on that page, it means that you will need to place the Facebook pixel code on your site. See how to setup your Facebook pixel.

Pixel Did Not Load

This means that the Pixel Helper may have found Facebook pixel code on your site, but the pixel isn't passing back data from your site. There are two reasons this might be happening: 

• If you've set up your pixel to fire on a dynamic event (like when someone clicks a button on your page). If that's the case, try clicking the button where you've attached your pixel code and clicking on the Pixel Helper again to see if this fixes the problem.
• There could be an error in your pixel base code. If this is the case, you can try deleting the Facebook pixel code you've placed on your site and adding the code again. Learn how to find your pixel base code in Facebook and put it on your site.

Not a Standard Event

This means that the Pixel Helper found event code on your site that doesn't match one of Facebook’s 9 Standard Events. This could be a typo, for example, if the event is named “Purchased” instead of “Purchase”. Check out Facebook's standard event names and the exact code you'll need to place on your site to make sure this matches with the event names in your website's code.

Pixel Activated Multiple Times

This means that your pixel sent the same signal multiple times to Facebook (which would impact the accuracy of your site's reporting). To fix this, make sure that you've only included the Facebook pixel base code on your site once, and that if you have event code on your site you avoid placing the same event code multiple times on the same page.

Invalid Pixel ID

This means that the pixel ID in your Facebook pixel base code isn't recognized by Facebook. To fix this, you'll need to replace the pixel ID in your pixel base code with the pixel ID assigned to an active ad account. Learn how to find your pixel ID.

Read Facebook’s frequently-asked questions or learn more about the Facebook pixel in the developers site.

Using Your Browser’s Inspector

You can use your browser’s Web Inspector to ensure that the Facebook pixel fires correctly at every stage of the user funnel.

Images below are taken from Mac Chrome web browser. UI will differ among different browsers, but most browsers should have the same functionality to inspect websites.

1. Open your web browser and load the webpage that you want to check.

2. Open Web Inspector Console by right clicking anywhere on website, and select the “Inspect” option (“Inspect Element” on Firefox).

3. Web Inspector will open.

1. Click on “Network” tab” (you may need to scroll to the right to find it).
2. Ensure “Preserve Log” checkbox is selected (“Persist Logs” on Firefox).
3. Ensure “Disable Cache” checkbox is selected .
4. Type “facebook” into the “Filter” field (“Filter URLs” on Firefox).
5. Hit enter on keyboard to search. No results should be returned in Web Inspector, as the image below shows.

4. Refresh the page with Web Inspector still open.

5. After the page refreshes, results will appear in the search section of the Web Inspector.

7. Ensure all events in the funnel are firing as expected. The PageView event is used as a reference in the screenshot below. The PageView event is the first touch point of all website funnels with a  Facebook pixel, so this event should always work for everyone. If other events (e.g. Lead or Purchase or a custom event you’ve created) should fire on the page, then you need to ensure that those also fire.

1. In Web Inspector, click on the row that contains name of the event in question (e.g. PageView, Purchase, etc.).
2. Click on the “Headers” tab (“Params” in Firefox).
3. Ensure the id property is your Facebook Pixel ID.
4. Ensure the ev property is the name of the event in question (e.g. PageView, Purchase, etc.).

8. Follow this process for each page in your website along the user funnel.