Why is my Facebook Pixel taking an unusually long time to load?

Shopify Discussion
1

Hello all. It is my first time encountering Facebook pixel load time issue.

Since end of April, I start seeing a huge difference in numbers in Landing page views vs. Link clicks.

This was abnormal and we have asked the facebook developer team to look after this issue. And the facebook developer team checked by performing real time test on injecting one of the facebook ad on the facebook feed and after clicking on the CTA “Shop Now” it redirects to the Landing page, when checked through the Pixel helper looked like both PageView and ViewContent events are been flagged with taking longer time than usual to load the events.

In order to track the Landing Page View, the PageView or ViewContent events implemented on Landing Page URL should be fired correctly and the Pixel should not take long time to load as expected, this could be the reason of the difference where Link Clicks are tracked correctly but due to Pixel load time Landing page are not tracked hence resulting a difference between cost per link click and cost per landing page.

The abnormal delays in pixel event activation and the pixel load time in general is causing the bad performance in facebook ads. Facebook developer team says this should be fixed on the shopify’s end.

Has anyone ever encounter the similar problem? Any suggestions or advice will help! Thank you very much.

2

Hey, @DDBaram .

Tira here to help.

Thank you for your question and I really appreciate you doing your own research on this and contacting Facebook for help.

I haven’t seen a long load time with Facebook pixels before, but I would love to take a further look at this with you and have some questions to troubleshoot this together:

  • When you mention that it takes the events a long time to load, where are you seeing this error? Is this on your storefront or on the Facebook Pixel Helper? I did some digging and this guide from Facebook has some different ways that you can use to test your pixel after you’ve installed a pixel on your webpage.
  • Have you installed any ad blockers on your device? I have seen with some merchants that some ad blockers have blocked their pixels from showing, so this might be causing your pixels to load slowly. I would love to know if this is what’s happening.

Once I hear from you with your answers, we can dive in deeper or ask the community for their insights too.

Talk soon,

3

Hello @Tira ,

Thank you for the response.

We first found this error on facebook ad manager account where we saw a huge difference in CPC and Cost per Landing Page View.

This issue started to occur on April 19th, last month and we still have the same issue. The abnormal increase in Cost per Land Page View made us question and we contacted the facebook tech support team and their response is as below:

DDBaram_0-1622078352343.png
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They tested our pixel themselves and diagnosed pixel load time delay issue. I don’t have any ad blockers.

Our facebook account manager informed us to contact shopify and facebook is firing the signal correctly but shopify receiving it slow.

Our website load speed is fast so the website speed is not the issue, but the receiving part of the FB pixel seems to be the issue.

Thank you for your help!

4

Thanks for the screenshot and additional information, @DDBaram .

The Facebook Pixel Helper is outside our scope of support. I noticed on your screenshot where the Facebook Pixel Helper mentions how long it took for your pixel to load, there is a link to “Learn More”. Can I get you to click on that and then paste the link here so that I can take a further look?

I am also curious, how did you add your Facebook Pixel to your store? As a refresher, here are the steps to add the Facebook Pixel to your store:

  1. In your Shopify admin, click Facebook in the Sales channels section.
  2. Click Settings, and then click Data sharing settings.
  3. In the Customer data-sharing section, click the Enable data-sharing toggle.
  4. In the Choose data-sharing level section select Standard, Enhanced, or Maximum.
  5. Select your pixel from the list.
  6. Click Confirm.

Check out our help doc to find these steps and learn more: Facebook Pixel.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you,

5

Hello Tira,

Thank you for the response. I have added the facebook pixel in the same way as your instruction.

Please see below screenshot for your reference.

DDBaram_0-1622612175061.png
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Also for the facebook pixel helper - this test was done by a facebook engineer from facebook. So I don’t have the access to the Learn more section.

Facebook says they are firing the pixel correctly in time but shopify receiving it slow. Please advise. Thank you!

6

Thanks for the details and the screenshot, @DDBaram . This is helpful. It looks like you have your Facebook Pixel installed correctly on your store.

I understand that the Facebook Pixel Helper results were shown to you by Facebook support. Can I get you to install the Facebook Pixel Helper on your plugin? Then once you are able to, I recommend seeing if you can click on the “Learn more” button as indicated in your previous screenshot to find out more about why the pixel is loading slow. I found the steps listed on Facebook’s help guide: Install and uninstall the Facebook Pixel Helper. I would also recommend taking a look at our blog post that covers the Facebook Pixel and how it works: How does the Facebook Pixel work?

I’m also curious to see what the community has to suggest!