Pixel — is a small piece of code installed on a website so that an advertising platform can track user actions and understand who exactly reaches a purchase or submits an application.
It got its name historically: in the past, an invisible 1x1 pixel image was embedded into the page code. When a user opened the page, the image loaded and sent the server a signal about the visit. Today, these are full-fledged scripts (for example, Meta Pixel, TikTok Pixel, VK Pixel), but the name has remained.
What a pixel does
A pixel performs two main tasks, without which effective advertising is impossible today:
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Tracks events. The code «sees» exactly what a visitor does: simply visits the website, scrolls the page, clicks the order button, fills out a form, or completes a payment. These actions are sent back to the ad account as statistics.
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Trains the platform’s algorithms. This is the main function. By receiving data about users who completed the target action, the advertising system begins looking among millions of users for people with similar behavior and shows ads specifically to them.
Why an affiliate marketer needs a pixel
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Launching campaigns with optimization. If you run ads with the «clicks» objective, the system will drive anyone who tends to click links. If you configure the pixel and choose the «conversion» objective (purchase, lead), the algorithm will focus on users who are more likely to pay and place an order.
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Building audiences for retargeting. The pixel «remembers» all visitors. This makes it possible to create a separate segment of people who, for example, visited the page, added a product to the cart, but did not complete the order, and then show them ads again with a special discount.
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Evaluating setup profitability. In the ad account, you can immediately see which ad brings real applications and at what cost, and which one — simply burns through the budget without results.
