The Facebook advanced matching pixel gives advertisers the ability to connect their customer data — such as email addresses, phone numbers, and other demographic data — to their Facebook ad campaigns.

In 2018, Facebook launched a new and improved version of the Advanced Matching Pixel, which provides advertisers with even more data. Facebook now offers two versions of their pixel, Manual and Automatic.

What does the new automatic version of the pixel offer?

Facebook notes two opportunities that the automatic version of the pixel offers versus the manual option: 

1) Increased custom audience sizes

Custom Audiences is a great feature that allows you to use your own data or a third-party data provider to create an audience to target on Facebook.

The automated version of the pixel will allow you to “automatically” and continuously sync your customer data and match it with individuals on Facebook.

In theory, the stronger connection will allow you to collect more audience and/or conversion data, giving you more opportunities to optimize campaigns.

2) Increased number of conversions tied to Facebook advertising

This pixel will allow you to see who was exposed to your ads on Facebook and later converted. By doing this, you’ll have a better understanding of how well Facebook is contributing to your overall marketing mix.

If you happen to be using Facebook’s conversion optimization capabilities or a third-party tool, this additional data can be fed into the bidding algorithm to adjust as needed.

How do I implement the new version of the pixel?

If you are already using the Advanced Matching Pixel, the implementation is easy. You can literally click a button to change over from the manual to the automatic version of the pixel from within the pixel settings in Facebook ads manager. There is also flexibility in what data is collected within the pixel.

How to set up automatic advanced matching

1. Go to Events Manager and select your pixel.

2. Go to the Settings tab.

3. Under the Details section, select Automatic Advanced Matching

4. Select the specific data that you want to send from your website. Facebook suggests selecting email addresses and phone numbers for the best results. 

Why should advertisers use the Automatic Advanced Matching pixel?

Ultimately, the more data you have on how your campaigns perform, the better. But you have to be able to gather insights and execute on the data. Thankfully, the data being delivered through this Advanced Pixel is actionable.

While it is in a silo of advertising related to Facebook, it can directly help you with increasing your custom audiences and remarketing lists, while also providing more conversation data you can use for optimization.