Picture your favorite place to shop for groceries, clothing or hobbies. Upon check-out, does the salesperson or clerk ask which stores you’ve most recently visited, where you’re going next, how long it took you to shop or how far away from the store you live? Pixels are used to capture all of that information and more in less than a second.

What is a pixel?

A pixel is a piece of scripting code that is placed on a webpage that can capture user behavior and conversions as well as cultural and geographical context. Pixels are used to track conversions on a web page such as a download, video play, ad click, or simply landing on a page itself.

AcuityAds uses artificial intelligence with site pixels to determine high-value prospects based on the profiles and behavior of the customers who have completed a conversion or are most likely to. Pixel data assists our platform to intelligently determine the value of each potential customer to ensure advertisers optimize bidding. 

Continuing the metaphor, a website using pixels is like a digital store where users can accept a cookie in exchange for their browsing data – which is critical for online advertising.  

Tracking Pixels vs. Cookies

Pixels are what enable advertisers to track information in the form of “cookies”. When a user visits or interacts with a pixeled page or ad, our technology collects the “cookie” information that helps us learn about the users preferences. This practice, also known as “Interest Based Advertising” improves a user’s experience both with their interactions with brands as well as online. This is because obtaining information about user preferences allow brands to only deliver relevant advertisements and improves the user’s overall internet experience.

Online data security is among the top digital trends that will dominate in 2020. This is because historically, advertisers were able to drop cookies without users’ consent. However, recent government policies such as GDPR and CCPR  aim towards improving advertising transparency. For example, you may have noticed some websites request permission to use cookies and require their users hit an “accept” button.

Download AcuityAds’ 1-pager on tracking pixels to learn how we use pixels optimized to provide clients with the best campaign performance by submitting your email below!

As always, if you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact us!