Outbrain is a leading recommendation platform, and you can use it to recommend products or services on major content sites in Israel and around the world. Outbrain has partnered with content sites, allowing you to reach all readers of these content sites and present them with recommendations for products you want to promote, in an environment suitable for your brand and when readers are in a reading and engaged mode. It is recommended to read the article on how to set up your first campaign in Outbrain.
In this article, we will explain how to implement remarketing, conversion tracking, and also the new feature of dynamic remarketing for e-commerce stores, how to properly set up the Outbrain pixel, and how to configure conversions and track them in Outbrain’s advertising system. In addition, dynamic remarketing for e-commerce stores can be a complementary remarketing tool for stores alongside Facebook and Google, making it essential to use if you have an e-commerce store.
Implementing Outbrain Remarketing Pixel
Log into the Outbrain advertising dashboard, click on the Conversions menu, and then on Outbrain Pixel:
*In the initial stage, the conversions table is empty and will populate once we set up conversions (we will get to that later).
Now, click on Outbrain Pixel and a small window will open containing a snippet of code that needs to be implemented on the site.
From here, you can pass the code to a developer to implement it on your website, or implement it using Google Tag Manager. Note that the pixel must be on all pages of the site
Implementing the Pixel Using Google Tag Manager
Open Google Tag Manager and click on Templates on the left side
Then click on Search Gallery:
Search for Outbrain in the list and click on it:
Then click Add to workspace:
After the template is installed, we will create a new tag for the Outbrain pixel – click on New Tag:
Under Custom tag type, choose Outbrain Pixel:
Afterwards, enter the pixel ID, and then define the trigger to fire the tag – All Pages, meaning it will run on all pages on the site.
Testing the Implemented Pixel
To check if the pixel works and the installation was successful, we recommend installing the Outbrain Chrome extension designed to verify that you implemented the pixel correctly. After you have implemented the pixel and downloaded the Chrome extension, go to the website where you installed the pixel and refresh it. If the installation was done properly, the extension will show you that the pixel is valid – the PageView event is green
To download the Chrome extension, click here.
If you encounter issues with the pixel, you can visit here for a more detailed explanation.
Now you can build audiences and target them in Outbrain’s advertising platform.
Conversion Tracking in Outbrain
In order to get accurate feedback on the results of campaigns in Outbrain, we will need to set up conversions for Outbrain so we can see the resulting conversion metrics in the dashboard and optimize accordingly.
The system allows you to track 2 types of conversions:
- URL-based conversions – The conversion will count when the user arrives at a specific URL on the site that we defined.
- Event-based conversions – The conversion will count when the user reaches a specific URL on the site that we defined, or clicks on a specific button on the site such as a phone number to call you, or performs an action that can be considered a conversion (add to cart, click on a lead form submit button, etc.)
URL-Based Conversions
Go to Outbrain, click on Conversions and then click on Add Conversion on the side.
The first option is a URL conversion (web address). Here you will enter the address of the page where a visit will count as a conversion for you. For example, a thank you page for registration, purchase, etc.
On the same screen, we will continue and name the conversion (we will use it later), decide which category the conversion is (e.g., lead / purchase, etc.), define the conversion window*, and the conversion value you want.
* Conversion window – refers to the period during which the advertising platform will take credit for the user’s conversion, starting from the moment they clicked on the ad; 30 days is recommended for regular campaigns, and 60 days for content-based campaigns
Event-Based Conversions
An Event-type conversion can help us better understand what users are doing on the site and measure them. For example, if we want to track the purchase value after a user arrives at the e-commerce site’s thank-you page, we can pass it as a conversion value to Outbrain within the conversion code itself.
Conversion Tracking
You can track your conversions under campaigns in the main dashboard, click on Columns:
From here a window will open, click on Conversions:
And here you can select the custom conversion you created and view the conversions:
Important note: Conversions should be tracked at both the Click level and the View level:
Building Audiences in Outbrain
In Outbrain you can create custom audiences and use them for your campaigns. Your campaigns will be more accurate and relevant if you use custom audiences.
Audiences are based on the data that the pixel receives from the site. You can create them based on site visits, registration completions, lead submissions, purchases, and more.
*You must set up an Outbrain pixel on your site/article, otherwise you will not be able to define an audience.
To create custom audiences, go to Audiences in the dashboard:
Then, click on Add Audience and then on Add Segment:
After that, we will reach the page where we define our custom audience – we have 4 options for audience creation (Audience Retargeting, Story Sequencing, Converters Segment, Value Based Converters) that you can choose from:
Using Custom Audiences in a Campaign
After you have built the custom audiences, we will now show you how to use them in an existing or new campaign you create.
Go to your new/existing campaign in the main dashboard and then scroll down to the Audience Segments section to select the audience you built:
You can also exclude custom audiences you have created (for example, people who have already submitted a lead on the site):
Summary
In this article, we explained how to set up the Outbrain pixel to retarget visitors who have been to our site, how to set up conversion tracking to measure the results of our campaigns on the site, how to build custom audiences based on the pixel, and how to properly define audiences in the campaign. These tools are very important for proper tracking and optimization of campaigns. Today, it is a must to use these tools when running a campaign in Outbrain.
About the Author
Adi Golan, Campaign Manager at Fialkov Digital.
