Retargeting Pixel Integration for Remarketing
Retargeting pixel is JavaScript code from ad platform, installed on site and records visitors in audience for later ad display. Pixel writes cookie to user's browser, transmits visit data to platform servers, and user starts seeing your ads in search, social networks, and partner networks.
Main Pixels
Most commonly installed: Meta Pixel (Facebook/Instagram), VK Pixel, Google Ads remarketing tag, Yandex Audience pixel, TikTok Pixel. Each has own syntax, but logic is same—base code on all pages plus events on specific actions.
Meta Pixel
<!-- Base code — in <head> of all pages -->
<script>
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',
'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js');
fbq('init', 'YOUR_PIXEL_ID');
fbq('track', 'PageView');
</script>
Events for remarketing:
// Product view
fbq('track', 'ViewContent', {
content_ids: ['PRODUCT_123'],
content_type: 'product',
value: 4900,
currency: 'RUB',
});
// Add to cart
fbq('track', 'AddToCart', {
content_ids: ['PRODUCT_123'],
content_type: 'product',
value: 4900,
currency: 'RUB',
num_items: 1,
});
// Purchase
fbq('track', 'Purchase', {
value: 14700,
currency: 'RUB',
content_ids: ['PRODUCT_123', 'PRODUCT_456'],
content_type: 'product',
num_items: 2,
});
VK Pixel
<script type="text/javascript">
!function(){var t=document.createElement("script");
t.type="text/javascript",t.async=!0,t.src='https://vk.com/js/api/openapi.js?169',
t.onload=function(){VK.Retargeting.Init("VK-RTRG-XXXXXX-XXXXX"),VK.Retargeting.Hit()},
document.head.appendChild(t)}();
</script>
// VK events
VK.Retargeting.Event('add_to_cart');
VK.Retargeting.Event('purchase');
VK.Retargeting.ProductEvent('view_product', { id: 'PRODUCT_123', price: 4900, currency: 'RUB' });
Yandex Audience Pixel
Yandex uses two different tools: Metrika counter for remarketing and Audience pixel for external sites.
<!-- Yandex.Metrika — if site already has counter, remarketing configured via goals -->
<script>
(function(m,e,t,r,i,k,a){m[i]=m[i]||function(){(m[i].a=m[i].a||[]).push(arguments)};
m[i].l=1*new Date();k=e.createElement(t);a=e.getElementsByTagName(t)[0];
k.async=1;k.src=r;a.parentNode.insertBefore(k,a)})(
window, document, "script", "https://mc.yandex.ru/metrika/tag.js", "ym");
ym(COUNTER_ID, "init", { clickmap: true, trackLinks: true, accurateTrackBounce: true });
</script>
// Goal achievement for remarketing audience
ym(COUNTER_ID, 'reachGoal', 'add_to_cart');
ym(COUNTER_ID, 'reachGoal', 'purchase', { order_price: 14700, currency: 'RUB' });
Installation via GTM
Recommended way—via Google Tag Manager. All pixels added to GTM, not directly in site code. Allows adding/removing pixels without deploy.
On site only need:
<!-- GTM container — in <head> -->
<script>(function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':
new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],
j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src=
'https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);
})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-XXXXXXX');</script>
<!-- GTM noscript — right after <body> -->
<noscript><iframe src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-XXXXXXX"
height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript>
In GTM create tags for each pixel with needed triggers. Events pass via dataLayer:
// Send event to dataLayer for GTM
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
// On product page
dataLayer.push({
event: 'view_item',
ecommerce: {
items: [{
item_id: 'PRODUCT_123',
item_name: 'MacBook Pro 14',
item_category: 'laptops',
price: 89900,
currency: 'RUB',
quantity: 1,
}],
},
});
GTM trigger Custom Event: view_item fires Meta, VK, and Yandex tags simultaneously.
Server-Side Pixel (Conversions API)
Browser pixels blocked by AdBlock and iOS ITP. Server-Side Conversions API solves this: events sent from server directly to ad platform API.
// Meta Conversions API — send event from server
$response = Http::withHeaders([
'Authorization' => 'Bearer ' . config('meta.access_token'),
])->post("https://graph.facebook.com/v18.0/{$pixelId}/events", [
'data' => [[
'event_name' => 'Purchase',
'event_time' => time(),
'action_source' => 'website',
'user_data' => [
'em' => hash('sha256', strtolower(trim($user->email))),
'ph' => hash('sha256', preg_replace('/\D/', '', $user->phone)),
'client_ip_address' => $request->ip(),
'client_user_agent' => $request->userAgent(),
],
'custom_data' => [
'value' => $order->total,
'currency' => 'RUB',
'order_id' => (string) $order->id,
],
]],
'test_event_code' => config('meta.test_code'), // remove in production
]);
Verification
Meta: Meta Pixel Helper extension shows which events fire with what data. VK: "Statistics" in audience account—data should appear in 30-60 minutes. Yandex: "Metrika → Reports → Audience" — "Remarketing" section.
Timeline
Basic pixel setup (Meta + VK + Yandex) via GTM: 2-4 hours. Event markup (ViewContent, AddToCart, Purchase) via dataLayer: 4-8 hours. Server-Side Conversions API for Meta: 1 day.