What does a pixel do? 🤔
The obvious answer to what does a pixel do is: Send event data to the ad platform. This is actually only a really small part of things thought! In fact, sending event data is probably the simplest part of a pixel. Most of the real work of a pixel is for identification.
Think about the following for a minute: What ad platforms do is use fancy algorithms to send people who want to make a purchase/signup/etc. on you website. To do that, they need to know who watched which ad and what did they do afterwards. They saw your ad and then made a purchase? They need that info. Otherwise nothing works.
The point of a pixel is to send events and Personally Identifiable Information. One without the other is useless.
With that in mind, if there's an event on your website, the pixel has to collect certain information about the individuals there. That information is:
- IP Address
- Device Identifier (IDFA for iOS and AAID)
- Potential Fingerprinting Elements (screen resolution, browser, device type, etc.)
- Email/Phone/User ID/Etc.
- Cookie identifiers (browser id & click id)
Naturally, the more specific the identifier is, the better. Furthermore, the more of them that a pixel collects, the better. In practice, the ones that truly matter will be the last 2. Of these, the first will have to be provided by you directly (after purchase/login/signup). But the last one is the most important one. The Browser ID and Click ID cookies.
