Want to discover how to delay your Facebook pixels firing so you can meet the new GDPR regulations?

Then you’re in the right place.

Because today I’m going to show you the exact step by step process I just used here at SV-Digital to ensure any pixels on our site delay firing until we receive consent from our visitors, in coherence with the new GDPR regulations coming into effect from the 25th of May.

The best part?

It only takes 5 minutes to implement, and will ensure you begin making the appropriate changes to your website.

So, let’s do this!

Note: This is NOT in any way a definitive legal guide to GDPR compliancy, all instructions within this post were implemented through our interpretation of the new regulations, copying these changes to your own site is done so at your own risk.

Download this free WordPress plugin…

Usually pixels are prominent from the moment a page loads, gathering visitor data and sending that information to your Facebook ad account for custom audience / retargeting purposes depending on what pixels have been installed.

But with the new GDPR regulations requiring explicit consent, we now have to configure the pixel to only fire once the visitor agrees to have their data collected.

Whilst this at first might seem a complicated task, it’s actually extremely easy to implement. 

Simply download the completely FREE plugin called ‘Cookie Notice’ by ‘dfactory’.

Once downloaded onto your computer upload into your site then click ‘activate’.

Before We Get To Work..

At this point I’m going to assume you already have a Privacy Policy linked to your website freely available to all your website visitors to read and access.

And if you don’t… you should!

This will be necessary when setting up our cookies bar to allow visitors to optionally click through and browse your individual policies detailing what it is you do with their data, how you collect it, store it and how they can access it if necessary.

New Update:

• WordPress have just released a new update ( 4.9.6 ) which gives you the ability to automatically export and delete any data your site collects from your visitors ( as in compliance with GDPR )
• It also gives you a comprehensive Privacy Policy template detailing EXACTLY what should be inside for you to be 100% compliant with GDPR regulations.

Great right?!

So if you’re currently using WordPress I suggest updating and taking full advantage of these new features!

Cache Plugins

• If you currently have a cache plugin installed on your site it must be deactivated before implementing this lesson. This will ensure the pixels will automatically fire once the page refreshes upon the visitor agreeing the the cookies.

Configuring Your New Cookies Bar

With your Privacy Policy in place, it’s time to configure our new cookie bar.

• Hover over ‘settings’ in the left hand column and click ‘Cookie Notice’ to access the plugin settings

As you scroll through the settings you’ll see the options to insert your personalised text within the bar. Take some time to make it personalised, friendly and congruent with your brand and ethos.

‘Script Blocking’

The most powerful function of this plugin is it’s ability to ‘block’ any pixels / scripts placed on your site until the user explicitly agrees to have said pixels function.

• In this example we’re using the standard Facebook ‘base’ pixel tracking page views. You can find your own pixels within your Facebook ad accounts dashboard.

Once you’ve pasted your pixel into the box click “enable to reload the page after cookies are accepted”. ( This will allow the pixel to fire immediately after your visitors agree rather than only firing when they manually refresh the page or go to another page on site )

Note: If they do NOT agree or interact with the cookie bar NO pixels will fire on site throughout the entirety of their session.

Moving On

Personalise your bar to integrate into your site, whilst having it noticeable enough for users to immediately see upon landing on your site.

This is what ours looks like once I have completed the setup. ( I also added some CSS styling to clean up the general aesthetic of the cookie bar )

Note that there is now NO pixels firing immediately once the site loads

If your visitor chooses to agree to the cookies terms the page will immediately refresh and all scripts within will fire as per usual!

Use the FREE Google extension ‘Facebook Pixel Helper‘ to easily view the pixels on your site like in my example above.

Conclusion

And there you have it!

A completely GDPR compliant Facebook pixel on your website!

There are many steps necessary to take over the coming weeks to ensure your site is completely compliant to the new regulations, but small little changes such as this implemented over time will ensure you begin to adhere and offer complete transparency to your website visitors.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.