Do you ever wonder about the different types of technology that enable great strategies across paid media channels? Are you truly leveraging the robust data learnings that can come out of your paid media analytics? In this session, we’re stepping outside the traditional nonprofit CRM platforms we’re all familiar with, and stepping into the world of pixeling. It’s time to pull back the curtain on the technology behind your digital fundraising programs! Pixels and tags may seem like a foreign language, but during this session, we’ll discuss the different types of pixeling and tagging, what value they provide, and how proper pixeling can enable greater insight and learning outcomes from your data. We’ll walk attendees through the journey of all the data that gets collected through pixeling, as well as the common challenges nonprofits face when pixels are not properly implemented for data capture for your campaign’s specific requirements. From tracking conversions, to optimizing ad performance, to running effective ads from the get-go, this session of PMX Agency’s Schoolhouse Rock will enable smarter thinking about pixeling!

1. “I’m Just a Pixel”
Follow your data’s journey through the world of digital marketing
Bethany Maki
Vice President,
Nonprofit Strategy,
PMX Agency
Elyse Wallnutt
Associate Director,
Digital Acquisition,
The Nature
Conservancy
Michael McVeigh
Senior Vice President,
Performance Management,
PMX Agency

2. What We’re Covering Today
• The Possibility of a Sad Little Scrap (of Code)
• The Pixeling Process
• Some Advanced Topics
• Enabling Change
Collaborative Notes Link: http://po.st/18NTCimapixel
Session Hashtag:
#18NTCimapixel

3. Our Cast of Characters
• Bill=Pixel
• Capitol Hill=heart and mind of a
constituent
• Congressman=enabling
agency/nonprofit team
• President=converted
donor/advocate

4. The Possibility of a Sad Little
Scrap….. (of code)

6. GIRL: Wow! You sure gotta climb a lot of steps to get to
the chance to change hearts and minds of these here
constituents! Hey who's that sad little scrap of code?
PIXEL: You really wanna know?
I'm just a pixel
Yes, I'm only a pixel
And I'm sitting here on the developer’s computer
Well, it's a long, long journey
To change that heart and mind
It's a long, long wait
While I'm sitting embedded in a page
But I know I'll get my shot someday
At least I hope and pray that I will
But today I am still just a pixel
GIRL: Gee, Pixel, you certainly have a lot of patience and
courage!
PIXEL: I guess. I mean, I got this far. But when I started, I
wasn't even a pixel. I was just an idea. Some folks back at
this nonprofit decided they wanted to raise revenue and
build an army of advocates, so they called their local
consultant and she said, "You're right, there oughta be a
strategy." Then she and the team sat down and wrote me
out and introduced me to the nonprofit, and I became a
pixel. And I'll remain a pixel until that prospect decides to
take action or give and I’ll become a change maker!

7. What is this little scrap of code?
• A pixel or tag is an HTML element that
does something on your website.
• In the context of marketing/advertising
tags and pixels, they are often collecting
some information about the visitor to a
website and their behavior on the site.
• This is then sent back to the respective
marketing/advertising platform to be
processed and reported.
https://www.digitaland.tv/blog/what-is-tracking-pixel-ht/

8. The Tag and Pixel Inventory
• Pixel types
• JavaScript
• Image Only
• Publisher tags
• Facebook
• DoubleClick
• AdWords
• Marketer tags
• Google Analytics
• Adobe Analytics

9. The long, long journey…
https://taginspector.com/marketing-tags-and-pixels-form-and-function/
Full funnel
marketing &
fundraising
strategy
Digital advertising
strategy & media
planning
Ad & landing page
creative
development
Pixel development
& deployment
User interacts with
ad
Landing page pulls
up & user interacts
with it
Browser reads
source code of the
page
When read, pixel
fires
Pixel function
executed –
tracking
information sent to
third party
platform
Information
analyzed
Strategy Evolution
• Media partners
• Audience & Targeting Pools
• Message
• Offer
• Ad Format
• Landing page format
• Efficiency of spend

10. What does this technology
mean long term?
Proper pixel implementation and function is the basis for all web analytics, media
campaign measurement, downstream big data analysis, and ultimately insights
about performance of marketing and advertising efforts.
“The biggest challenge for the
marketer of the future isn’t
how do I get skilled up, but
how do I get to fit into this
machine and which cog am I
going to try and be?”
-Charles Wells, CMO, JustGiving
“It’s not about a particular tool
or system, it is about being
curious about other possibilities
because the tools we will use in
two or three years time will be
totally different from the ones
we were using two years ago.”
- John Watton, Director of Digital Marketing,
Adobe

11. The Pixeling Process

13. I'm just a pixel
Yes I'm only a pixel
And I got as far as being part of the strategy
Well, now I'm stuck in operational process
And I'll sit here and wait
While a few key team members discuss and debate
Whether they should let me be implemented
How I hope and pray that they will
But today I am still just a pixel
GIRL: Listen to these guys arguing! Is all that discussion
and debate about you?
PIXEL: You know it is, I'm one of the lucky ones, as most
pixels never even get this far. If they don't report favorable
on me, I'm gonna die.
GIRL: Die?
PIXEL: Yeah, die in process. (CONGRESSMAN: Pixy, you're
up) Yeah, looks like I'm gonna live! I'm gonna go to the
nonprofit and they're gonna vote on me.
If they vote yes, what happens?
PIXEL: Well, then I got the leadership and the whole thing
starts all over again.
GIRL: Oh no!
PIXEL: Oh yeah!

14. Tag Management is Mandatory Now!
5,381 marketing
technology companies in
2017, up 39% from 2016

15. Tag Management 101
• A Tag Manager is a container tag that:
• Allows central governance of the
tags placed inside it
• Streamlines customization of data
capture options and integrations
with your site’s ‘data layer’
• Offers the possibility of managing
pixel deployment and updates by
marketing teams outside of typical
development cycles
4.17 Million Sites 36K Sites161K Sites

16. The Three Branches of Government
Distinct Skillsets Important to Pixel Management
• Role: Optimization Strategies and
Channel Execution. Defines KPIs.
• Needs: Actionable reporting with
insights at the channel, campaign and
audience segment level
• Extra Credit: Can Write Media &
Measurement Briefs
1
Media Strategist / Marketing
Manager
2
• Role: Edits pixel to map to site tag
management tool and data layer. Deploys
pixel and supports QC validation
• Needs: Clear guidance on purpose of
pixel and the values needed for capture
• Extra Credit: Maintains Technical
Documentation & Governance
Web Developer And/Or Tag Manager
• Role: Defines reporting templates and
metrics layouts to support KPI evaluation.
• Needs: Understanding of target KPI
performance (ROI goal, YoY Benchmarks),
reporting cadence and delivery needs.
• Extra Credit: Seamlessly Stitches Metrics
into user friendly Data Viz (Tableau, Data
Studio)
Reporting Analyst
3

17. Do Not Seek the Purple Unicorn
Social Media Guru
Data Scientist
JavaScript Coder
Media Maven
R Programmer
Feed Manager
Programmatic Specialist
Integrated Cross-
Channel Manager
Statistician
Paid Search Expert
Media Mix Modeler

18. The Advanced Topics…

19. Pixels Fire – Cookies Get Eaten
• The Pixel is just the call; the cookie is the tracking ID linked to the device & browser
• Pixel is a 1x1 transparent image with data encoded in the URL call.
• Pixel call is generally only suppressed where images are suppressed (commonly with emails)
• 3rd Party cookies track across domains and are under siege
• Ad blocking tools
• Stricter default settings on Mobile & Tablet
• Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) since iOS 11
• Good news – 1st party cookies and tracking are still reliably unreliable
• GA, Adobe Analytics, Luminate primarily use 1st party
• But 1st party tracking is far less helpful with attribution
• ‘Pixel-less’ tracking & probabilistic graphs seek to move beyond the
cookie

20. Identity & Recognition – The Power of
the Connected Graph
• Onboarding spend doubled again in 2017, driven by
media buying use cases
• Identity and cookie consortiums to challenge the
Walled Gardens in 2018; issues include cookie and
linking control
• Many leading data companies have built or are
building proprietary ID graphs
The Implications for Marketers:
• Deeper insights, personalization, CX, attribution, fraud protection and risk management all require an ID graph
• Scale, accuracy, and which ID graph to use—the brand, tech, media or data partner?

21. Attribution – Still a Moving Target
Getting there, but not quite there
yet…..
• Still tops all the survey wish lists!
• Talent demand still rising—more than 129,000
job openings in analytics and 45,000 data
analyst job openings on LinkedIn
• Market size/spend for customer journey
analytics is expected to grow from ~$4.5BB to
$12.2BB by 2022
Sources:Winterberry Group,The Data-Centric Organization, Attribution and the
Empowered Marketer; eMarketer, eConsultancy
9.0%
14.0%
51.0%
14.0%
7.0%
4.0%
1—Not aligned at all
2
3—Somewhat aligned
4
5—Fully aligned
Not at all sure
To what extent would you say your organization has a
unified approach to marketing attribution?

22. The Battle for Analytics Supremacy

23. GA vs FB Analytics
Pros:
• Rapidly Evolving
• People-Based Analytics
• Accurate Demographic Insights
• Intuitive Analytics & Reporting
• Customer Dashboards
• Free
• *New: Advertisers can now see the full
interaction path to conversion – more
attribution tools on the way
Cons:
• Limited data capture on conversion pixel
• New, and Not Quite as Powerful as GA (yet)
• Lack of support and educational resources
Pros:
• Allows for Highly Granular Data
• Robust Reporting & Real Time Analytics
• Custom Dashboards & APIs
• Advanced segments for easy cohort analysis
• Good Support Content & Broad user base
• Basic Version is Free
• *New: Data Studio incl. in free version. powerful
integrations to cloud tools like Big Query
Cons:
• Long learning curve
• Very customizable  misinterpretation
• Premium Version is Big Investment

24. Pitfalls & Caveats
Issue Concern Solution
Pixel
Governance
Tag Management Platforms expedite pixel placement, but
‘web dev’ complexity still exists. Novices users, lack of team
coordination or data layer conflicts can easily break tracking &
reporting.
- Clear governance & documentation
- Training for all users
- Regular audits
Data Leakage 3rd Party data tools open a tracking window to your users and
their behaviors and data may be resold to ad networks
(Example: Social Sharing Widgets)
- Understand the policies and purpose of
incremental tracking tools and remember
that ‘free’ typically has a cost
Cost of False
Precision
Big MarTech platforms like those sold as Full Multi-Touch
Attribution technologies are big expense, but may not provide
definitive answers
- Align internally on the directional use of
attribution insights from inexpensive/free
solutions. Use to inform planning and don’t
expect certainty

25. Useful Tag Tools – Packet Sniffers
Ghostery Google Tag Assistant FB Pixel Helper

26. Enabling Change

28. I'm just a pixel
Yes, I'm only a pixel
And if they vote for me at the nonprofit
Well, then I'm off to the website
Where I'll wait in a line
With other pixels
For the constituent to click
And he clicks me then I'll be a change maker
How I hope and pray that he will
But today I am still just a pixel
GIRL: You mean even if the whole team says
you should be a change maker, the constituent
can still say no?
PIXEL: Yes, that's called a veto. If the constituent
vetoes me, I have to go back to the team, and
they vote on me again, but you know by that
time...
GIRL: By that time, it's very unlikely that you
become a change maker. It's not easy to become
a one, is it?
PIXEL: No! But how I hope and pray that I will
But today I am still just a pixel
TEAM: He clicked you, Pixy! Now you've made
change happen!

30. Pixels for (Nature) Dummies
What We Need to Know on the Regular
How are each of our
promotional investments
performing compared to
projections? (by channel,
audience and by partner)
Are we seeing differences in
audience response? (By origin
channel, ad creative, constituent
attribute, or user flow)
What’s wrong, and
how do we fix it?
(Preferably,
quickly!)

31. Pixels for (Nature) Dummies
How We Figure This Out: Enable a (Non-Dummy) Team
What This Looks Like At TNC:
Technical Project
Manager (Marketing
Technology)
Analytics Lead
(Marketing
Technology)
Analytics Architect
Web Dev Lead
(Marketing
Technology)
Strategy Lead
(Membership)
Production
Specialist
(Membership)
Points of contact
Points of contact

32. Pixels for (Nature) Dummies
How We Figure This Out: Entrust The Experts
Digital Expertise in some areas does
not equate to digital expertise in
ALL areas.
Strategy drivers are best left to
strategy; position them to
communicate with someone who
can translate the technical stuff
You know that saying,
“too many cooks in the kitchen”?
It often leads to a fire!
Know the limits of when you’ve
reached internal capacity and need
to hire staff/solicit advice

33. Pixels for (Nature) Dummies
How We Figure This Out: Begin With the End in Mind
Lead with your strategy! Your analytics architecture should reflect your end goals and testing schema; invest
in the right integrations and tools based on what you need
Data collected using pixels allows us to
pass constituent info between disparate
systems – allowing for triggered
touchpoints
Example: Adobe Analytics + Campaign integration

34. Pixels for (Nature) Dummies
How We Figure This Out: Begin With the End in Mind
Get the fundamentals right first – a simple segmentation strategy done well is better than many half-baked
marketing funnels
Example: Sustainer personalization project
Customizing our site for those
with propensity to become
sustainers v. those not geared
toward sustainer giving
resulted in a overall 14%
conversion rate lift (from 4.1%
to 4.7%)

35. Pixels for (Nature) Dummies
How We Figure This Out: Begin With the End in Mind
Keep it organized: Assign someone to know and document who is placing what where and why
Example: Quarterly pixel audit

36. Pixels for (Nature) Dummies
How We Figure This Out: Begin With the End in Mind
Don’t try to convince leadership of your points by talking about HOW you collected data – tell them what
you’re doing with it
Example: Attribution Pathing

37. Pixels for (Nature) Dummies
How Has Analytics Infrastructure Grown Us?
The ability to track our investments
properly, and explore how different
attribution views grew us from a
Membership department testing
newly-launched, small acquisition ads
program in early 2015, to a
Membership department that has a 4-
person internal digital staff dedicated
to running a $multi-million investment
in acquisition advertising today.
Syncing disparate channels by
cross-pollinating collected visitor
data among tools increases our
ability to connect with users
across devices, and based on
their interests (LeadGen ROI
outlook improved 90% YOY with
drip strategy in place)
Pixels allow us to make
decisions quickly – we know
who is responding to what,
and how to encourage more
of it (or how to do less of
what’s not working)
1 2 3
In sum, Flexible Data makes selling in investments much easier
Attribution: Automation: Agility:

38. Questions?

39. Thank you!
www.pmxagencynonprofit.com
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