Important note:

You will need both a Meta Business Manager account and a dedicated Ads Manager account to target donors on Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Audience Network).
This setup is designed for Beacon donation pages that are embedded directly on your website.

While Beacon does not have a direct integration with Meta, you can still target prospective and actual donors using a Meta Pixel installed on your website.

Install the Meta Pixel on your website
Set up your Beacon form
Embed your Beacon form
Target people who have visited your donate page
Target people who have donated
Frequently asked questions

1. Install the Meta Pixel on your website

Choose one of the following methods to add the Meta Pixel to your website:

Plugins (easiest): If you use platforms like WordPress, Wix, or WooCommerce, add your Pixel ID into your site provider's plugin settings.
Google Tag Manager (GTM): Use GTM to deploy and manage your Meta Pixel tag across your website. (Meta guide here)
Direct code: Have your web developer or IT team paste the Meta Pixel JavaScript snippet directly into your website's header source code.

2. Set up your Beacon form

Configure your Beacon form.

See our guide article here for step-by-step instructions.

3. Embed your Beacon form

To use your Meta Pixel alongside your form, the Beacon form must be embedded on your website.

See our guide article here for step-by-step instructions.

4. Target people who have visited your donate page

Create a Custom Audience in Meta Ads Manager to capture people who reached your donation page.

Go to Audiences in Meta Ads Manager.
Click Create Audience > Custom Audience > Website.
Select People who visited specific web pages.
Set the rule to: URL contains /donate (or your donation page URL slug).
Name the audience (eg. Donation Page Visitors - Past 30 Days).

How to use this audience: Retarget these visitors with ads encouraging them to complete their donation, or create a Lookalike Audience to reach new people on Meta with similar profiles.

5. Target people who have donated

Create a Custom Audience of confirmed donors.

Create a Custom Event Trigger in GTM
1. Open your Google Tag Manager workspace.
2. Go to Triggers and click New.
3. Choose Custom Event as the trigger type.
4. In the Event Name field, enter exactly: purchase
  (This is the standard event Beacon automatically sends when a donation is completed)
5. Set it to fire on All Custom Events.
6. Save the trigger (eg. name it "Beacon Donation Submitted").
Create your Meta Pixel Tag
1. In Google Tag Manager, go to Tags and click New.
2. Choose Custom HTML.
3. Paste your specific Meta conversion event code. For example, to track a donation, it would look like this:
```
<script>
  fbq('track', 'Donate');
</script>
```
4. Scroll down to the Triggering section.
5. Select the "Beacon Donation Submitted" custom trigger you created in step 1.
6. Save the tag.
7. Click Submit in the top right corner of GTM to publish your new tags and triggers.
  
  Once your Google Tag Manager changes are published, your website will automatically send a Donate event to Meta every time someone submits a Beacon form.
Create your Custom Audience in Meta Ads Manager
1. Go to Audiences in Meta Ads Manager.
2. Click Create Audience > Custom Audience > Website.
3. Under Events, select the standard Donate event from the dropdown list.
4. Choose your desired retention window (eg. past 180 days).
5. Name the audience (eg. Confirmed Donors - Past 180 Days) and click Create Audience.

How to use this audience: Retarget confirmed donors to nurture relationships, or ask for recurring support. Exclude this audience from your active donation campaign ads to prevent wasting budget on people who have already given. Lookalike Audiences built from this group typically yield high donor conversion rates.

Frequently asked questions

Are there any limitations to the setup above?

Yes. Because this setup uses a simplified custom event workaround without direct CRM field integration, specific donation parameters (such as donation amount and payment frequency) aren't passed to Meta and cannot be used to refine your audiences.

Can I target people who have visited non-donation forms? Like potential volunteers, or event attendees?

Yes. In step 4 change URL contains /donate to match your target page slug - such as "URL contains /volunteer" or "URL contains /christmas_event".

Can you help me deploy the Meta Pixel code on my website?

Apart from your embedded Beacon forms, the steps above use third-party tools outside of Beacon's platform. Beacon's support team is unable to assist in testing or troubleshooting your Google Tag Manager or Meta Ads Manager configuration.

Target donors using Meta

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