How to Change Pixel in Facebook Ad

Changing your Facebook Pixel in a live ad might seem impossible, but it’s a common task when you’re troubleshooting tracking, launching a new product line, or reorganizing your business accounts. While Facebook doesn't offer a simple "edit Pixel" button on an active ad set, there's a straightforward process to get it done. This guide will walk you through exactly how to swap your Pixel without losing your targeting and creative, and explain the best practices to ensure your data stays clean.

Why Would You Need to Change a Facebook Pixel?

Before diving into the "how," let's quickly cover the "why." You're not just changing a random piece of code, you're fundamentally altering how Facebook tracks conversions for your ads. Most marketers find themselves needing to make this switch for a few key reasons:

• Troubleshooting a Faulty Pixel: Sometimes, a Pixel just stops working correctly. It might be firing duplicate events, missing conversions, or conflicting with website plugins. Starting fresh with a new, clean Pixel can resolve persistent tracking headaches.
• Business Reorganization: If you're separating a product line into its own brand or business unit, you'll want a dedicated Pixel to track its unique customer journey and conversions, separate from your main business activities.
• Separating Client or Business Datasets: Agencies often need to switch Pixels when moving a client's ads from an agency ad account to the client's own. Similarly, businesses might move from using a personal Pixel to a more organized and secure setup within Facebook Business Manager.
• Consolidating Data: On the flip side, you might have multiple legacy Pixels from past projects or website versions and want to consolidate all your tracking into one primary Pixel for streamlined reporting and audience building.

First, Locate Your New Pixel ID

Before you begin, you need to know which Pixel you're switching to. Have the ID for your new (correct) Pixel ready to go. If you're not sure where to find it, it's simple:

1. Navigate to Facebook Events Manager.
2. On the left-hand menu, look under "Data Sources." You should see the names of your Pixels listed here.
3. Click on the Pixel you want to use.
4. Just below the Pixel's name, you'll see its multi-digit ID number. You can click this ID to copy it to your clipboard.

Keep this ID handy. You won't need to paste it anywhere, but you'll use it to visually confirm you've selected the correct Pixel in the following steps.

Where the Pixel is Actually Set: Campaign vs. Ad Set vs. Ad

A common point of confusion is where the Pixel setting lives within your Facebook campaign structure. Getting this right is critical to understanding the process.

• Campaign: This is the top level where you set your advertising objective (e.g., Sales, Leads, Traffic). You do not assign the Pixel at the campaign level.
• Ad Set: This is the middle level where you define your audience, budget, schedule, and placements. This is where you assign the Pixel. Each ad set is linked to one specific Pixel, which is used to track the conversion events for the ads within that set.
• Ad: This is the bottom level - the actual creative your audience sees (images, videos, copy). The ad doesn't have its own Pixel setting, it inherits the Pixel assigned to its parent ad set.

This means if you want to change the Pixel, you need to do it at the ad set level. There’s no way to change the Pixel for just one ad within an ad set or for an entire campaign with a single click.

How to Change the Pixel in an Ad Set (The Right Way)

Facebook "locks in" the Pixel selection once an ad set has spent any money. You can’t just go into an active ad set and choose a different one from the dropdown menu. The safest and most effective method is to duplicate the ad set, which creates a new, editable copy with all your original settings intact.

Here’s the step-by-step process:

Step 1: Navigate to Your Ad Set in Ads Manager

Go to your Facebook Ads Manager. Select the "Ad Sets" tab to view a list of all your ad sets.

Step 2: Duplicate the Ad Set

Find the ad set you want to update, and tick the checkbox next to its name. With it selected, look for the "Duplicate" button in the toolbar (it’s often right next to the "Edit" button). Click it.

A new editing panel will open for your duplicated ad set. Facebook usually renames it by adding "- copy" to the original name. You can rename this to something more descriptive later.

Step 3: Find the Conversion Tracking Section

In the editing panel for your new duplicated ad set, scroll down until you find the section that handles conversion tracking. Depending on your campaign objective, this is usually labeled "Conversion" or "Website." Here, you'll see the conversion event and the currently assigned Pixel source.

Step 4: Select Your New Pixel

This is the key step. You will see your old Pixel listed as the data source. Click the "X" to remove the previously selected conversion event, or click the dropdown menu to see a list of available Pixels.

Choose your new Pixel from the list. Once selected, you must also choose the specific conversion event you want to optimize for (e.g., Purchase, Lead, Add to Cart) that is associated with this new Pixel. Even if the event has the same name, you need to re-select it to link it to the new source.

Step 5: Review All Other Settings

Your duplicated ad set should be an identical copy of the original, but it's always smart to double-check everything. Quickly scan your audience targeting, budget, schedule, and placements to confirm nothing was accidentally changed. This is also a good time to give the ad set a new, clear name to avoid future confusion — for example, "[Audience] - US Lookalike 1% - Main Pixel - Oct2024."

Step 6: Publish the New Ad Set

Once you are confident all the settings are correct and your new Pixel is selected, hit the green "Publish" button. Your new ad set will then go into Facebook's review process just like any other new ad.

Step 7: Pause the Original Ad Set

This final step is incredibly important and easy to forget. Once your new ad set is published (or even just scheduled to run), go back to your ad sets list and pause the original ad set. If you forget, both ad sets will run simultaneously, showing the same ads to the same audience, doubling your ad spend, and tracking events across two different Pixels.

What If You Need to Change the Pixel for an Entire Campaign?

Since the Pixel is assigned at the ad set level, there is no single button to change it for an entire campaign. You must update each ad set inside that campaign individually.

You can follow the process above for each ad set one by one. Or, for a faster workflow, you can duplicate the entire campaign. This will create a new, draft campaign containing duplicates of all its original ad sets and ads. You can then go into each of the new ad sets in the draft campaign, change the Pixel, and publish the new campaign all at once.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

This process is straightforward, but a few pitfalls can lead to wasted budget or messy data. Keep these best practices in mind:

• Check the New Pixel's Health: Before you even start duplication, go to Events Manager and make sure your new Pixel is marked as "Active" and is correctly receiving event data from your website. You can use the Facebook Pixel Helper Chrome extension to verify this in real-time on your site. Don't switch to a Pixel that isn't working.
• Losing Social Proof: When you duplicate an ad set, you are also duplicating the ads within it. These become brand-new ads in Facebook's system, which means any likes, comments, and shares (social proof) from the original ad will be lost. For some businesses, this is acceptable. If preserving social proof is non-negotiable, you must use a more advanced method: create a new ad set from scratch, and in the "Ad Creative" section, select "Use Existing Post" and enter the post ID of your original ad.
• Splitting Your Data Unintentionally: Be strategic about which Pixel you use. Every time you switch, you're "restarting" the learning phase for that ad set and sending conversion data to a new source. Frequent changes can make it difficult for both you and Facebook's algorithm to analyze performance trends over time.

Final Thoughts

Changing your Facebook Pixel on existing ads boils down to a simple, safe method: duplicate your ad set, assign the new Pixel in the duplicated version, and pause the original once the copy is live. Remembering that the Pixel is tied to the ad set, not the campaign or the ad, is the key to understanding why this is the necessary workflow.

Switching Pixels is often part of a larger effort to get sharper, more accurate marketing data. Once your tracking is in order, making sense of all that performance data from Facebook Ads, Google Analytics, and your sales tools can feel like another full-time job. This is exactly why we built Graphed. Instead of fumbling with CSV exports and multiple reporting tabs, you can connect your sources in seconds and ask questions in plain English like, "show me a comparison of campaign performance before and after I switched my pixel." We instantly build live dashboards for you, so you can spend your time acting on insights, not just gathering them.