How to fix the “Your pixel is being used on new domains” error on Facebook

Recently we have noticed that a lot of the Facebook Pixels that our Facebook Ads Agency manage are getting the ‘new domains sending data’ notification.

Here’s an example of what the notification email looks like:

Hi,

[Pixel Name] (Pixel ID) recently started sending events from these domains:

• naver.net
• translatoruser-int.com
• googleusercontent.com
• translate.goog

If you don’t want these domains sending events with this pixel, we suggest creating a traffic allow list and excluding them. You also have the option of creating a traffic block list and including these domains on it. To create an allow list or block list, go to the Traffic permissions section within Settings. Learn more

Thanks,

The Facebook Business team

We’re getting these messages despite nothing changing on the implementation side of the Facebook Pixels. So what’s changed? And how can we fix this error?

Reasons for the “Your pixel is being used on new domains” notification

Facebook gives several reasons why you might see pixel events coming from unfamiliar website domains include:

• Someone else put your pixel ID on their website. The pixel is a piece of code that’s made up of the base code and your pixel ID. When you add your pixel to your website, your pixel ID is public information. This means that other people can find your pixel ID, add it to the pixel base code and put it on their own website.
• You set up your pixel using a partner integration, third-party advertising technology or an iframe. This may cause redirects on your website. These redirects may appear as the referring URL and come from an unfamiliar website domain.

So how do we fix this issue?

How to fix the “Your pixel is being used on new domains” error

Facebook’s help centre only has the following guidance, in an article on Troubleshooting Facebook Pixel Error and Warning Messages:

New Domain Sending Data: This appears if your pixel recently started sending events from a new domain. You can create a domain allow list or block list to control if domains are allowed to send Facebook events through your pixel, or edit your existing list. Learn more about pixel traffic permissions.

The answer is to set pixel traffic permissions for your domain.

How to set Pixel Traffic Dimensions

The Traffic Permissions feature in Events Manager enables you to create an allow list or a block list to control if domains are allowed to send events through your Facebook pixel.

You can create either an allow list or a block list in the Traffic Permissions setting in Events Manager, but not both Facebook suggests using an allow list because it provides more control over your pixel traffic than a block list.

To do this, add the domains that you want to receive pixel events from to your allow list, and the other events are automatically blocked. For example, you might want to use an allow list if there are only a few domains you want to receive pixel events from, so you can easily just exclude all others.

The next section is a step-by-step guide for how to do this in Facebook.

How create a domain allow list for pixel traffic in Events Manager

• Go to Events Manager.
• Select your pixel.
• Click Settings.
• This is the screen you’re looking for:

• Select Create Allow List or Create Block List from the dropdown menu under Traffic Permissions.
• Click on the button to confirm your selection.
• You’ll then see this screen:

• Enter the domain you want to add to your list and click Next.
• You can also add domains to your list from the Top Domain Traffic table.
• Click Confirm.
• Repeat those steps for any other domains you want to add to your list.
• Click Close.

After you create your list, you can view and edit the domains in the Traffic Permissions section of your pixel settings. 

Best Practices for Facebook Pixel Traffic Permissions

Facebook also lists these best practices for traffic allow lists and block lists:

1. If you use third-party advertising technology or a partner integration that would cause redirects, allow both your business domain and the third-party domain. Some third-party advertising technologies and partner integrations will redirect website visitors to their own domain before visitors land on your domain. We recommend allowing both domains to help ensure that you still receive events sent through your pixel and don’t inadvertently block them.
2. If you set up your pixel in an inline frame (iframe) and manually set the referring URL to a domain that’s different from your business domain, allow them both. This helps ensure that you still receive events sent through your pixel and don’t inadvertently block them.
3. Set up an allow list if you want to automatically block events from domains you don’t recognize. We recommend allow lists because domains that aren’t on your allow list are automatically blocked. For this reason, allow lists provide more control over your pixel traffic than block lists. Keep in mind that creating an allow list will immediately stop all events from other domains from being included in your ads performance. You can add or remove domains from a list at any time, but you can’t recover events that were lost while a domain was blocked.
4. If you already have a block list, you can switch to an allow list at any time. If you switch from a block list to an allow list, the domains on your block list will be removed from the block list and only your allow list will be in effect. This will immediately stop all events from other domains from being included in your ads performance.
5. Set up a block list if you want to automatically receive events from your pixel when it’s set up on a new domain. If you use a block list, you don’t need to edit your Traffic Settings to start receiving events from your pixel when it’s set up on a new domain. If you use an allow list, you do need to add the new domain to your allow list before you will see events from that domain in Events Manager.
6. Add the top level domain to your list to easily add all subdomains. If you add a top level domain to a list, all subdomains are also included. For example, adding “domain.com” also adds “m.domain.com”. If you don’t want all subdomains to be added to your list, add each subdomain separately.

Have you fixed the “Your pixel is being used on new domains” error on Facebook?

We’d love to hear if this advice has been useful and if you have managed to fix “Your pixel is being used on new domains” error on Facebook. Let us know your experience in the comments.

And if you need help with managing your Facebook Ads, Empower are the Facebook Ads Agency that can help. Contact us if you have a brief for your next Facebook Ads campaign.