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Retarget the people who
walked into your store.

Foot traffic walks out the door and you lose them forever. The Ghost Retargeting Pixel fixes that: when a customer scans your in-store code, it quietly fires your Meta or Google pixel before the page loads — building a Custom Audience of real, in-person visitors you can advertise to later.

How it works

Live in three steps.

1

Add your pixel once

Drop your Meta Pixel ID and Google Ads tag into your workspace. Turn retargeting on for any QR code — a counter card, table tent, daily-special sign.

2

Customers scan in-store

Someone scans to see your menu or today's special. The pixel fires silently, their browser joins your audience, and they land on the page they wanted in under a second.

3

Run ads to exact visitors

In Meta Ads Manager or Google Ads, build a Custom Audience from those scans and run campaigns only to people who physically stood inside your store.

The audience you could never build before

Online stores retarget every visitor — that's why you see an ad for the shoes you looked at an hour later. Physical stores have never had that power. Someone walks in, browses, leaves, and there's no way to reach them again. The Ghost Pixel closes that gap by turning a QR scan into the same retargeting signal an online click gives you.

Because the pixel sets a first-party cookie in the visitor's browser, the people who scan become a genuine, retargetable Custom Audience — not a vague estimate. You're advertising to individuals who chose to engage with your business in the real world.

How it fires without slowing the scan

A normal QR redirect can't run a pixel — there's no page for it to live on. The Ghost Pixel adds a near-instant hand-off page that loads your Meta and Google tags, fires the event, then forwards to the real destination in a few hundred milliseconds. The customer barely notices; you get the data.

It's also resilient. We mirror every browser event server-side through Meta's Conversions API and Google's Measurement Protocol with a shared event ID, so your audience keeps growing even when ad blockers or iOS privacy settings block the in-browser pixel — and Meta de-duplicates the two so you never double-count.

Built for agencies and multi-location brands

Set the pixel at the workspace level and it applies across every code you manage — ideal for agencies running campaigns for a roster of local stores, or a brand with dozens of locations. Override the pixel per code when a specific campaign or franchise needs its own.

Pair it with scan analytics and you can see not just how many people visited, but feed that exact audience straight into paid campaigns — closing the loop from physical scan to online conversion.

Consent-aware by default

Tracking carries responsibility. By default the Ghost Pixel region-gates: visitors in the EU, EEA and UK are skipped unless you change the setting, so you ship on the safe side of GDPR. You remain the data controller for your audience, and you decide the consent mode.

Used responsibly, it's one of the highest-leverage tools a local business has — the bridge between the customers you already earn in person and the ads that bring them back.

FAQ

Questions, answered.

How does a QR code fire a retargeting pixel?

When retargeting is enabled, an eligible scan passes through a near-instant hand-off page that loads your Meta and Google pixel, fires the event (setting the first-party cookie that makes the visitor retargetable), then forwards to the real destination in a few hundred milliseconds.

Can I really run Facebook ads to people who visited my store?

Yes. Each scan adds the visitor's browser to your Meta Custom Audience, so in Ads Manager you can target campaigns to the exact people who scanned your in-store code — something a physical store could never do before.

Does it work if the customer uses an ad blocker or iPhone?

Often, yes. Alongside the browser pixel we fire the same event server-side via Meta's Conversions API and Google's Measurement Protocol with a shared event ID, so blocked in-browser pixels still land and the two are de-duplicated.

Is this compliant with privacy laws?

The pixel region-gates EU/EEA/UK visitors by default so you start safe, but you are the data controller for your audience and responsible for your own consent and disclosure. You can choose the consent mode that fits your obligations.

Do I need my own Meta Pixel and Google Ads account?

Yes — you connect your own Meta Pixel ID and Google Ads tag. The audience is built inside your ad accounts, which you keep full control of.

Is the Ghost Retargeting Pixel free?

It's a Pro-plan feature. You set it once per workspace and switch it on for any QR code you want to use for retargeting.

Keep reading

Related guides & tools.

Ready in 30 seconds

Turn your next walk-in into a retargetable customer.

Add your pixel once, switch it on per code. Consent-aware, agency-ready, on Pro.