---
title: "Ad Pixel Statistics: 14.9% of Top Sites vs 29.6% of Mid-Size"
url: https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/ad-pixels-by-site-size
description: "Ad pixel statistics from 15.5 million homepages: 14.9% of the 1,000 most visited sites run one, half the 29.6% of mid-sized sites. See the data."
lang: en
---
Share
Share on X: https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.suffdigital.com%2Fresources%2Fdata-studies%2Fad-pixels-by-site-size&text=14.9%25%20of%20the%20Top%201%2C000%20Websites%20Run%20an%20Ad%20Pixel%20vs%2029.6%25%20of%20Mid-Sized%20Sites
Share on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.suffdigital.com%2Fresources%2Fdata-studies%2Fad-pixels-by-site-size
Share on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.suffdigital.com%2Fresources%2Fdata-studies%2Fad-pixels-by-site-size
Share on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.suffdigital.com%2Fresources%2Fdata-studies%2Fad-pixels-by-site-size&title=14.9%25%20of%20the%20Top%201%2C000%20Websites%20Run%20an%20Ad%20Pixel%20vs%2029.6%25%20of%20Mid-Sized%20Sites
**14.9%** of the 1,000 most visited websites run an advertising pixel on their homepage, half the 29.6% rate of sites ranked between 100,000 and 1 million. Ad tracking peaks among mid-sized websites and falls away at both ends of the web.
Analysis of 15,470,478 homepages · the public HTTP Archive crawl, September 2026
## Key Findings
1. 1. **14.9%** of the 1,000 most visited websites run an advertising pixel on their homepage, half the 29.6% of websites ranked between 100,000 and 1 million. Copy stat
2. 2. Websites ranked between 1,000 and 100,000 run **0.51** advertising pixels per homepage on average, the most of any size band and against 0.30 for the top 1,000. Copy stat
3. 3. **63.6%** of Shopify stores run at least one advertising pixel, averaging 0.75 per homepage, nearly three times the 0.26 average across all websites. Copy stat
4. 4. Australian websites average **0.44** advertising pixels per homepage, more than three times the 0.14 of German websites. Copy stat
5. 5. The Meta Pixel is on **15.5%** of all websites, more than nine times the next most common social ad pixels from TikTok (1.65%) and X (1.64%). Copy stat
## Summary
Open the homepage of one of the world's biggest websites and, more often than not, no advertising pixel loads at all. Open the homepage of a mid-sized online brand and the odds that an advertising platform is recording the visit double. The heaviest ad tracking on the web does not sit with the giants.
An advertising pixel is a small piece of code from an ad platform such as Meta, TikTok or LinkedIn. It records what visitors do on a site so the platform can measure ad results, find similar customers and show ads to past visitors. Each pixel also adds code to the page and sends visitor data to another company, which is why the number a site runs matters to its speed and its privacy duties.
Pixel use peaks in the middle of the web. **14.9%** of the 1,000 most visited websites run at least one advertising pixel on their homepage, against 29.6% of sites ranked between 100,000 and 1 million, twice the rate. The smallest sites fall back to 16.3%.
## What we measured
We used the September 2026 HTTP Archive crawl, a public record of the technology on the homepages of 15,470,478 websites. For each homepage we counted how many of 12 advertising platforms' tracking pixels it loads, including those from Meta, TikTok, X, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit and Snap. We averaged the count by popularity rank, by site type and by country domain, and calculated the share of sites running at least one.
An advertising pixel, or ad pixel, is any of those 12 platforms' tracking codes; a social ad pixel is one from a social network. A site's popularity rank places it among the most visited 1,000, 10,000, 100,000 websites and so on; "mid-sized" means ranked between 1,000 and 1 million, and the smallest sites are those ranked beyond 10 million.
## The most visited websites track ads least
0.51
advertising pixels load on the average homepage of a website ranked between 1,000 and 100,000, the most of any size band.
From the top 1,000 websites, at 0.30 pixels per homepage, the average climbs to 0.51 for sites ranked between 1,000 and 100,000, then falls to 0.47, 0.30 and finally 0.19 among the smallest sites. The share of sites running any ad pixel follows the same arc, from 14.9% at the top to 29.6% in the middle and 16.3% at the bottom.
Any ad pixel by popularity rank
Top 1,000
14.9%
1,000 to 10,000
25%
10,000 to 100,000
27.3%
100,000 to 1 million
29.6%
1 million to 10 million
23.3%
Beyond 10 million
16.3%
Source: Suff Digital analysis of 15,470,478 homepages · the public HTTP Archive crawl, September 2026
| Popularity rank | Average ad pixels | Average social ad pixels | Any ad pixel |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Top 1,000 | 0.30 | 0.21 | 14.9% |
| 1,000 to 10,000 | 0.50 | 0.37 | 25% |
| 10,000 to 100,000 | 0.51 | 0.38 | 27.3% |
| 100,000 to 1 million | 0.47 | 0.36 | 29.6% |
| 1 million to 10 million | 0.30 | 0.24 | 23.3% |
| Beyond 10 million | 0.19 | 0.15 | 16.3% |
The shape follows who owns each part of the web. The most visited sites include search engines, news publishers, government services and software platforms whose homepages sell nothing directly. The middle is full of established online brands that live on paid ads and need every platform's data. The long tail is personal sites and small businesses, most of which run no ads at all.
## Shopify stores and B2B sites carry the most pixels
By site type, Shopify stores are the most heavily tracked: 63.6% run at least one advertising pixel, and they average 0.75 pixels per homepage, nearly three times the 0.26 average across all websites. Business-to-business sites that run marketing automation software come next at 0.69 pixels, with 43.7% running at least one.
Any ad pixel by group
Shopify stores
63.6%
B2B sites with marketing automation
43.7%
All online stores
35.2%
WordPress sites
19.2%
| Group | Average ad pixels | Any ad pixel |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Shopify stores | 0.75 | 63.6% |
| B2B sites with marketing automation | 0.69 | 43.7% |
| All online stores | 0.44 | 35.2% |
| WordPress sites | 0.24 | 19.2% |
Online stores overall average 0.44 pixels, and WordPress sites 0.24, close to the web average. The groups that depend most on paid ads, stores and lead-driven B2B firms, are the ones that install the most platforms' tracking.
## Australian websites track three times as much as German ones
Country domains vary widely. Australian websites average 0.44 advertising pixels per homepage and 35.7% run at least one, the same level as online stores. German websites average 0.14, and only 11.5% run any ad pixel. French (0.18) and Spanish (0.21) websites also sit well below UK (0.27) and Canadian (0.31) ones.
Any ad pixel by country domain
Australia
35.7%
Canada
23.4%
UK
21.7%
EU country domains (all)
19.6%
.us
18.3%
Spain
16.9%
France
15.3%
Germany
11.5%
| Country domain | Average ad pixels | Any ad pixel |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Australia | 0.44 | 35.7% |
| Canada | 0.31 | 23.4% |
| UK | 0.27 | 21.7% |
| EU country domains (all) | 0.25 | 19.6% |
| .us | 0.24 | 18.3% |
| Spain | 0.21 | 16.9% |
| France | 0.18 | 15.3% |
| Germany | 0.14 | 11.5% |
The European figures fit the EU's consent rules, which require a visitor's permission before a tracking pixel can run.
## One pixel does most of the work
Most of the pixel count comes from a single tag. The Meta Pixel is on 15.5% of all websites. The next most common social ad pixels, from TikTok and X, are on 1.65% and 1.64%, and LinkedIn's tag on 1.3%.
Share of all websites by ad pixel
Meta Pixel
15.5%
TikTok Pixel
1.65%
X (Twitter) Ads pixel
1.64%
LinkedIn Insight Tag
1.3%
Pinterest tag
0.49%
Reddit Pixel
0.25%
Snap Pixel
0.04%
So when a site runs more pixels than average, it has usually added a second or third platform on top of Meta. Mid-sized sites also carry the most social ad pixels, 0.38 per homepage for sites ranked between 10,000 and 100,000 against 0.21 for the top 1,000, as they add TikTok, X or LinkedIn alongside Facebook and Instagram.
## What this means for marketers
Benchmark your tracking against sites like yours, not against the giants. A mid-sized brand or a Shopify store running two or three pixels is normal; a site running pixels for platforms it stopped advertising on is carrying dead weight. Every pixel adds code to the page and a data flow you have to disclose, so remove any that no longer feed an active campaign.
For the platforms you do use, make the data count. Send purchase and lead events from your server as well as the browser, so ad platforms can optimize on complete results, and make sure pixels wait for consent where the law requires it. A paid social agency (https://www.suffdigital.com/services/paid-social) can consolidate that tracking so every platform gets the signal it needs and nothing else loads.
## Embed this research
Paste this on your site to embed the charts. It links back to the source automatically.
Source: 14.9% of the Top 1,000 Websites Run an Ad Pixel vs 29.6% of Mid-Sized Sites - Suff Digital
## Cite this study
APA
Suff Digital. (2026). 14.9% of the Top 1,000 Websites Run an Ad Pixel vs 29.6% of Mid-Sized Sites. https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/ad-pixels-by-site-size
Plain link
14.9% of the Top 1,000 Websites Run an Ad Pixel vs 29.6% of Mid-Sized Sites - Suff Digital - https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/ad-pixels-by-site-size
## Frequently asked questions
### How many ad pixels does the average website run?
### Do the biggest websites run more ad pixels?
### Which websites run the most ad pixels?
### Which ad pixel is most common?
## Related studies
- Paid Social 64.8% of Online Stores Run No Ad Pixel on Their Homepage vs 36.4% of Shopify Stores: https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/tracking-pixels-per-online-store
- Paid Social 84.7% of Websites That Track Social Ads Use Only One Platform: https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/multiple-social-ad-pixels-websites
- Paid Social 33.7% of Australian Websites Run the Meta Pixel vs 5.3% of German Websites: https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/meta-pixel-adoption-websites
- Paid Social Only 2.9% of Shopify Stores Run the TikTok Pixel, Almost Always Alongside Meta's: https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/shopify-social-commerce-pixels
## Structured data
```json
[
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@graph": [
{
"@type": "Organization",
"@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#organization",
"name": "Suff Digital",
"alternateName": "Suff Digital Marketing",
"url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/",
"logo": {
"@type": "ImageObject",
"@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#logo",
"url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/logo.png",
"contentUrl": "https://www.suffdigital.com/logo.png",
"caption": "Suff Digital"
},
"image": {
"@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#logo"
},
"description": "Suff Digital is a full-stack digital marketing agency that turns websites into predictable revenue engines, SEO, paid media, content, CRO, and web design built around revenue, not vanity metrics.",
"slogan": "Digital marketing built for what's next.",
"email": "hello@suffdigital.com",
"telephone": "+1-629-236-0099",
"foundingDate": "2022",
"founder": {
"@type": "Person",
"name": "Matt Suffoletto",
"jobTitle": "Founder & CEO"
},
"contactPoint": [
{
"@type": "ContactPoint",
"telephone": "+1-629-236-0099",
"email": "hello@suffdigital.com",
"contactType": "sales",
"areaServed": "US",
"availableLanguage": [
"en"
]
}
],
"address": {
"@type": "PostalAddress",
"addressLocality": "Nashville",
"addressRegion": "TN",
"postalCode": "37219",
"addressCountry": "US"
},
"areaServed": {
"@type": "Country",
"name": "United States"
},
"sameAs": [
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/suff-digital/",
"https://www.instagram.com/suffdigital/",
"https://www.youtube.com/@suffdigitalmarketing",
"https://www.tiktok.com/@suffdigital"
],
"knowsAbout": [
"Search Engine Optimization",
"Pay-Per-Click Advertising",
"Paid Social Advertising",
"Conversion Rate Optimization",
"Web Design",
"Digital PR",
"Link Building",
"Website Migration",
"Website Maintenance and Support",
"Technical SEO",
"Local SEO",
"AI Search Optimization"
],
"hasOfferCatalog": {
"@type": "OfferCatalog",
"name": "Suff Digital Services",
"itemListElement": [
{
"@type": "Offer",
"itemOffered": {
"@type": "Service",
"name": "Search Engine Optimization (SEO)",
"url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/"
}
},
{
"@type": "Offer",
"itemOffered": {
"@type": "Service",
"name": "Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising",
"url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/ppc"
}
},
{
"@type": "Offer",
"itemOffered": {
"@type": "Service",
"name": "Paid Social Advertising",
"url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/paid-social"
}
},
{
"@type": "Offer",
"itemOffered": {
"@type": "Service",
"name": "Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)",
"url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/cro"
}
},
{
"@type": "Offer",
"itemOffered": {
"@type": "Service",
"name": "Web Design",
"url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/web-design"
}
},
{
"@type": "Offer",
"itemOffered": {
"@type": "Service",
"name": "Digital PR & Link Building",
"url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/digital-pr"
}
},
{
"@type": "Offer",
"itemOffered": {
"@type": "Service",
"name": "Website Migration",
"url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/website-migration"
}
},
{
"@type": "Offer",
"itemOffered": {
"@type": "Service",
"name": "Website Maintenance & Support",
"url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/website-maintenance"
}
}
]
}
},
{
"@type": "WebSite",
"@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#website",
"url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/",
"name": "Suff Digital",
"inLanguage": "en-US",
"publisher": {
"@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#organization"
}
}
]
},
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@graph": [
{
"@type": "Article",
"@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/ad-pixels-by-site-size#article",
"headline": "14.9% of the Top 1,000 Websites Run an Ad Pixel vs 29.6% of Mid-Sized Sites",
"description": "14.9% of the 1,000 most visited websites run an advertising pixel on their homepage, half the 29.6% rate of sites ranked between 100,000 and 1 million. Ad tracking peaks among mid-sized websites and falls away at both ends of the web.",
"image": [
"https://www.suffdigital.com/images/suff-digital-share-16x9.jpg"
],
"url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/ad-pixels-by-site-size",
"datePublished": "2026-09-24",
"dateModified": "2026-09-24",
"author": {
"@type": "Person",
"name": "Matt Suffoletto",
"jobTitle": "Founder & CEO",
"url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/who-we-are"
},
"publisher": {
"@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#organization"
},
"mainEntityOfPage": {
"@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/ad-pixels-by-site-size",
"@type": "WebPage"
},
"isPartOf": {
"@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#website"
}
},
{
"@type": "BreadcrumbList",
"@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/ad-pixels-by-site-size#breadcrumb",
"itemListElement": [
{
"@type": "ListItem",
"position": 1,
"name": "Home",
"item": "https://www.suffdigital.com/"
},
{
"@type": "ListItem",
"position": 2,
"name": "Resources",
"item": "https://www.suffdigital.com/resources"
},
{
"@type": "ListItem",
"position": 3,
"name": "Data Studies",
"item": "https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies"
},
{
"@type": "ListItem",
"position": 4,
"name": "14.9% of the Top 1,000 Websites Run an Ad Pixel vs 29.6% of Mid-Sized Sites"
}
]
},
{
"@type": "Dataset",
"@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/ad-pixels-by-site-size#dataset",
"name": "14.9% of the Top 1,000 Websites Run an Ad Pixel vs 29.6% of Mid-Sized Sites",
"description": "14.9% of the 1,000 most visited websites run an advertising pixel on their homepage, half the 29.6% rate of sites ranked between 100,000 and 1 million. Ad tracking peaks among mid-sized websites and falls away at both ends of the web.",
"url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/ad-pixels-by-site-size",
"creator": {
"@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#organization"
},
"datePublished": "2026-09-24",
"dateModified": "2026-09-24",
"license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"isAccessibleForFree": true,
"measurementTechnique": "HTTP Archive, the public monthly crawl of website homepages"
},
{
"@type": "FAQPage",
"@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/ad-pixels-by-site-size#faq",
"mainEntity": [
{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "How many ad pixels does the average website run?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "The average website homepage loads 0.26 advertising pixels (September 2026). Websites ranked between 1,000 and 100,000 load the most, 0.51 on average."
}
},
{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "Do the biggest websites run more ad pixels?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "No. 14.9% of the 1,000 most visited websites run an advertising pixel on their homepage, half the 29.6% of websites ranked between 100,000 and 1 million."
}
},
{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "Which websites run the most ad pixels?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "Shopify stores, which average 0.75 advertising pixels per homepage, with 63.6% running at least one."
}
},
{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "Which ad pixel is most common?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "The Meta Pixel, found on 15.5% of all websites. The TikTok Pixel (1.65%) and the X Ads pixel (1.64%) come next."
}
}
]
}
]
}
]
```