Understanding your PixelProof scan results

A PixelProof scan returns a list of findings. Each finding names one thing the scanner detected (or explicitly could not detect) about your store's pixel wiring. This guide walks every finding category the current rules engine can emit, what its severity means, and the single action to take per finding.

The four severity levels

Findings are labeled critical, warning, info, or unknown. The rendered severity chip on your dashboard uses those exact strings. There are no high or medium labels, and there are no other levels beyond these four.

critical means an event that Meta or another ad platform relies on for optimization is at real risk of not firing. Fix today. warning means something is off but ad spend is not being actively wasted this minute, look at it this week. info means the scanner confirmed a pixel or wiring signal is present and healthy, no action needed. unknown means the storefront-only scan cannot see enough to answer, and the follow-up path (Chrome extension or manual walkthrough) is required to confirm.

Category 1: Meta Pixel and other ad-platform pixels

Findings with ids like meta-pixel, tiktok-pixel, snapchat-pixel, and pinterest-tag are ad-platform pixel detections. Severity is almost always info, the scanner is telling you it saw the loader script for that platform on your storefront. If two Meta Pixel IDs fire on the same page, a separate duplicate-meta-pixel finding surfaces at warning, because duplicate pixels double-count Purchase events and skew your reported ROAS. Fix: identify which Pixel ID belongs to your active ad account (visible in Events Manager under Data Sources) and remove the others.

Category 2: GTM (Google Tag Manager)

The gtm finding fires at warning severity when a Google Tag Manager container is detected on the storefront. GTM itself is fine, but a GTM container hides the actual pixel-firing logic behind a UI that a storefront scanner cannot see. Fix: open your GTM workspace, confirm each ad-platform tag inside the container has a firing trigger that actually maps to the events you want, and export the container JSON so you have a versioned backup. Google's own tag management documentation on developers.google.com covers the audit steps.

Category 3: Shopify Web Pixels Manager

An info-severity signal that the storefront loads pixels through the modern Shopify Web Pixel sandbox rather than server-rendered script tags. Reference: the Web Pixels API on shopify.dev. Individual pixel scripts often will not appear in raw HTML for these stores, the sandbox is designed to hide them. Action: install the free PixelProof Chrome extension to see the exact pixel list inside your admin.

Category 4: Checkout Additional Scripts

The most consequential category. On non-Plus Shopify stores this finding lands at critical, on Plus stores it drops to warning. Meaning: the scanner cannot confirm from a storefront-only scan whether your checkout.liquid or Additional Scripts box actually still fires the Purchase event, which is the exact tracking surface Shopify's Aug 26 2026 checkout upgrade removes. Fix: install the Chrome extension or run the Meta Pixel troubleshooting walkthrough manually.

Category 5: Headless / hydrated storefront

A warning-severity finding introduced in the Aug 2026 rules-engine update. Fires when Shopify is detected but zero pixel or analytics loaders are visible in the server-rendered HTML, typical of Shopify Hydrogen and other headless React front-ends. Full explanation in the headless Shopify Hydrogen storefronts KB article.

Category 6: Meta API sunset wave

Always included on every scan, warning severity, informational rather than store-specific. The scanner is reminding you that Graph API v20 sunsets Sep 24 2026, Marketing API v24 sunsets Oct 6 2026, and 47 Commerce endpoints block Oct 27 2026. Reference: Meta's Graph API changelog on developers.facebook.com. No per-store action, this is calendar-tracking context.

Interpreting the empty-state result

A scan that returns zero findings on a non-Shopify site is a real answer: no ad-pixel loaders and no GTM container were detected in your storefront HTML. This is normal for content sites, static marketing pages, and stores using strict cookie-consent that blocks pixel loading pre-consent. It is not evidence that your site has no tracking, only that no storefront-visible pixel wiring was detected. If you expected pixels to be present, verify consent-mode configuration and check the California AG guidance on CCPA-compliant tracking on oag.ca.gov for the interaction between consent gating and pixel visibility.

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Related articles

How to add your first Shopify store to PixelProof

Meta Pixel troubleshooting, common errors and fixes

Headless Shopify Hydrogen storefronts and PixelProof

PixelProof product home

FAQ

Why is severity only critical / warning / info / unknown, not a numeric score? Numeric severity scores are hard to act on. Every finding maps to a specific action, so the four-way categorical label maps directly to a triage decision: fix today, look this week, no action, or run the follow-up check.

Does an "info" finding ever require action? Only if the info is a duplicate. Two meta-pixel info findings on the same page is a duplicate-pixel situation and the separate duplicate-meta-pixel warning will also fire.

How often do the findings change? Rules-engine updates ship whenever a new detection is added. The most recent addition (Aug 2026) was headless-or-hydrated-storefront. Every update is noted in the changelog.

Still stuck? Email support@digitalempireholdings.com or support@digitalempireholdings.com.

FAQ

Why is severity only critical / warning / info / unknown, not a numeric score?

Numeric severity scores are hard to act on. Every finding maps to a specific action, so the four-way categorical label maps directly to a triage decision: fix today, look this week, no action, or run the follow-up check.

Does an "info" finding ever require action?

Only if the info is a duplicate. Two `meta-pixel` info findings on the same page is a duplicate-pixel situation and the separate `duplicate-meta-pixel` warning will also fire.

How often do the findings change?

Rules-engine updates ship whenever a new detection is added. The most recent addition (Aug 2026) was `headless-or-hydrated-storefront`. Every update is noted in the changelog.