11 Facebook Ad Metrics You Can’t Afford to Overlook

Pre-iOS 14, running ads was as simple as plugging in a few creatives into different ad sets…each with only one detailed interest.

Now? Running ads requires way more skill.

Many factors come into play when it comes to the success of your ads. It’s no longer mostly correlated with the detailed interests you thought of that week.

And with Facebook ads becoming more and more expensive, it's more important than ever to be able to read and understand your results. Partly so that you can see what's working. Mostly so that you can explain your findings to your clients.

Let’s dive into the 11 key Facebook ads metrics that you’ll find in your ads dashboard. We’ll uncover what they really mean for your performance and the necessary actions to take to make sure your advertising efforts are translating into a healthy return on investment (ROI). 

What are Facebook ad metrics?

So, let’s break it down: 

Your campaign is up and running, and now you want to see how it's performing. That's what performance metrics are for. They help you measure the real impact of your Facebook ads and answer questions such as:

• Is my target audience engaging with the content?
• Is this driving the conversion action I want it to?
• Are my key performance indicators (KPIs) being met?

These numbers don't just tell you if people are seeing your ads – they show you whether your messaging and creative are truly hitting the mark. So, let’s explore some of the most important types of performance metrics that you should keep track of.

What are the key metrics to track in Facebook ad campaigns?

In this article, we’re going to divide the key ad metrics into three categories: Performance metrics, cost metrics, and engagement metrics.

To break the concept down further, here’s the story that each category tells you. 

• Performance metrics: These metrics show you the overall effectiveness of your advertising efforts. How many conversions are your campaigns generating?
• Cost metrics: These metrics explain the money you’re investing into achieving conversions. What does it cost your brand to generate a conversion?
• Engagement metrics: These metrics show you how relevant your ads are to the audience you’re targeting. Is your target audience interacting with your ads?

Performance metrics

As mentioned above, your performance metrics will show you the effectiveness of your ad campaigns. These are the most important metrics in your ad account because they directly show you how your ads are performing and whether or not they are achieving your goals.

Let’s look at the different metrics that fall into this category:

1. Results (Conversions)

What was the business goal you wanted to achieve with your Facebook campaigns? It can be anything like - getting more website traffic, more sales, more newsletter subscriptions, etc. So, Results (AKA conversions) refers to the total number of times your ads achieved their desired outcome.

Why do results matter?

Keeping track of results is crucial to understanding business outcomes, as conversions show you exactly what you're getting in return for your ad spend. On top of that, monitoring and analyzing conversions can help you identify potential issues along the customer journey. 

For example, let's suppose your goal is to increase sales. If you see a lot of people visiting your website but bouncing back without making a purchase, your problem might be a bad user experience or a lack of education on the landing pages you're using.

But if you see a lot of impressions but barely any website visits, that could tell you that your creatives aren't resonating with your audience. 

2. Conversion rate

Conversion rate shows you how many conversions your ads had compared to the total number of people who landed on your website through an ad.

The formula to calculate the conversion rate is:

Here are the average conversion rates across all industries:

Why do conversion rates matter?

Tracking conversion rates will help you determine whether there is a disconnect between your ad and your landing page.

• A low CVR shows that people are interested in your ads, so you've hit the target audience. However, there's an issue with your landing page. Maybe the messaging isn't consistent, or maybe your website needs some love.

3. ROAS (return on ad spend)

Want to know how much revenue you're generating for every $1 you've invested in ads? That's exactly what ROAS helps you measure. Think of it as an indicator of the overall health and profitability of your advertising efforts. 

The formula to calculate ROAS is:

So if you generated revenue of $5,000 while investing a total of $2,000, your ROAS will be 2.5.

Why does ROAS matter?

By calculating ROAS, you can assess the profitability of individual campaigns, identify the best-performing ones, and allocate your budget more efficiently.

For e-commerce stores, your ROAS is the most important Facebook ads metric. It essentially describes the profitability of your Facebook ads campaign.

For lead-generating campaigns, your north star is the cost per conversion (cost per lead, to be specific) and the number of leads you generate from the ads.

Cost metrics

Your cost metrics show you how your budget is being spent in your Facebook ads account. This is important because it helps you understand the profitability of your ads.

4. Amount spent

The amount spent is just the total amount you've invested in your ad campaign or a specific ad during a defined period.

5. CPC

Just like your customers need to know how much it costs to buy your product, you need to know how much it costs to get a click from them. That's what we call CPC or cost per click.

The formula to calculate CPC is:

Suppose you've got 500 clicks from a campaign and spent $1,000 in total. Your CPC is $2.

For context, the average CPC across all industries is $1.72. Here are the average CPCs across all industries:

Why do CPCs matter?

Although CPCs are more relevant in PPC channels, they can still tell you a lot from your Facebook analytics. When it's low, it usually means your CPMs are low, too. And that means you're going further with your ad dollars, assuming that your results are still high.

6. CPM (Cost per 1000 impressions)

Cost per mille (CPM) indicates the average amount you're spending for every 1,000 ad impressions (static or video views). This is how Meta charges advertisers.

The formula to calculate CPM is:

The average Facebook CPM sat around $8.70 in January 2024. Here’s how CPM fluctuated over the year: 

Here are the average CPMs across all industries in 2023: 

How do you lower CPMs?

• Broaden your audience. The more narrow your audience is, the more expensive they will be.
• Make your ads more “relevant.” Before 2019, Facebook used to give each ad a score from 1 to 10. This was known as the Relevance Score. Now it’s known as Ad Relevance Diagnostic, which is essentially the same thing. But the concept stays the same: the more relevant your ads are to the audience you’re targeting, the lower your CPMs will be. Remember, Facebook’s priority is user experience.

Why do CPMs matter?

It all comes down to lowering your costs. A lower CPM means your ad will be seen more. Which means you’ll have a higher number of conversions at a lower cost.

7. Cost per result

When running a campaign, you can have different goals, such as increasing website visits or driving sales. Your cost per result shows you how much each goal completion costs you. For lead-generating campaigns, your CPA (cost per action - in this case, lead) is the most important metric.

This metric covers numerous sub-metrics like page likes, lead generation, link clicks, landing page visits, app installations, and more—it depends on which specific action you are aiming for and which one you set Facebook advertising to track.

The formula to calculate cost per result is:

 Here are the average CPAs on Facebook:

Engagement metrics

Engagement metrics have a bad reputation for being just "vanity metrics." But that's not the whole story.

Your Facebook engagement stats provide an overview of the success of your social media advertising campaign. It helps you answer the following:

• Are my ads hitting a relevant audience?
• Does the audience I'm targeting have a high engagement rate?

8. Impressions

The impressions metric tracks how many times your ad has been displayed on screens. This number includes multiple views by the same users. Each time your ad is displayed, it counts as an impression, regardless of whether it’s seen by new viewers or not.

Why do impressions matter?

A high impression count signals that your ad is circulating, which can indicate that your campaign is effective at placing your ad in front of users. However, because impressions include multiple views by the same individuals, a high count doesn’t necessarily mean you’re reaching a wide audience. This distinction is important; if you're interested in how many unique users see your ad, "Reach" is the specific metric that tracks unique views.

9. Clicks

The link clicks metric measures how many times users click on call-to-action buttons within your ad. Unlike broader click metrics, link clicks focus on interactions that are directly related to your ad’s objectives, such as driving traffic to your website or landing page.

Understanding different types of click metrics:

Facebook offers three primary click metrics to help advertisers understand different aspects of user interaction:

• Clicks (All): This metric counts all clicks within an ad, including clicks on links, call-to-action buttons, and even the page name. It measures the ad’s engagement.
• Link Clicks: Link clicks measure clicks that lead to the destination of your ads, whether that be on or off Facebook.
• Outbound Clicks: This metric measures the number of clicks that lead a user outside of the Facebook platform. This is important for ads that want to send traffic to the brand’s website, for example.

Why do clicks matter?

A high number of link clicks shows you that your ad is resonating with and effectively motivating your target audience to take the next desired step, such as visiting your website or subscribing to a newsletter.

However, low link clicks suggest that while your targeting may be relevant, the ad creative itself isn't compelling enough to drive engagement.

The best way to increase clicks? Include more CTAs in your ad.

10. CTR (click-through rate)

The click-through rate (CTR) is the number of clicks divided by the number of impressions.

The formula to calculate your ad's CTR is:

A high CTR suggests that your ad copy, creative assets, and targeting are resonating with your desired audience, leading to more clicks and potential conversions. A low CTR shows that you're either targeting the wrong audience or your ads need a little work.

Here are the average CTRs across all industries: 

11. Frequency

Facebook ads frequency is the average number of times a person has seen your ad.

The formula to calculate ad frequency is:

If you're advertising a more expensive product, then frequency would be on the higher side. But if your ad frequency begins to creep over your average, that could mean you're experiencing ad fatigue and that you should switch them out.

How to monitor Facebook ads metrics

Effectively monitoring your Facebook ads is crucial for optimizing your campaigns and achieving the best possible outcomes. In this section, we'll explore the tools that can help you keep track of your ad performance.

Meta’s native analytics tools

When you go to Meta's business suite, you’ll be able to access the Ads Manager. 

In the campaign view of your Facebook Ads Manager, you’ll see a list of performance metrics related to your ad:

Facebook's pre-defined reports

The main report you’ll see in your campaign view is pretty basic. But Facebook offers different pre-defined reports for you to toggle between, as well as an option to customize your columns. 

Facebook's live dashboard

Under the “Reports” tab to the right of the “Columns” tab shown above, you’ll also be able to create performance reports and ad breakdowns to share with your team and clients.

Facebook used to have an analytics tool, which they sunsetted in 2021. 

One-Click Report by Madgicx

Madgicx’s One-Click Report simplifies this entire process and makes all the data easier to digest.

Here’s what you can do with One-Click Report: 

1. Build & edit existing templates

Through Madgicx’s One-Click Report, you can either build your own report from scratch, so that you have all the metrics that you want to see. Or, you can use one of Madgicx’s pre-built templates. 

Our advice? Start with a template and edit it to include the metrics you’re looking for. 

2. View data from multiple sources 

If you're running ads on more than one platform, like Google ads or TikTok ads, you can create reports in the One-Click Report that blend all the metrics into an easy-to-digest live dashboard.

Try One-Click Report for free!

Conclusion

Whether you’re a media buyer who’s trying to generate an ROI from their ad spend or manage an agency running Facebook ads for your clients, reporting is what you’ll spend most of your time on. 

And if you’re using Facebook’s native reporting platforms, you’re likely spending more time on reporting than you should. We’re not even going to mention the time you’ve spent looking across the different paid advertising channels.