Basic metrics guide to measuring your Facebook ads

When it comes to launching a Facebook Ads campaign, we are faced with a large number of decisions that we must make in order for our ads to achieve the best possible results: audience, placements, format, budget, etc.

In order to analyse the return on all the decisions we make before launching a campaign, it is essential to identify the main metrics that will allow us to continuously monitor the performance of our Facebook Ads and avoid mistakes in the future.

TABLA DE CONTENIDOS

• Qué entendemos por métricas de Facebook Ads
• Optimización de campañas de Facebook Ads: ¿Por qué es tan importante?
• ¿Cuáles son las métricas de Facebook Ads en las que deberías fijarte?
• Pasos para revisar el funcionamiento de tus campañas

What do we mean by Facebook Ads metrics?

As you probably know, Facebook automatically manages ads. Even so, to ensure that your ads are working you will need to track performance using Facebook Ads metrics. By metrics we mean those indicators or data that are used to analyse the results of the advertising campaigns that are launched.

Thanks to these metrics, it is possible to know if an ad is getting good results or if, on the contrary, it is advisable to optimise it by making some modifications that allow us to get closer to the objective set.

Optimising Facebook Ads campaigns: Why is it so important?

Campaign optimisation is the process of improving the performance of ad campaigns once they have been activated. Campaign metrics are found in the Meta Ads Manager and are activated at the time the campaigns are launched. Analysing the main Facebook Ads metrics is key to checking if campaigns are working correctly or if we need to make modifications.

There are many modifications: Reducing the cost per acquisition, increasing the reach of the ads or the total clicks to be obtained from them. It's a simple process that is complicated by too much information and history. For that reason, here's an overview of the basic metrics to look out for in your Facebook Ads campaigns.

What are the Facebook Ads metrics you should be looking at?

As we have mentioned there are many metrics that can be analysed when it comes to tracking a Facebook Ads campaign. We have grouped these metrics into 3 groups to make it easier to measure your Facebook campaigns:

Performance metrics 

They reflect the results achieved with advertising campaigns and the average cost of achieving the objectives set.

• Impressions: Each impression is one view of the ad by the user. This metric indicates how many times a user saw the ad. Impressions will be more or less important depending on the objective of the campaign.

• Amount spent: This is a key indicator to control the costs of the campaign to ensure that you do not exceed your budget in a specific period of time. It is important to take into account the expenditure in order to know the total investment made in the campaign.

• Results: Shows how many times the campaign has achieved the expected result.

• Cost per result: This shows the average cost per result obtained from the average of the total results and the advertising expenditure.

• Performance rate: The percentage of users who take a specific action, based on the required ad impressions.

• Click-Through Rate (CTR): Calculates how often a user clicks on your ad. If users do not click on an ad, the CTR will be low. And, for this reason, the cost per result of your ad is high.

• Frequency: This allows you to know the number of times the user has seen each ad. If your campaign aims to reinforce your brand, you will want your frequency to be high because you want to create brand awareness and for your users to remember you.

• CPM (Cost per thousand impressions): Reflects the cost of buying 1,000 impressions for a given campaign or set of ads.

• Clicks: These represent the number of times users click on your ads: like, click on the link that leads to your landing page or any other interaction within your landing page.

Interaction metrics

They show how attractive your campaign ads are for your target audience to interact with.

• Interactions with the publication: These are the reactions, shares, clicks and comments that the advertisements receive.

• Video views and percentage of video played: These indicate how many times your video has been viewed.

Conversion metrics

They refer to concrete results of campaigns with a conversion target, such as cost per purchase or value of items added to the shopping cart.

• Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): This is how profitable the advertising campaigns are. Literally, it is the money used in the campaigns in relation to the money made from them.

Steps to review in the operation of your campaigns

In the Meta Ads Manager you will find insights on the performance of each ad you run on Facebook, Instagram or any other platform in the group. Here are the steps you need to follow in order to review performance:

1. Analyse the performance of your campaigns

   Log in to the Meta Ads Manager (Facebook Ads Manager).

2. Filter by objectives and dates

   Filter to be able to compare two different ranges and to be able to see how they are evolving.

3. Check out the campaign

   Once a day you should check the evolution of the campaigns, so you will be able to know what the trend of the ads is.

4. Metrics report

   Choose the metrics and the right report that is most useful or interesting to you according to your objective.

Now that you know what Facebook Ads metrics are for and what they are, there is no excuse to start analysing them in order to optimise your campaigns and get the results you expect from your Facebook Ads.