Metrics Mastery With Facebook Ads Manager Reporting
Table of Contents
Metrics Mastery with Facebook Ads Manager Reporting
Do you take advantage of Facebook ads manager valuable insights?
You may already know that checking your critical metrics for ad performance is necessary for successful campaigns, but maybe detailed reports hurt your brain!
You're in the right place my friend, because I understand and used to feel the same way until I learned to break it down to simpler pieces.

Let’s make sense of the reporting tool together, shall we?
Facebook advertising has so many benefits but there's more to it than the ad creatives and custom conversions.
The magic is in understanding those tiny numbers and graphs that show up in your Ads Manager.

Understanding the Basics
Facebook ad reporting in your ad account is incredibly robust, which makes it look intimidating. But the good news is, not every little column and number is necessary for measuring your ad campaign's performance.
It all depends on what your Key performance indicators or KPIs are, and those will vary depending on your objective.
For example, if you're running a simple leads ad campaign, you won't need any data about “adding to cart” “or anything to do with apps.
Knowing what data you actually need, will help simplify your report. So how do you create Facebook ad reports with your important kpis?
Let's get in to some specific Facebook ad performance options.
Facebook Ads Reports
These are your gold mine of information. Want something specific? That's where Custom Reports come into play.
It’s like creating a checklist of all your important metrics and leaving the rest behind.
And Facebook has finally started to make things easier by adding a built in report template which will quickly become your best friend. 👯

Key Metrics to Monitor
This is the juicy part. Sometimes, it's easy enough to see if your ads are working because you're getting sales and you think “yay I sold 50 items my ads are working”
But, it's crucial to know how much you spent to get each sale, each click, what audience performed best, and many other variables. And, if your objective isn't sales you'll need to know if you're hitting the mark in your campaign.
By taking a closer look at your Facebook ads performance and making any necessary changes, you can improve your results.
Below are a few common metrics
- Campaign performance
- Conversion rate
- Clicks
- Cost per click
- Click through Rate
- Cost per result
- Roas for purchases
How to Create a New Report
From Facebook ads account you will find the reporting section on the left hand side menu.

Click Create report
To Create a Report Using Templates
- Open Ads Reporting.
- Choose an available report template from the right panel. If the panel has been collapsed, reopen it to see the templates.
- Customize your report by editing, adding or deleting metrics and breakdowns.
- You can export your report, or save the report with your chosen metrics and breakdowns to come back to later.
Pro Tip:
If you found a particular report template helpful, you can pin it on the main Ads Reporting page, or archive ones that aren't helpful to you.
Customize Columns
To truly master your reports, you’ll want to customize columns so you only see the Facebook ads metrics you're interested in and get rid of all the rest, for a clean snapshot of your performance data.
To create custom columns you will click the customize button and the columns drop-down menu will appear on the right hand side. Start checking and unchecking boxes to add or delete columns.
- Click customize
- Toggle to metrics
- Check and uncheck boxes

You can even reorder the columns to your preference.
Advanced Insights and Strategies
Successful campaigns typically take a lot of testing. The best Facebook ads have dialed in their target audience, copywriting that speaks to the audience, and a creative (ad) that stops the scroll in the feed.
By knowing a variety of metrics, whether it's conversion metrics, click-through rate, video views or number of conversions, you'll have actionable insights to make the necessary tweaks to get better results.
Keep in mind Facebook campaigns are not a perfect science and can be tricky. To have success you not only need to know your metrics, but there might be factors out of your control that are causing poor results.
For example, election years, the current social climate, certain holidays and seasons, or the economy can cause higher ad costs.
Pro Tip:
Start with a smaller daily budget for testing and once you have hit your important kpi's you can increase your budget for scaling.
If you need more details you can check out Facebook's official lesson on how to measure success on your ads.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best tools for Facebook Ads reporting?
Facebook Ads Manager offers a range of tools to help you analyze and report on your ads performance. You can use the Ads Manager to create custom reports, view metrics, and export data.
How can I access Facebook Ads reports?
To access your Facebook Ads reports, log in to your Facebook Ads Manager account and click on the “Reporting” tab. From here, you can create custom reports, view pre-built reports, and export data. You can also access your reports via the Facebook Ads API.
What is the Facebook Ads reporting API?
The Facebook Ads reporting API allows you to programmatically access your Facebook Ads reports and data. This API can be used to create custom reports, automate data exports, and integrate your Facebook Ads data with other tools and services. To use the Facebook Ads reporting API, you will need to create a developer account and obtain an access token.
How can I compare reports for different Facebook accounts?
To compare reports for different Facebook accounts, you can use the Facebook Ads Manager's “Account Overview” feature. This feature allows you to view performance metrics across multiple accounts and ad campaigns.
Final Thoughts
Remember, it’s all about adapting and staying curious. Social media is always changing and successful Facebook ad campaigns take a lot of testing.
If you're not happy with the results, make some changes and keep testing, until your ads are getting you the results you want.
I always tell my clients to be willing to spend money for gathering data, because ultimately, by knowing your metrics you're able to see what's not performing well.
Armed with the metrics, you can go back to your campaigns and make changes to your messaging, audiences, ads, and offer.
When I hear people say “my ads didn't work” I can ask a few questions or do an audit and come up with a new strategy to get your campaign performing the way you want.
Would you like me to do an audit of your last campaign? Reach out to chat @ Stacy@Socialgenx.com