The Facebook Ad Metrics That Actually Matter

It can be really exciting to see the data rolling in on your first Facebook ad campaign. But it can also be really overwhelming. That’s because Facebook gives you a lot of information to work with. Seriously, open Facebook Ads Reporting and start scrolling through the metrics and breakdowns available to you.

See what we mean?

And here’s the thing – just because Facebook is reporting on something, doesn’t mean it’s the kind of something you need to consider when evaluating the success of your campaign. It might feel good to see that your ad got a lot of engagement, but if you wanted to generate leads … engagement isn’t necessarily going to move the needle on that front.

So how do you sift through all of that data and find the metrics that really matter?

Well, let’s start with a few that don’t

Reach. This is the number of individual people who saw your ad, which sounds pretty important. But it actually doesn’t tell you all that much. People saw your ad. OK, what kind of people? Did they click through to your website? Did they buy something from you? There’s just no context here to provide any meaningful insights about your campaign.

Clicks. Before you gasp, hear us out. There are all kinds of clicks out there and they are not equal in value. A click could be someone clicking the CTA button on your ad, or it could be someone clicking “See more” to read the rest of your ad copy. The first click is awesome. The other one? Not so much.

Relevance Score. Everyone was talking about relevance score when Facebook rolled it out. After all, it told you on a scale of 1-10 how well your ad was being received by your target audience! It’s a nice idea in theory, but we’ve seen plenty of ads with low scores driving traffic and/or conversions.

These are the metrics you should be focusing on.

Results: The number of times your ad achieved an outcome, based on the objective and settings you selected.

Remember when Facebook asked you to set an objective? This is where you find out whether the thing you set out to achieve – lead generation, web traffic, app installs – actually happened. This is Number 1 on our book of metrics that matter because it’s the reason you even created the ad to begin with.

Cost Per Result: The average cost per result from your ads.

It’s great to see results, but it’s important that you’re getting the most bang for your buck. How much are those results costing you? The idea is to get more results for less dollars. If your cost per result is high, you might need to rethink your current strategy.

Impressions: The number of times your ads were on screen.

Let’s say Mr. Smith saw your ad today, and then he saw it two days later, and then once more a week later. He would be counted just one time in reach, but three times under impressions. Rather than focus on reach, we like to look at impressions because it’s a good way to measure brand awareness and (with a little extra digging) what platform your ad is getting the most traction on.

Frequency: The average number of times each person saw your ad.

The last thing you want to do is annoy a potential customer. And do you know what’s annoying? Seeing the same ad over and over and over again. If you have a high frequency rate, it’s a good indicator that you’ve saturated your audience and need to update your ad creative.

Link Clicks: The number of clicks on links within the ad that led to destinations or experiences, on or off Facebook.

Getting people to go from your Facebook ad to your website is a big step. It represents that first move through the sales funnel and gets you one step closer to a conversion. Keeping track of these is essential to understanding whether your ad is working.

CTR (Link Clicks): The percentage of times people saw your ad and performed a link click.

If link clicks tell you your ad is working, then your link click CTR (click-through rate) tells you how well. Ideally, you want your CTR to be around 1-2%. If it’s not hitting close to that, it could mean your messaging isn’t resonating as well as you hoped.

Interested in running Facebook ads but don’t know where to start? Over the years, the team at Higgins Marketing Group has learned what it takes to create a Facebook ad campaign that not only engages users but turns them into customers. Contact us today to learn how we can work together to create the right Facebook campaign for your business.