Key Facebook Ads Metrics in advertising campaign

Published: 09.12.2021    Updated: 20.09.2023

Let’s talk about Facebook Ads performance metrics. Launching an advertising campaign on Facebook Ads is one of the most popular online advertising tools that allows affiliates to promote their affiliate programs on the Facebook platform. For convenience, the ADS Manager tool is used, which helps to create advertising and manage it effectively.

However, it is important to choose the right approach for pouring traffic and set the right settings in accordance with your target audience and the objectives of the campaign itself. Elena Yena, a digital marketer, strategist and PPC specialist, told how to do this at the SalesDoubler webinar.

Facebook Ads: как влиять на ключевые показатели эффективности рекламной кампании?

Test period of the advertising campaign

The Facebook Ads campaign test period is the period during which you can experiment with your advertising campaign to determine which aspects work best for your target audience, which target groups are most effective, and which types of messages and creatives are optimal for attracting leads.

You can also test different ad customization options during the trial period, such as different types of compelling headlines, descriptions, and images. You can run a test to determine which ad campaign changes are performing well.

The test period is a great opportunity to test new ideas and strategies in an advertising campaign. If you haven’t used certain advertising approaches before, then a test period can give you an opportunity to discover which one works best for your target audience. Even an experienced affiliate may have certain questions when working with a project that is fundamentally new to him, as there will be not only a new audience, but also new offers and creatives. Therefore, it is necessary to test the hypotheses and see how the Ad campaign turns out at the initial stages in order to predict what will happen next.

What if you need a plan at the start?

An advertiser can, of course, request a media plan. Sometimes it is difficult, because it is not always possible to clearly tell about the further strategy without some testing. Don’t panic. For this, there are certain solutions to the issue:

  • Convince the client that without a test it is impossible to predict how many coverages and what indicators will be.
  • Prepare 3 options for the media plan forecast: pessimistic, realistic and optimistic.

What can be tested at the beginning of an advertising campaign?

  • Audiences. Facebook Ads provides the ability to test different audiences to find the one that interacts best with your ad content and delivers the best results. To do this, of course, you need to think about which target audience can bring profit.
  • Messages. Much depends on the content. You must provide the correct information. It all depends on the product of course. What should the consumer pay attention to and what characteristics are important to attract a lead.
  • Insides. They can be used to test an ad campaign to find out what can be improved.
  • Formats. Facebook provides several format options that you can use to test your ad campaign. Let’s take a look at some of the most common ones. carousels: allows you to use multiple images to test creative with text; A/B Testing: This format allows you to compare two different versions of the ad to see which one performs better. Split testing: This format allows you to test different ad variations with different audiences to determine which ad option is most effective for each individual audience; Multi-variable testing is a testing technique that allows you to test several variables at the same time in Facebook posts. Instead of testing just one element (such as a header or image), you can test more complex combinations together: header, image, text, and buttons.
  • Creatives. Testing creatives can help you determine the effectiveness of your ad campaign based on image, video, or text that should entice a lead to take an action.

Also, the choice of approach to testing depends on the resources of the project: Consistently (limited budgets are tested longer); In parallel (we test large budgets faster).

How to determine the budget?

The size of the budget depends on what project you are working on and, of course, in which region. For the calculation, several rules should be observed. We will tell you about a few of the main ones.

  • you should build on the number of audiences that you plan to test;
  • the structure of the advertising campaign should be carefully considered;
  • determine at least $5-10 per day in one group.

It is also important to consider that there is no exact timeline for testing. As a rule, for the first launches it takes up to a month for B2C niches and from 1 to 4 months for B2B niches, but in practice this is individual for each project.

As soon as the results are stable, then we can say that the test period is over, and develop a strategy based on the data obtained. After testing it is necessary:

  • leave the most effective combinations of audiences + messages and work only with them;
  • gradually scale up: expand region and/or budget;
  • monitor the price of the lead and the budget expenditure on the advertising campaign;
  • continue to test new hypotheses, but in a smaller amount – about 10% of the test budget.
  • You need to be prepared that not all hypotheses will be in KPI, and in total campaigns may experience cost overruns. Don’t panic! This is fine!

What metrics are important to track depending on the type of project?

Facebook Ads is a powerful advertising tool that allows affiliates to advertise products and services on the Facebook platform. Metrics are specific metrics that measure the success of a Facebook ad campaign. All of them are interconnected, therefore they have a direct influence on each other. To understand how effective your advertising campaign is, you need to track different metrics depending on the type of project.

Project type: Lead generation

If your goal is lead generation, and 90% that is your goal, then the main metrics will be indicators that allow you to track the number of people interacting with your ad. We offer you to get acquainted with the main Facebook metrics that can help you analyze the success of your advertising campaign.

  • CPC (Cost Per Click). This metric allows you to measure the cost per click based on the number of users who are interested in your ad. This helps to evaluate the effectiveness of advertising content and targeting.
  • CTR (Click-Through Rate) is the ratio of the number of clicks to the number of impressions. CTR is the CPI of a Facebook ad, showing the percentage of users who clicked on your creative. A high CTR means that your ad is interested in a large number of users.

If the CTR in the advertising campaign is 1%, then everything is within the normal range, and if it is 0.3-0.5%, then there are problems that you should think about and do more testing.

  • Return on Ad Spend, ROAS. This metric reflects how much income we received compared to the total amount invested. This helps to evaluate the effectiveness of an advertising campaign and understand whether it is worth investing more in it.
  • Cost per Mille, CPM indicates the cost of displaying an advertising banner or other type of advertising per thousand views.

To decrease CPM you can:

  • expand and change the audience and geography;
  • reduce the budget in the face of high competition;
  • improve the quality of the ad;
  • View a breakdown by placements and exclude high-value placements.
  • Frequency is the number of times an ad was shown to users on average. This means that this metric measures how many times a unique user has seen an ad according to the number of impressions. 
  • Engagement indicates the number of user interactions with a post: likes, comments, reposts, and clicks. This metric measures how well a post captures the attention of users and encourages them to interact with it.

Project type: E-commerce

Another type of project is E-commerce. Here, in addition to the above, we use several more indicators for a successful advertising campaign for online stores.

  • Adding to cart. This is a metric that measures the number of times users add an item to their shopping cart on a website after clicking through a Facebook ad. This metric is important for determining the effectiveness of an advertising campaign in attracting interested customers to the site and increasing their willingness to make a purchase. Of course, adding an item to your cart doesn’t mean the purchase is complete, but it’s the first step in the conversion process, so it’s important to pay attention to this metric and use it to analyze and improve the performance of your Facebook ad campaign.
  • Start of placing an order – allows you to determine the effectiveness of an advertising campaign on Facebook Ads in the context of conversions and purchases. If this metric scores high, it means that the ad campaign is attracting interested users who are starting the checkout process. However, if the numbers are low, you may need to review your campaign and ad settings to improve your ad performance and reach more interested customers.
  • Purchases displays the number of purchases that have been made on the site since the transition from a Facebook ad. This metric is very important because it indicates the effectiveness of your advertising campaign in attracting customers and increasing profits. If this metric is high, it indicates the effectiveness of your advertising campaign and the successful acquisition of buyers. And if the indicators are low, then you should test other options for the audience or content to increase the effectiveness of advertising.
  • Conversion Value displays the total amount of profit received from a certain conversion, for example, from the purchase of a product on the site. This metric allows you to determine how much each conversion cost and how much of the revenue it generates. This metric helps you understand which conversions were the most profitable and relative to which ad campaigns or ads they occurred.

It allows you to measure the effectiveness of an advertising campaign not only by the number of conversions, but also by their value. It can also be used to identify more profitable audiences that generate higher conversion value.

What are the Key Facebook Ads Metrics and how to influence them?

In contrast to metrics, there are also performance characteristics. Metrics help you understand how well each aspect is performing, while performance metrics give you a general overview of the entire campaign performance. For example, a Facebook metric could be CTR (click-through rate), which shows how many times users clicked on an ad relative to the number of impressions. And a performance indicator can be ROI (return on investment), showing how effectively you use your advertising costs to generate profit. We hope you understand the allegory. Facebook Ads has several KPIs that you can use to measure the performance of your ad campaign. Let’s tell you about them.

Facebook Ads KPIs

  • ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) Return on ad spend measures how much money your campaign earns from every dollar spent on ads. To improve ROAS, you need to provide an effective targeting strategy that will reach your target audience.
  • CTR (Click-Through Rate) The percentage of clicks. This indicator measures what percentage of users who saw your ad went to the site / page or did other targeted action.
  • CPA (Cost per Action) The cost of attracting one client. Measures how much money is spent on attracting one client. To improve CPA, you should work on reducing advertising costs and improving your landing pages or website.
  • ROI (Return on Investment) Measure how much you earned from an advertising campaign compared to the cost. To improve ROI, you need to optimize your ads, choose the right audience, create a campaign for a specific goal, and use retargeting. Retargeting will allow you to reach those who have already expressed interest in your company, and therefore they are more likely to become your leads. Use this feature to show ads to people who have already visited your landing page or interacted with your Facebook posts.

It is important not to stop in the analysis. You must constantly monitor performance and metrics in order to see the full picture of your advertising campaign. This is the only way you can set up an advertising campaign that can bring a big profit.

Key Facebook Ads Metrics: Conversion Rate

Conversion Rate is one of the key indicators of the effectiveness of a Facebook advertising campaign. It displays the percentage of users who took a targeted action on a Facebook page or landing page after clicking through from an ad.

The conversion rate is calculated as the ratio of the number of conversions to the number of ad views, after which we multiply the result by 100%.

Key Facebook Ads Metrics in advertising campaign

For example, if your ad campaign had 1000 views and the number of conversions was 20, then the conversion rate would be 2% ((20/1000)*100%).

This indicator allows you to understand how effective your ad is. Of course, the higher the conversion rate, the more effective the advertising campaign. It is also important to remember that the conversion rate may differ depending on the category of goods or services, so it is important to take this aspect into account when comparing different campaigns.

The main influence on CR has:

  • affiliate program;
  • point of entry;
  • CTR;
  • traffic quality;
  • landing page technical correctness;
  • UX-design;
  • landing page design.

To increase CR, you need to change the offer and the entry point, constantly test the audience (may find more loyal ones), track user behavior, and improve the usability of the landing page. You can try to set up a solid targeting strategy that will allow you to attract more relevant audiences, create compelling and more relevant content for your target audience.

Key Facebook Ads Metrics: Cost Per Action 

Cost Per Action (CPA) or the cost of attracting one targeted action is an indicator of the effectiveness of an advertising campaign that measures the cost of attracting one lead to a purchase or other targeted action. CPA allows you to calculate how much each result you want to achieve costs and to understand whether this advertising strategy is effective.

To calculate CPA, you need to divide the total cost of an advertising campaign by the number of targeted actions received.

Key Facebook Ads Metrics in advertising campaign

For example, if you spent $500 on an advertising campaign and received 10 targeted actions, then the CPA will be $50 per purchase.

The following metrics affect CPA:

  • CPM (we show more expensive  – we pay more for the client);
  • CTR (the higher it is, the cheaper the customer is);
  • CR (if the landing page converts well, then the cost of attracting a paying customer is lower); 
  • Frequency.

To reduce CPA, you should reduce CPM, increase CTR, work on increasing CR and control the frequency of displaying ads – Frequency. To do this, you should use interest, behavior and demographic targeting, as well as retargeting, which allows you to show ads to users who have already expressed interest in your product or service.

In addition, it is important to pay attention to the content that you offer. Your creative and text should be attractive and relevant for the target audience, as well as interesting and beneficial for users.

You can also experiment with ad formats and types. Such as carousel ads, video ads, Instagram Page Sponsored Posts, mobile ads, and more. This will allow you to find the most effective way to reach your target audience.

How to determine the budget of an advertising campaign in Facebook Ads?

Determining the budget for a Facebook Ads campaign is a process that requires attention and care. Incorrect budget calculation can lead to expenses that will not bring the expected results. There is no universal formula or answer here. Because this is a combination of different indicators, by calculating which you can make an approximate budget. We recommend paying attention to these indicators in order to correctly determine the budget for your Facebook Ads campaign:

  • Define your goals and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). This will help you understand what results you want to get from your advertising campaign and what metrics you need to measure to evaluate its effectiveness.
  • Calculate CPA (cost of attraction of one target action). This will help you understand how much you should pay for one conversion.
  • Look at the level of competition and the size of the target audience. This can affect the cost of advertising and the amount of budget required.
  • Use test advertising campaigns. You need to start with a small budget and test different ad formats and settings to find the most effective way to promote.
  • Don’t forget about analytics. It will help you measure the effectiveness of an advertising campaign and understand whether the desired results have been achieved.

It is also important to consider the time factor. Some ad campaigns may be more effective at certain times or on certain days of the week. You should study the statistics of Facebook Insights and advertising campaigns to find the most successful moments for placing advertising messages.

Key Facebook Ads Metrics Summary

We looked at the key performance characteristics of Facebook Ads that help measure the success of an advertising campaign. We figured out the metrics and examined in detail the most important indicators for different types of offers. We realized that testing is the most important step in setting up an advertising campaign. And this is where performance indicators can help us. It is they, who will tell us the right decision for promotion and point out the mistakes that have been made.

Of course, it is important to form a budget, but do not forget that budgeting is not a one-time procedure. You can review and change your budget over time, especially if you receive new information about the effectiveness of your advertising campaign.

Register and pour traffic with SalesDoubler! We wish you more leads, high CR and low CPA! And remember that “Big goals are achievable!”

SalesDoubler.pro content manager

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *