Everything You Need To Know About Facebook Ads Reporting

Your job as an advertiser doesn't end when you hit "Publish" on Facebook Ads Manager. It's just the beginning, my friend. A bulk of your job has something to do with Facebook Ads reporting, and that's what we will discuss today.

Using the reports from Facebook Ads can provide you a tremendous amount of data that can be used to improve the results of your ad campaigns.

The easiest way to analyze the performance of your campaigns is to use the Facebook Ads Manager.

Campaign Reporting Using Facebook Ads Manager

Facebook Ads Manager is the primary tool where you can create, manage, and analyze your campaigns.

Here are three ways on how to access your Facebook Ads Manager account:

• Facebook Ads Manager direct link.
• Facebook's Ads Manager mobile app available on iPhone and Android.
• If you have admin access to your Facebook page, click on the drop-down arrow in the upper-right corner and select "Business Manager."

With this tool, you can apply filters to show campaigns by dates, objectives, etc. You can do an in-depth campaign performance review of every single ad set or ad.

Always set the correct date range when reviewing your Facebook ad reports!

You can compare two different date ranges if you want to see how your campaign performance has evolved.

Select the Last 7 Days to learn the current performance of a campaign.

Keep in mind that selecting a longer date range can change all your metrics, making it difficult for you to understand your recent campaign performance.

As you navigate the Campaigns tab in the Ads Manager, you'll see the reporting table with various metrics like reach, impressions, frequency, etc. 

Also, Facebook Ads Manager lets you customize columns to analyze metrics about Performance, Engagement, and Conversions.

How To Customize Facebook Ads Reports Column

Facebook Ads Manager displays the most relevant ad metrics for you. Still, you can customize it to fit the most valuable ones.

To customize your Facebook Ads metrics, follow these steps:

• Step 1: Click the Columns button on top.
• Step 2: Select Metrics.
• Step 3: Select or Deselect the metrics you want to see in your dashboard.

Facebook Ads Manager has many different metrics available to help you with an in-depth analysis of your ad campaign performance. Here's the complete list of parameters you can set when you customize your Facebook Ads reports column.

• Performance: Results, Result Rate, Reach, Frequency, Impressions, Delivery, Amount Spent, Clicks (All), CPC (All), CTR (All), Gross Impressions (Includes Invalid Impressions from Non-human Traffic), Auto-Refresh Impressions, Quality Ranking, Engagement Rate Ranking, Conversion Rate Ranking, Cost per Result, Cost per 1,000 People Reached, CPM (Cost per 1,000 Impressions), Ad Delivery, Ad Set Delivery, and Campaign Delivery.
• Engagement: Page Engagement, Page Likes, Post Comments, Post Engagement, Post Reactions, Post Saves, Post Shares, Photo Views, Event Responses, Check-Ins, 100% In-View Impressions, 100% In-View Reach, Effect Share, Cost per Page Engagement, Cost per Page Like, Cost per Post Engagement, Cost per Event Response, New Messaging Connections, Blocked Messaging Connections, Messaging Conversations Started, Cost per New Messaging Connection, Cost per Messaging Conversations Started, etc.
• Conversion: Achievements Unlocked, Cost per Achievement Unlocked, Achievements Unlocked Conversion Value, Unique Achievements Unlocked, Cost per Unique Achievement Unlocked, Adds of Payment Info, Cost per Add of Payment Info, Adds of Payment Info Conversion Value, Unique Adds of Payment Info, Cost per Unique Add of Payment Info, Adds to Cart, Cost per Add to Cart, Adds to Cart Conversion Value, Unique Adds to Cart, Cost per Unique Add to Cart, Adds to Wishlist, etc.

Advanced Reporting Using Breakdowns

Facebook Ads Manager lets you further break down your campaign reports by Level, Time, Delivery, Action, Settings, and Dynamic Creative Asset.

To add breakdown columns to your Facebook Ads reports, follow these steps:

• Step 1: Click the Columns button on top.
• Step 2: Select Breakdown.
• Step 3: Select or Deselect the breakdown column you want to see in your dashboard.

Here a list of options you can select for your campaign reports by utilizing the Breakdown menu:

• Level: Campaign Name, Ad Set Name, Ad Name, Campaign ID, Ad Set ID, and Ad ID.
• Time: Day, Week, 2 Weeks, and Month.
• Delivery: Age, Gender, Business Locations, Country, Region, DMA Region, Impression Device, Platform, Placement, Device Platform, Product ID, Time of Day (Ad Account Time Zone), and Time of Day (Viewer's Time Zone).
• Action: Conversion Device, Post Reaction Type, Destination, Video View Type, Video Sound, Carousel Card, and Instant Experience Component.
• Settings: Objective.
• Dynamic Creative Asset: Call To Action, Description, Headline (Ad Settings), Image, Text, Video, and Website URL.

You can find answers to several questions using the campaign breakdown, including: 

• Which among all your ad placements is performing well?
• What times of day or days of the week produce the highest conversions at the cheapest cost?
• What countries are best-performing? 

Here's a tip: Take your time to navigate all the Facebook Ads reporting options in the Ads Manager. In time, you will understand the most crucial metrics and best practices for Facebook Ads campaign optimization.

Store And Automate Reports

Facebook Ads Manager lets you schedule daily or weekly campaign reports to be sent to your inbox for FREE. You can save the report and have it emailed to you regularly once you've created a report.

On the right of your "breakdown" tab, click on the Report tab. Then you'll see the option to export your ads manager dashboard into the following:

• Table data.
• Create a custom report.
• Create a sharing link.
• View and create new reports.

There's a lot of data you can collect in these automated Facebook Ads reports, so enjoy creating different ones.

And that's everything you need to know about Facebook Ads reporting!

It would be best if you spent enough time navigating within Facebook Ads reporting to familiarize yourself with your business's most valuable metrics.

Check out the recommended resources below to learn more about Facebook Ads reporting. 

Recommended Facebook Ads Resources

• Facebook and Instagram Ad Reports
• How to Easily Analyze Facebook Ad Results With 3 Custom Reports
• Facebook Launches Cross-Account Reporting and Custom Ad Metrics

So what do you think about this article? Are you now familiar with Facebook Ads reports?

Leave a comment below and let's discuss.

As always, it will be a great honor if you think this article is SHARE worthy.

Header image courtesy of Jumpstory.

About the Author Tim Fitzpatrick

Tim Fitzpatrick is the President of Rialto Marketing. At Rialto Marketing, we help small businesses & entrepreneurs eliminate the confusion of marketing by focusing on the fundamentals. As a marketing partner, we help clients put in place and manage a simple marketing plan so they can grow. Marketing your business shouldn't be a challenge. All you need is a plan.