Facebook Ads Manager Column Setup: Key Metrics for eCommerce Campaigns

As a performance marketer, one of the biggest challenges is analyzing ad performance effectively. Meta Ads Manager provides a variety of metrics, but it’s easy to feel lost when deciding which ones to focus on.

Should you analyze your creative, audience, or funnel performance? Which metrics are essential for scaling or pausing a campaign?

In this article, I’ll share a column setup I’ve refined over time. It’s a mix of my experience and insights from industry experts like Dara Denney, Ben Heath, and Jon Loomer. This setup will help you make data-driven decisions with clarity.

Why Column Setup Matters

Customizing columns in Ads Manager helps you focus on the metrics that matter most. A good setup ensures you:

1. Avoid wasting time on unnecessary data.
2. Make confident decisions about scaling or pausing ads.
3. Spot issues in your campaigns faster.

Let’s dive in.

If you’re unfamiliar with how to customize columns in Ads Manager, check out this guide for step-by-step instructions.

The 5 Key Categories of Metrics

To make analysis simpler, I group metrics into these five categories:

1. Campaign Settings
2. Primary Metrics for Decision-Making
3. Audience Insights Metrics
4. Creative Performance Metrics
5. Conversion Funnel Metrics

Now, let’s explore each category in detail.

1. Campaign Settings

This category provides a quick health check for your campaigns, ad sets, and creatives.

Columns to Include:

1. Delivery: Presents the status of the campaign, ad set, or creative. Possible values include:
   • Campaign: Active, Pending, Review, Inactive.
   • Ad Set: Active, Learning, Learning Limited, Campaign Off.
   • Creative: Active, Creative Limited, or Fatigued.
   • Why it matters: Delivery status helps you identify whether campaigns are running as expected or stuck in learning phases. A “Learning Limited” status might indicate insufficient data to optimize performance.
2. Bid Strategy:
   • Displays the strategy used to manage bids (e.g., cost cap, bid cap, target ROAS).
   • Why it matters: Knowing the bid strategy ensures you’re aligning ad performance with your overall goals, whether it’s cost efficiency or scaling.
3. Attribution Setting:
   1. Shows the conversion window applied, e.g., “7-day click, 1-day view.”
   2. Why it matters: Attribution impacts how conversions are tracked and credited. Ensure it aligns with your campaign objectives.

Tip: If bid strategies and attribution settings are consistent across your account, you can skip these columns to reduce clutter.

2. Primary Metrics for Decision-Making

These are the most critical metrics to decide whether to scale, pause, or turn off an ad set.

Columns to Include:

• Budget& Amount Spent
  • Budget represents the allocated spending limit for the campaign or ad set, whereas Amount Spent represents the total spend over a specific time frame.
  • Why it matters: Monitor if budgets are being fully utilized. If performance is strong and you’re not hitting the budget, there might be room to scale.
• Purchases:
  • Total number of purchases attributed to the campaign.
  • Why it matters: This is your primary indicator of performance for ecommerce campaigns.
• Cost Per Purchase (CPP):
  • The average cost to acquire one purchase.
  • Why it matters: Lower CPP means greater efficiency. Compare it with your target CPP to decide whether to scale or pause.
• Purchase Conversion Value:
  • Total revenue generated from purchases.
  • Why it matters: This shows the actual monetary impact of your ads. High revenue with low ROAS tells that while your ads are bringing in revenue, they are costing too much to generate that revenue.
• Average Order Value (AOV):
  • The average revenue per transaction.
  • Why it matters: Track AOV to understand if your upselling or bundling strategies are working.
• Return on Ad Spend (ROAS):
  • Revenue generated per dollar spent.
  • Why it matters: ROAS is a direct measure of profitability. A high ROAS indicates a well-optimized campaign.

How to Use These Metrics:

• If ROAS and CPP meet or exceed your goals, continue running or scaling the campaign.
• Monitor Amount Spent versus Budget. If using a cost cap or ROAS cap, hitting the budget limit may signal an opportunity to adjust your caps for better efficiency.

3. Audience Insights Metrics

These metrics help you understand your ad’s reach and how often your audience sees it.

Columns to Include:

• Frequency:
  • Average number of times a person has seen your ad.
  • Why it matters: High frequency (above 2-3) in prospecting campaigns might cause ad fatigue. Retargeting campaigns can handle slightly higher frequencies.
• Reach:
  • Number of unique people who have seen your ad.
  • Why it matters: Reach shows how effectively your campaign expands audience awareness.
• Impressions:
  • Total number of times your ad was shown (including repeat views).
  • Why it matters: Comparing impressions with reach helps gauge how often your audience is being retargeted.
• Cost Per Mille (CPM):
  • The cost to show your ad 1,000 times.
  • Why it matters: High CPM could indicate competitive bidding or irrelevant targeting. Pair CPM with CTR and conversions to evaluate efficiency.

How to Use These Metrics:

• For prospecting campaigns, keep Frequency below 2. If it’s higher, you may be reaching the same audience repeatedly, indicating ad fatigue.
• Use CPM alongside metrics like CTR and conversion rate. A high CPM doesn’t always mean inefficiency—it may reflect a valuable audience segment.

4. Creative Performance Metrics

This category tells you how your creatives are performing and whether they’re resonating with your audience.

Columns to Include:

• Hook Rate:
  • The percentage of users who stay engaged with your video for the first 3 seconds.
  • Hook Rate is not a predefined metric in Meta Ads Manager. To calculate it, divide the 3-Second Video Views by the Impressions and multiply by 100.
  • Why it matters: A strong hook rate ensures your ad grabs attention immediately.
• Hold Rate:
  • The percentage of users who continue watching the video beyond the first 3 seconds (e.g., 15 seconds or more).
  • Hold Rate is also a custom metric. To calculate it, divide the 15-Second Video Views by the 3-Second Video Views and multiply by 100.
  • Why it matters: Low hold rate suggests your messaging or storytelling may lose interest after the initial engagement.
• Video Average Play Time:
  • The average time viewers spend watching your video.
  • Why it matters: Longer play times suggest high engagement.
• Post Shares:
  • Number of times users share your ad.
  • Why it matters: Indicates the viral potential of your creative.
• Unique Outbound CTR:
  • The percentage of viewers clicking your ad to visit your landing page.
  • Why it matters: A high CTR shows your creative effectively drives traffic.

How to Use These Metrics:

• If Hook Rate is high but Hold Rate is low, your creative may not sustain interest after the initial hook.
• Post Shares indicate whether your audience finds the ad engaging enough to share.
• Use Unique Outbound CTR to gauge how effectively your ad drives traffic to your landing page.

5. Conversion Funnel Metrics

These metrics track the customer journey from ad interaction to purchase.

Columns to Include:

1. Outbound Link Clicks: Total clicks leading users to your site.
2. Landing Page Views: People who clicked and waited for the page to load.
3. Add to Cart: Number of items added to carts.
4. Initiate Checkout: Number of people who started the checkout process.
5. Purchases: Total purchases completed.
6. Cost Per Action: Costs for each key action (e.g., link click, add-to-cart, checkout).

How to Use These Metrics:

• Identify bottlenecks in the funnel. For example, if Landing Page Views are high but Add to Cart is low, your landing page may need optimization.
• Use Cost Per Action to ensure profitability at each stage of the customer journey.

Conclusion: Simplify Your Analysis, Maximize Your Results

Setting up the right columns in Meta Ads Manager can turn chaos into clarity. By focusing on these key metrics, you’ll make better-informed decisions about scaling, optimizing, or pausing campaigns.

This setup isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Adapt it to suit your specific goals and campaigns.

If you have any questions or additional suggestions, drop them in the comments.