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Why do Creative Lab numbers differ from the Ads Manager?

Creative Lab adds up ads by creative and leaves out Incremental Attribution, View-Through and currency conversion, so its numbers can differ.

What both pages have in common

Attribution is how TrueROAS decides which ad gets the credit for a sale. Creative Lab and the Ads Manager both credit sales with your store's attribution model and window, and both follow your store's settings for tax, shipping and refunds. The differences come from how Creative Lab loads, groups and shows your Meta ads, as described below.

One row per creative

Creative Lab adds up all the ads that use the same image or video into one row, while the Ads Manager lists each ad on its own under its ad set and campaign. To compare a creative with the Ads Manager, add up the ads there that use it. How the rows are formed is explained in What do the numbers on the Ad Performance tab mean?.

The cards on Creative Breakdown are worked out in yet another way, and one ad can count on several cards. See How do I see which images, videos, headlines and ad copies work best?.

Incremental Attribution and View-Through do not apply

The Incremental Attribution and View-Through switches of the Ads Manager have no effect in Creative Lab. Creative Lab always shows the sales TrueROAS tracked itself, without the sales these switches add. With either switch on, the Ads Manager can show more sales and a higher ROAS for the same ads.

What the switches do is explained in What is Incremental Attribution and how does it work? and What does the View-Through switch do?.

Campaign filters do not apply

The Meta Campaign Name Filter and your Campaign Auto-Filters hide campaigns in the Ads Manager, but not in Creative Lab. Creative Lab loads ads from every campaign in your Meta ad account, so its spend and Meta figures can be higher than in a filtered Ads Manager. See What is the difference between the Meta Campaign Name Filter and Campaign Auto-Filters? and How do Campaign Auto-Filters work?.

Which ads are loaded

Clicks are counted differently

On the Ad Performance tab, Clicks, CPC and CTR are based on link clicks, the clicks that take people to your website. In the Ads Manager, Clicks counts every click on the ad. So Creative Lab usually shows fewer clicks, a higher CPC and a lower CTR for the same ads. Compare What do the numbers on the Ad Performance tab mean? with What do the columns in the Ads Manager mean?.

Currency

Creative Lab shows spend, the amounts worked out from it such as CPC and CPA, and the sales Meta reports as Meta sends them: in the currency of your Meta ad account, with your store's currency sign. The sales TrueROAS tracked are in your store currency. The Ads Manager converts Meta amounts to your store currency, as explained in How do Google, TikTok, Pinterest and Snapchat campaigns differ in the Ads Manager?.

When your Meta ad account uses another currency than your store:

  • Spend and Meta's figures in Creative Lab do not match the Ads Manager.
  • The TrueROAS ROAS in Creative Lab divides sales in your store currency by spend in the ad account's currency, so it is off by the exchange rate.

To check which currency your store uses, see Which currency and time zone do my numbers use?.

Dates and loading

Good to know

  • Use the Ads Manager to see the sales of each campaign, ad set and ad, and Creative Lab to compare creatives with each other.
  • These differences are the same for everyone on the store. The Incremental Attribution and View-Through switches are saved to your login, so how much they widen the gap depends on how each person has set them.
  • You cannot turn on Incremental Attribution or View-Through in Creative Lab, filter it by campaign, or have it convert Meta amounts to your store currency.
  • Why TrueROAS sales differ from what Meta reports is explained in Why don't my TrueROAS numbers match Meta or Shopify?. Why the Dashboard and the Ads Manager can differ is explained in Why don't my Dashboard Meta or Google sales match the Ads Manager?.