What do the numbers in the Meta Ads report mean?
How spend, ROAS, CPA, hook rate, funnel rates and the best and worst ads in the Meta Ads report are worked out, with the targets and colours used.
Where the numbers come from
Every number in the Meta Ads report is what Meta reports for the ad account selected for your store, for the report's dates. Revenue and Purchases are Meta's own count of purchases and their value. They are not the sales TrueROAS tracked in your store, so they are usually higher than what the Dashboard shows for Meta. See Why don't my TrueROAS numbers match Meta or Shopify?.
On the cards, in the tables and in the lists of this report, a ROAS is green at 2x or more, orange from 1x and red below 1x.
The cards at the top
| Card | How it is worked out |
|---|---|
| Total Spend | What Meta reports you spent on your campaigns. |
| Revenue | The purchase value Meta reports. |
| ROAS | Revenue divided by Total Spend. |
| CPA | Total Spend divided by Purchases. It reads 0.00 when Meta reported no purchases. |
| Purchases | The purchases Meta reports. |
| CTR | Clicks divided by impressions, as a percentage. Every kind of click Meta counts is included, not only clicks to your site. |
| CPM | The average CPM of your campaigns, weighted by how many impressions each one had. |
| Frequency | The average frequency of your campaigns, weighted by how many impressions each one had. It shows in red above 2.5x. |
Top Campaigns & Ad Sets
- Top 3 Campaigns are the three campaigns with the most revenue, marked #1 to #3. Each shows Spend, Revenue, ROAS, Purchases, CTR and CPA, worked out the same way as the cards at the top.
- Top 3 Ad Sets are the three ad sets with the most revenue, picked from the 50 ad sets that spent the most. The campaign name sits under the ad set name. Each shows Spend, Revenue, ROAS, Purchases, Freq. and CPM as Meta reports them for that ad set.
Performance Trends
The charts show the report's dates one day at a time.
- Spend vs Revenue: a grey line for spend and a blue line for revenue. Each line has its own scale, spend on the left and revenue on the right, so compare the shapes of the lines rather than their heights.
- ROAS Trend: the ROAS of each day, with a dashed red Break-even line at 1x.
- Purchases vs Spend: spend as bars and purchases as a line. It only shows when Meta reported a purchase on at least one day.
- Frequency & CPM Over Time: CPM on the left scale and frequency on the right. A day's frequency is that day's impressions divided by the number of people reached that day. The chart only shows when Meta reported a CPM.
Ad Insights
The section looks at the 20 ads that spent the most in the report's dates.
- Top Performers has three cards: Best ROAS, the ad with the highest ROAS; Top Spend, the ad with the most spend; and Best CTR, the ad with the highest CTR.
- Needs Attention has three cards: Worst ROAS, the ad with the lowest ROAS; Most Wasteful; and Lowest CTR, the ad with the lowest CTR. Most Wasteful is the ad with the most spend among those with a ROAS below 1x. When no ad is below 1x, it is the ad with the lowest ROAS, the same as Worst ROAS.
- Every card except Top Spend only picks from ads that spent at least 1% of what those 20 ads spent together, and at least 5 in your ad account's currency. When no ad does, the section is left out.
The same ad can show in more than one card. Each card shows the ad's picture, or No preview when Meta sends none, a Video label on video ads, the names of the ad, its ad set and its campaign, and Spend, Revenue, ROAS, Purchases and CTR for that ad.
Creative Health
Each bar compares a number with its target. The bar is green when the number reaches 80% of the target, orange from 50% of the target and red below that. A bar is left out when Meta has no data for it, for example the hook and hold rates when none of your videos were watched.
| Bar | How it is worked out | Target and colours |
|---|---|---|
| Hook Rate (3s views) | Video views of at least 3 seconds divided by all impressions, image ads included | Target: >25%. Green from 20%, orange from 12.5% |
| Hold Rate (thruplay) | ThruPlays divided by the views of at least 3 seconds | Target: >15%. Green from 12%, orange from 7.5% |
| Landing Page Reach | Landing page views divided by clicks that left Meta, so how many clicks actually loaded your site | Target: >80%. Green from 64%, orange from 40% |
| Ad Frequency | The same number as the Frequency card | Target: <2.5x. Green up to 3.5x, orange up to 5x, red above 5x |
Avg CPM under the bars is the same number as the CPM card.
Funnel Health
The funnel shows Link Clicks, Add to Cart, Initiate Checkout and Purchase as Meta counts them. A step with 0 is left out, and the funnel only shows when at least two steps are above 0. Between two steps, a percentage followed by conversion is the second step divided by the first.
The cards under the funnel compare each step with a target:
| Card | How it is worked out | Target and colours |
|---|---|---|
| Click to Cart | Add to carts divided by link clicks | Target: 8-10%. Green from 9%, orange from 5%, red below |
| Cart to Checkout | Checkouts started divided by add to carts | Target: ~50%. Green from 50%, orange from 30%, red below |
| Checkout to Purchase | Purchases divided by checkouts started | Target: 40-50%. Green from 45%, orange from 30%, red below |
A card is left out when the step it divides by is 0.
Audience Demographics and Geographic Performance
- Gender Split (by spend) and Device Split (by spend) show how your spend was split. A slice of at least 5% shows its percentage.
- The devices are Mobile for ads seen in a mobile app, Mobile Web for ads seen in a browser on a phone, and Desktop.
- Device Performance lists the spend and the ROAS of each device.
- Spend by Age Group & Gender stacks the spend on Male, Female and Unknown for each age group, from 13-17 to 65+.
- Geographic Performance charts the revenue of up to 10 countries and lists up to 15 countries with Country, Spend, Revenue, ROAS and Impressions.
Good to know
- The targets and colour limits are built into the report. You cannot change them.
- The sections in the report, and which ad account it covers, are listed in What is in the Meta Ads report?.
- Everyone on the store sees the same report. Its numbers are fetched once, when the report is made, and do not change afterwards.
- Hook rate, hold rate and the funnel are worked out over the whole ad account. You cannot see them for one campaign or ad in the report.