How To Track Performance In Meta Ads

Accurately tracking the performance of your Meta Ads can be a challenging task due to the differences between what Meta Ads Manager shows, what Google Analytics 4 shows, and ultimately, the number of sales or leads you can identify.

Although exact tracking depends on whether you are generating sales or leads, there are a few steps you can take to help improve the accuracy of your tracking when running Meta Ads.

Meta Attribution

One of the most important aspects when it comes to tracking performance in Meta Ads is how the platform attributes conversions vs GA4. Often, when you compare performance between the two, you will generally find that the number of conversions is much higher on Meta Ads Manager compared to GA4.

This is essentially down to the different ways Meta Ads Manager and GA4 attribute conversions. Importantly, Meta’s default setting is a 7-day click and 1-day view-through window. Meaning, if a user clicks on a Meta Ad and purchases within 7 days, Meta will attribute the revenue to the ad.

A click here means any type of click – not specifically clicking onto the website. Meta will therefore also attribute a conversion to an ad if a user viewed the ad and purchased within 24 hours – something GA4 is unable to identify/attribute.

You can, however, also look to change the attribution settings within Meta Ads Manager. Meta gives you the ability to change the click-through window between 7 and 1 days, while the view-through window can be switched between 1 day or none.

Therefore, you could look to reduce the attribution windows for these to 1 day click-through and no view-through to help conversion data look closer to what you would see within GA4.

It’s also important to note, when Meta attributes a conversion to one of its ads, it will show 100% of the revenue for this ad. Whereas GA4 will generally try to attribute a certain percentage of a conversion to each channel involved in generating a conversion.

For this reason, you will see partial conversions for channels, including paid social, within GA4.

However, GA4 typically does not attribute much in terms of assisted conversions towards Meta, most likely due to Meta being a separate platform.

Because of this, we recommend that you look at the data coming from Meta separately to what you’re seeing in GA4 and on top of this, look at how your website is performing holistically, in line with your levels of Meta advertising activity. 

Performance Tracking Methods

There are a few different ways to track performance across your Meta Ads – here are the main ones…

Meta Pixel

If you have used Google Ads and Tag Manager previously, Meta Pixel works in a similar way – using a small piece of coding that needs to be implemented onto your site in order to accurately track users.

Installing the Meta Pixel onto your website requires installing a base pixel code into the header of your website, as well as creating event codes for each action you want to track – this is typically: page view, add to basket, initiate checkout, and purchase.

Having your pixel set up and working correctly is fundamental to ensure you can track the performance of your Meta Ads within Meta Ads manager – and to campaigns optimised towards your desired final conversion. Without it, your campaigns will struggle to optimise towards generating conversions.

URL Parameters

URL parameters are quite often overlooked for Meta Ads, however, they can help in terms of identifying traffic, and with it, conversions for Meta Ads within GA4 for example.

Adding these parameters essentially means you should be able to identify users who visit the site via Meta Ads as the identified landing page on GA4 will include your chosen URL parameters.

Additionally, you can look to set specific parameters for each ad and campaign which helps provide greater visibility on which campaigns and ads are performing strongest.

Conversion API

A Conversion API has become an essential component of tracking conversions across Meta Ads following changes made to data privacy following Apple’s iOS14 update back in 2021.

Without a Conversion API set up, users who opt out of tracking means Meta and GA4 are unable to identify which channel a user came from. A Conversion API helps by sending events directly from your server to Meta’s server, helping to ensure conversions are not missed.

As a result, having a Conversion API implemented means more conversions are accurately recorded within Meta Ads manager, which again allows for to further campaign optimisation.

Meta has a number of different partners you can use to set up a Conversion API, including Shopify, WordPress, WooCommerce, and Zapier. Luckily, once this has been correctly set up you can leave the Conversion API to run in the background – feeding conversion data back into Meta Ads manager.

Measuring The Right Metrics

Setting up the right methods of tracking is one thing – but knowing what you actually need to track is another. 

Remember, the key to success isn’t tracking everything, but focusing on the metrics that are right for your business goals.

Awareness Metrics

These metrics are all about who is seeing your ads. This is ideal for advertisers running band campaigns or those who just want to drive as much ad visibility as possible.

While these metrics don’t tell you if people are actually converting on your ads, they show you if your ads are getting the exposure you need to make a lasting impact.

Impressions

How many times your ad was shown to your audience. A good analogy for impressions is that they’re like ‘billboard views’.

Multiple impressions can come from a single user, so be aware that while high impressions may mean your ad is getting delivered, it doesn’t necessarily mean people are engaging.

Reach

Unlike impressions, reach shows how many unique people saw your ad. Use this in conjunction with impressions to evaluate the effectiveness of your ads. If you have 10,000 impressions but only 2,000 reach, that means the same people saw your ad multiple times.

This could call into question how engaging your ads are. On the other hand, if your ad had 10,000 impressions and 7,000 reach, this suggests you’ve captured a high number of unique visitors.

The key is to think about your goals and work from there. Do you want to get your ad in front of a customer as many times as possible? Or do you want to reach as many unique users as you can?

Frequency

This is the average number of times each person saw your ad. For brand awareness campaigns, a frequency of 1.5 – 3 is healthy. It gets your ad in front of the audience enough so they remember, but not too much so that they’re annoyed.

If your ad starts to creep past this, the audience may get ad fatigue and may interact negatively with your content or brand.

Engagement Metrics

These are all about measuring if people actually care about your ad and brand. You may be reaching a high volume of people, but are they the right people?

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

The percentage of people who clicked on your ad after seeing it. The CTR relates to if the audience has clicked onto any part of your ad, so not necessarily clicking through to your website. You can break this down further into Link Click CTR, which gives you a visual on who is clicking on the links on your ad.

A higher CTR means your creative and copy are compelling. According to research carried out by WordStream the CTR benchmark for traffic campaigns 1.57%, so around this figure is a decent result for most industries.

You can learn more about CTR here!

Cost Per Click (CPC)

How much you pay for each click. If your CPC is too high, this could signify either that your audience too broad, too competitive, or your ad isn’t resonating and no one is clicking.

You can learn more about CPC here!

Engagement (likes, comments, shares, saves)

Some ‘softer’ metrics are a good indicator of the audience’s engagement. Social proof/engagement is a great way to boost brand credibility.

Conversion Metrics

Are you driving results? These metrics are the clearest indicators on whether your campaign is driving success, or wasting money.

Cost Per Action (CPA)

The CPA is how much you are spending to get one desired action (purchase, lead, sign-up). This is one of the most important metrics because it ties directly to the ROI of your business. 

Use your business data such as profit margins to determine what is a good CPA for Meta Ads.

Conversion Rate (CVR)

CVR is the percentage of clicks that actually converted. If your CTR is high but your CVR is low, the problem might not be your ad – it’s your landing page or offer.

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)

ROAS is revenue generated divided by ad spend. This is ultimately the strongest profitability indicator across the ad account.

There are other conversion-based metrics which you must definitely consider, such as the actual number of conversions and purchase value.

They’re especially important for ecommerce businesses for obvious reasons; not being able to track conversions or revenue, or not being able to see high numbers in these metrics, is a clear sign that there is something not working correctly.

Final Thoughts

While a successful Meta campaign comes from well-built audiences, campaign strategy and killer ads, it’s also about understanding the story your metrics are telling you. 

Having a competent way of tracking your ads’ performance and an understanding of what metrics work for your business’s goals, can turn your Meta Ads into a powerful tool to grow your brand.

Want to expand your Meta Ads knowledge? We have plenty of free blogs available, including 6 Common Meta Ads Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them) and A Guide Meta Audience Targeting.

Need expert assistance? Contact us today, and we can set up cross-channel tracking for your campaigns while managing them – helping you to track ROI and get the most from your campaigns!