Monitoring Ad Delivery and Performance on Meta: The Beginner’s Guide

Closely monitoring new campaign launches is crucial for optimizing performance. This guide explores what to track and how to act on the data.

Delivery Factors to Watch

In the first days after launching a campaign, carefully monitor key delivery factors to verify your ads are serving as expected. Watch for:

• Ad impressions and reach to confirm ads are being shown at the planned scale.

• Frequency distribution to ensure you're reaching new audiences, not just the same people.

• Any campaign level errors or interruptions preventing ads from serving.

• Rejected ads or pending reviews holding up launch.

• Spend pacing and cost per thousand impressions (CPM) trends to identify any spikes signaling issues.

• Audience and placement performance data to check targeting and delivery.

Catching delivery problems early prevents wasted budget and enables prompt resolution.

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Metrics to Track

Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess how campaigns are executing. Track metrics like:

• Clicks, clickthrough rate (CTR), and conversions to gauge engagement.

• Cost per result like cost per purchase to ensure profitability.

• ROAS performance by campaign, ad set, and audience level to identify top and bottom performers.

Use dashboards to surface trends and drill into segments.

Creating Reporting Dashboards

Build centralized dashboard reporting tabs in Ads Manager to:

• Pull in main metrics across all campaigns for an integrated view.

• Display both summary and detailed data views.

• Show daily, weekly, and monthly performance trends.

• Set up alerts when KPIs drop below thresholds.

Optimizing Based on Data

Use the reporting insights to optimize daily:

• Diagnose and address the likely causes of any underperforming elements.

• Adjust targeting, creative, placements based on learnings.

• Pause or increase budgets on campaigns as warranted.

• Ramp up investment on top performing areas with positive ROI.

• Remove consistently poor performers to reallocate budget.

Staying on top of reporting and swiftly applying optimizations is essential for maximizing campaign potential.

How can I determine if my Facebook ad creative is ineffective?

There are a few key metrics that can indicate your ad creative is underperforming - watch for low clickthrough rate (CTR under 1%), high or increasing cost per click (CPC), and high cost per conversion after several days of running. Checking at least 5-7 days of performance data will provide enough signal to assess creative effectiveness.

What metrics should I focus on based on my campaign objective?

The key metrics depend on your campaign goal:

• Awareness campaigns - Monitor reach, frequency and CPM

• Consideration campaigns - Track clicks, CTR, engagement rate

• Conversion campaigns - Analyze cost per result, return on ad spend (ROAS)

• Traffic campaigns - Clicks, CTR, landing page views are key

How often should I be checking the metrics?

Check metrics at least daily in the first week after launching to catch any issues early. After that, 1-2 times per week is sufficient for ongoing optimization. Look at both short-term daily trends and bigger picture weekly/monthly performance to balance optimizing cadence.

How much budget or duration is needed to judge performance?

Give campaigns at least 5-7 days with a minimum spend of $50-100 before assessing - this provides enough data signal. Don't jump to conclusions on metrics with only 1-2 days of data or very low budget.

What tools can help with monitoring campaigns?

Take advantage of Ads Manager reporting features, create reporting dashboards to track KPIs, use annotations to note changes, enable reporting alerts for thresholds. Third party tools also help.