How to interpret your Facebook Ad results - key metrics to consider!

Boosted a post and not sure what you're getting in return? The wide range of variables at play means that your results can vary greatly between posts even if you're spending the same amount.

Understanding Facebook Ad metrics can be tricky (there are many!) but there are a few key metrics essential to understanding what you're paying for and how to align your advertising with your social media goals.

Key advertising metrics: 

Reach:
This is the number of individual people who have seen a post. This is a key metric for many of the campaigns I run for business owners keen to get their business and posts in front of many people as possible.

Impressions:
This is the total number of times a post has been seen. Unlike Reach, this includes multiples views from the same person. Looking at this figure without looking at Reach means you're likely overestimating the number of individual people seeing your posts.

It can be easy to confuse these two, but the difference is important to note. Reach is the number of unique people who have seen your ads, impressions is the total number of times it appears. If 1 person has seen your ad 3 times. Reach = 1 and Impressions = 3. These stats can vary a lot depending on how you set your ads up.

Frequency: 
This is the average number of times someone has seen a post (Impressions divided by Reach). A frequency of 1 means that everyone who saw your ad saw it once, a frequency of 2 means everyone who saw your ad saw it twice and so on. A high frequency can lead to 'Ad Fatigue', when the same ad appears too many times that we tune it out completely. 

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Engagement: 
This metric covers the total number of likes, comments, shares, photo clicks and video views​. Although high engagement is a good thing, it doesn't necessarily equate to people interacting with your business beyond your social media page.


Results:
​This is a metric that varies depending on your ad goal. If you selected a Reach goal, then Results equals the number of people your ad reached. If you goal was to get people to your website then your Results will be the number of Link Clicks.


Cost-per-result: 
This is how much your results are costing and is the amount you've spent divided by the results you've got, with the results being dictated by which goal you selected. Cost-per-1,000 people reached, cost-per-link click and cost per messaging conversations started are common ones.


Cost-per-1,000 people reached:
This is how much on average it's costing to reach 1,000 with your advertising and is worked out by dividing how much you've spent my how many people your campaign reached.

This is an important figure to monitor and to use to project out future results and establish what percent of your target audience have been exposed to your advertising. This metric can help determine whether or not you may need to increase your budget.

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Cost-per-1,000 impressions (CPM):
This is how much on average it costs for your ad to appear 1,000 times. Unlike the above cost-per-1,000 people reached figure, CPM is a standard measure across different advertising channels and helpful when comparing different ad formats.


Other Data
There are many other metrics specific to different types of campaigns, ecommerce businesses working with larger agencies and using the Pixel can also view Purchases and Return on Ad Spend figures among others however these are not the types of campaigns I offer.

Of course it's good to know where your ads are showing and which demographics they're reaching as well. This data can be hard to get an overview of within Facebook and is where third-party reporting tools provide more value if you're serious about tracking your ad spend.

Want to learn more?
Whether you want to continue running ads yourself, or outsource it completely, I provide custom reporting and recommendations to provide better transparency and insights on your ad spend. ​

​If you're worried you're currently spending money on reaching the wrong people, or just want a second opinion before you spend anything further I'd be happy to have a chat. Feel free to book a time with me here or send me your questions via social media.

Photo credit: mycan / Getty Images via Canva.