The ultimate guide to Facebook ads interpretation

We created this internal guide for to try to interpret Facebook ad metrics. It has come out of the result of extensive Facebook ad testing, as well as discussions with multiple different Facebook ad agencies about the same topics.

I don't think there's anywhere else it's defined in this much detail available on the internet, so I hope to both beginners and seasoned Facebook marketers alike, this guide will be useful.

In terms of what the abbreviations mean, it's a bit doctorly in nature:

Sx = "symptoms"

Ix = "how to tell if this is the right diagnosis i.e. Investigations"

Dx = "diagnosis"

Rx = "what to do to fix it"

So, here goes - the complete guide to interpreting how your Facebook ads are performing.

CTR

• Low CTR –

• Dx: Audience not engaging withAd creative

• Rx: change creative, audience, or product

• High CTR, no ATCs –

• Sx:

• Audience likes creative

• However they're stuck at product page

• DDx:

• Price too high

• Product page poorly made (needs better conversion rate optimisation)

• Site not loading

• Ix:

• Use HotJar or some equivalent to peer exactly into exact behaviours of customer on website

• Rx:

• Change price

• Optimise landing page

• See if site loading

• High CTR, High ATCs, No Sales –

• Sx:

• Getting stuck at checkout

• About 50%f InitiateCheckouts should convert to Purchase. If not, worry a little bit.

• Ddx:

• Shipping costs preventing people from purchasing

• Pre-purchase upsell preventing purchase

• Ix:

• Hotjar

• Rx:

• Introduce free shipping

• Some people think countdown timers may help but I wouldn't

Landing Page Views

• Landing Page View : Content Views

• Sx:

• A good ratio is 1:3 i.e. for every landing page view, you get three content views to this/other products

• If not this high, then means low site engagement as a whole

• DDx:

• Site doesn't resonate with audience

• Site loads too slow

• Ix:

• Hotjar

• Rx

• Optimise conversion rate of website

Frequency

• Frequency > 1 per day (e.g. if VC 7d and frequency >7)

• Sx:

• Anything with a ratio >1 per day is way too high e.g. ATC 3d audience with a frequency of >3.00

• Also anything with a frequency of >3.00 in general is probably too high in my opinion

• Rx:

• Reduce spend, OR

• Horizontally scale to broader audiences

Higher Level With Purchases

• High Sales, Low ROAS –

• Dx:

• Product and product page is good

• However product-market-margin fit not yet approximated correctly

• Ix:

• Trial of increasing price of product

• Need to test and refine ad audiences

• Rx:

• As for Ix.

• High CPM, High Sales

• Dx:

• Occurs when competing with a lot of advertisers

• Rx:

• Use a concurrent PPE campaign with the same POST ID to get more organic traffic via shares

• This will lower CPM