1) Website purchase ROAS (return on ad spend)
Put simply, your Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is THE most important metric you need to be tracking if you are running an eCommerce store. To calculate your ROAS simply divide your total sales by your advertising spend. Your ROAS figure will be unique to you, but remember that Meta will only report on your ROAS in context with ad spend. You also need to factor in your cost per sale and overheads. So a ROAS of x1.5 means you have covered your ad spend, but may not have covered associated costs.
2) Cost per result
Cost per conversion is a useful metric to track when you are assessing which campaigns or ad sets are working the most efficiently. To calculate, simply divide the amount spent with the number of leads/conversions. So a spend of £100 bringing in 2 leads has cost you £50 per lead etc . This metric will help you to identify which ads/adsets you need to cut and which to scale.
3) CTR (link click-through rate)
Not to be confused with ‘clicks’. If your campaign is underperforming, the link clicks metric will help to identify which issues you need to address. A high link click through rate but a low conversion figure likely means a landing page/website issue or potentially issues with your shipping cost/time (if you have a lot of add to carts but no sales). Whilst a low click through rate often means a problem with the ad creative or targeting.
4) CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions)
CPM is the cost per thousand impressions. If your visitor visitors are dropping but your link click rate is still good, then check the cost per 1,000 impressions. The problem may be because your campaign costs are increasing. This could be to do with the time of year (the fourth quarter is the most expensive time to advertise), increased competition for your target audience or Meta could be increasing the cost of your ads because they are not engaging people.
5) Website purchases conversion value
This metric is very closely linked to your return on ad spend. It's useful to monitor this to see if your Meta pixel is set up correctly and is calculating the conversion value accurately so cross check with your actual sales value in your eCommerce store.
6) Impressions
Before you cut an under performing ad or ad set, check the number of impressions each ad has received. If the number of impressions is below 500 then continue to run the ad or ad set until you get more data. Some ads are ‘slow burners’ and performance will improve over time. If, after a week or so, the ad has no spend and very few impressions, it usually means the algorithm doesn’t think the creative will be successful and is pushing your budget onto other ads. Then consider cutting the ad.
