Tech Overview: Analyzing Facebook Ads

“The secret to social media success is to think and act like a member first, and a marketer second.” – Unknown

When I first decided to embark on the journey of my month-long portfolio project I was all too aware that learning Facebook Ads and MailChimp was going to be a big part of it.

The process of learning MailChimp was a lot smoother for me than learning Facebook ads. Simply because there are about a million and a half different metrics or filters that you can use to look over how your Facebook ad is doing. It is way too complicated than it should be. I’m going to show you which metrics actually matter and what they mean when trying to identify whether your campaign was a success or failure.

Reach

This is the total number of people that saw your ad. 

Impressions

This is the total number of times your ad was shown. 

Frequency

This is the amount of time your ad was shown to the same person. If you ad is in the 1-3 zone you’re good. If it gets higher people have the tendency to ignore the ad. 

Link Clicks

This is the amount of people who actually took the time to click on your ad and visit the website it directed them to. 

CPM (Cost per 1,000 Impressions)

How much you spent to reach 1,000 ad views. 

CTR (Click Through Rate)

This is the amount of time a person saw your ad and clicked the link. A good CTR is going to be between 2-5%.

CPC (Cost per Click)

This is how much you’re paying per link click. The CTR and CPC are tied together, the higher your CTR the lower your CPC will be. 

Of course it will depend somewhat on the type of ad that you are running and what you want to get from it. If you have a video incorporated into your ad you will be watching those metrics with a careful eye. A good tip is to be aware of what you want the ad to do and then look at the metrics that correlate with it.