How do I create Facebook Ads metrics?

In this article, you'll learn how to connect PowerMetrics to your Facebook Ads data and create Facebook Ads metrics.

PowerMetrics supports two types of Facebook metrics: Instant metrics (pre-built by industry experts, ready to add in seconds) and Custom metrics (built from data feeds you define, for when instant metrics don't cover the data you need).

This article covers:

• Before you start
• What's the difference between instant metrics and custom metrics?
• How do I connect PowerMetrics to my Facebook Ads data?
• How do I add Facebook Ads instant metrics?
• How do I create Facebook Ads custom metrics?
• Next steps – Interacting with your data

Before you start

Make sure you have the following before connecting PowerMetrics to Facebook Ads:

• A Facebook Ads account: To bring your data into PowerMetrics you'll need access to a Facebook Ads account. See How do I add people to my Facebook Ads account? for more information.
• Your Facebook login credentials and Facebook Ads Account ID: You'll enter them the first time you connect Facebook Ads to PowerMetrics.

What's the difference between instant metrics and custom metrics?

How do I connect PowerMetrics to my Facebook Ads data?

Whether you’re creating instant or custom metrics, one of your first steps is connecting PowerMetrics to your Facebook Ads data. Here are a few things to note about connecting:

• Your data is safe with us. The first time you connect, you'll be prompted to enter your Facebook login credentials and grant PowerMetrics permission to access your account data. Learn how PowerMetrics protects your data privacy.
• Managing connections. Your connection is named yourname<date and time created> by default. You can rename it from your Connections list (click the in the left sidebar and select Connections), or as you add metrics. Learn more about managing account connections.
• Reusing connections. You can use the same Facebook Ads connection each time you add metrics. If an existing connection stops working, your OAuth token may have expired. See OAuth token troubleshooting tips.

How do I add Facebook Ads instant metrics?

Facebook Ads instant metrics are pre-built by PowerMetrics based on industry best practices. Use them to start tracking your Facebook Ads data immediately - no data feed setup required.

Note: Managed by PowerMetrics, each instant metric has a fixed date range for the data being retrieved. If the date range doesn't meet your needs, we suggest you create a custom metric instead.

To add Facebook Ads instant metrics:

1. In the left navigation sidebar click the + button beside Metrics and select See all services.
   Note: You can also add instant metrics from the Metric List page, from Explorer, or from an open dashboard in Edit mode.
2. On the Where is your data page, select Facebook Ads.
3. Click Add instant metrics.
4. Select one or more instant metrics (up to 5 per visit).
   Click the information button to see a metric's definition, available dimensions, and formula. Click the MetricHQ link for more detailed information.
   
5. Click Add metrics.
6. First time connecting to Facebook Ads: Click Add new account.
   
7. Enter your Facebook login credentials and click Log in.
8. Under Choose account settings, select your Ad Account ID from the drop-down and click Use account.
   
   Note: The next time you add Facebook Ads metrics, PowerMetrics skips the login and account settings steps and uses the same account as before. To connect to a different account, before clicking “Add metrics”, click the account connection in the top right of the window (see below) and either select an alternate, existing account or click “Add new account”.
   

Your Facebook Ads instant metrics are added to your PowerMetrics account. Metrics added from the navigation sidebar or Metric List display in your metric list. Metrics added from an open dashboard are added to the dashboard and your metric list. Metrics added from Explorer open in Explorer and are added to your metric list.

How do I create Facebook Ads custom metrics?

Use custom metrics when Facebook Ads instant metrics don't cover the data or date range you need. Creating a custom metric involves four steps:

1. Connect to your Facebook Ads account and add a data feed
2. Choose the data to include in your data feed
3. Refine the data in the data feed editor (optional)
4. Configure your custom metric

Step 1: Connect to your Facebook Ads account and add a data feed

Every custom metric needs a data feed. As you create your metrics, you’ll either create a new data feed or select one from your list of existing data feeds. Learn more about data feeds.

The first time you connect to Facebook Ads, you'll log into your Facebook account, grant PowerMetrics access, and select your Ad Account ID. When you create custom metrics next time, your existing connection is reused automatically, or you can switch accounts in the query builder.

To connect and add a data feed:

1. In the left navigation sidebar click the + button beside Metrics and select See all services.
   Note: You can also create custom metrics from the Metric List page, from Explorer, or from an open dashboard in Edit mode.
2. On the Where is your data? page, select Facebook Ads.
3. Click Create custom metrics.
4. First time connecting to Facebook Ads:
   • Click +New data feed > Select Facebook Ads data.
   • Click Add new account.
     
   • Enter your Facebook login credentials and click Log in.
   • Under Choose account settings, select your Ad Account ID from the drop-down and click Use account.
     
   • Proceed to Step 2: Choose data to include in your data feed.
5. Already connected to Facebook Ads:
   • PowerMetrics skips the login steps and takes you directly to creating or selecting a data feed.
     Note: If you want to connect to a different account, when choosing data to include in your data feed, click the account connection at the top of the data preview window in the query builder (see below). And, select an alternate, existing account or click Add new account.
     
   • To create a new data feed: Click Select data feed > +New Facebook Ads data feed > Select Facebook Ads data, then proceed to Step 2: Choose data to include in your data feed.
   • To reuse an existing data feed: Click Select data feed, choose from the list, and click Select. Then skip to Step 4: Configure your custom metric.

Step 2: Choose data to include in your data feed

In the query builder, you tell us what data you want to retrieve for your data feed. When you use the data feed for your custom metrics, you’ll choose which pieces of data from the feed you want to display for each metric.

Using the data view you select, we’ll run a query to get a list of available columns (fields) from within the data view. You’ll then choose from those columns to specify what data to include in your data feed.

Tip: You can apply filters to the data view and to columns in the left sidebar and in the data preview. Applying filters helps narrow down the data you’re looking for, ensuring you only query the data you need. By pinpointing your desired data, you optimize the volume of data being queried, which not only makes your data easier to understand and handle, it often makes the query run faster! Learn more about filtering.

Go here for more tips on filtering for Facebook Ads.

To choose data to include in your data feed:

1. In the Choose data for your data feed page, under Data view, click the drop-down and choose the subset of data you want to query.
   
   • Tip: Find the data view you’re looking for by entering its name in the search box or by entering the name of a column/field to find the data view that includes it.
2. Under Data view filters, add required filters (if needed) and optional filters (if desired).
   • Tip: APIs for some services include "StartDate" and "EndDate" as optional data view filters. Applying filters here, at the query (source) level, rather than later at the query results level can improve efficiency and simplify data handling.
3. Under Columns, select the checkboxes beside the columns you want to include in your data feed.
   • Tip: Columns represent the fields that are available for the data view you selected above. Each item you choose will display as a column in the data preview table. If there are a lot of columns to choose from and you know what you’re looking for, start typing the column name into the search box. You can add up to 30 columns for each data view.
4. Optionally, apply filters to applicable columns to narrow down your data before previewing.
   • Note: You may find it easier to apply filters to columns in the next step (in the data preview table) as you can see your data more clearly there. However, if you know your data set well, applying filters in the sidebar can be beneficial because it removes excess data before previewing. It may also be necessary when your data is too large to query all at once.
5. When you’re done selecting (and filtering) columns, click Preview data. The data preview window is populated with the results of the query for the columns you chose.
   • Note: The data preview table can show up to the first 1000 rows of your data. As a result, if you have a large data set, some rows may not display. Using the drop-down, you can select the number of rows to display (50, 100, 500, or 1000). You can also see how long it took for your query to complete.
     
6. If this isn’t the data you want for your data feed, choose a different data view and/or columns. To preview your most recent choices, either click Preview data again or click Reload data (located above the data preview table).
   • Note: At the top of the data preview window, you can see the Facebook Ads account you’re currently connected to. By clicking it, you can change to a different account. If you change accounts, your recent choices are removed and you start over by choosing a data view and columns.
     
7. In the data preview window, you can narrow down the data you want to include in your data feed by applying filters to applicable columns.
8. When you’re satisfied with your choices, click Use this data.

You've chosen your data. Next step - refine the data in the data feed editor.

Step 3: Refine data in the data feed editor (optional)

You’ve arrived in the data feed editor where you can choose to either accept the automatic settings or make changes. Learn more about editing data feeds.

If you’re happy with the automatic settings:

• Click Save data feed and proceed to Configuring your custom metric.

If you want to make changes:

• Some common adjustments include changing the data format or names for columns, updating the data feed name, and combining columns using formulas - there are many customization options available.
• If you want to adjust your query choices (for example, add or remove columns or filters) click the tile under Data service to return to the query builder.
  
• When you’re finished editing the data feed, click Save data feed and proceed to Configuring your custom metric.

Note: After you’re finished creating a custom metric with this data feed, you can return to it and use it to make more custom metrics. In the left navigation sidebar, click Data Feeds. Select the desired data feed from the list and click +Add metric.

You've created a Facebook Ads data feed. Next step - Configuring your custom metric.

Step 4: Configure your custom metric

When you configure a custom metric you select the measure and dimensions from the data feed to include in the metric and choose settings that determine how the data will be visualized.

Tip: As you configure custom metrics, you can click the button, located beside “Measure”, “Date and Time”, and “Date handling”. This opens a guide for each setting that helps you decide which options to choose. As you make choices, you’ll see the result in the metric preview window on the left. Don’t worry about getting everything right the first time. Before clicking “Save metric”, you can go back and forth, making changes and observing the preview until you arrive at the configuration settings that give you the exact metric you’re looking for.

To configure your custom metric:

1. Under Data source, optionally, click Filter source data to include or exclude members for columns in the data feed. Excluded members will not display or be available as dimensions in the saved metric visualization.
   Note: You can filter by member or by condition. By default, the first time you apply filters to a metric, you’ll see the UI for member filtering. To filter by condition, click the “Condition filters” link. Note: You can apply up to 10 filter conditions/dimension.
   Tip: You can also view and edit the data feed that’s associated with this metric by clicking the tile as shown below.
   
2. Under Measure, select the column from the data feed that contains the values you want to track in your metric.
   
3. Under Dimensions, select the columns by which you want to be able to segment and/or filter your metric value (measure). Each selection shows a unique view of your business, for example, you might choose to look at your sales data based on region, sales rep, or product type.
   • By default, selected dimensions will be available for filtering and segmentation in the final metric visualization. To modify this setting for individual dimensions, click All beside the dimension name and deselect the checkbox for as a filter or as a segment.
     
   • You can also create a metric with no ability to segment or filter, by not selecting any dimensions.
   • Note: When choosing dimensions, you can only select columns that have a text format. If the associated data feed doesn’t include any text columns there will be no available categories by which to segment.
   • Tip: You can optionally change a dimension’s name by selecting the current name and typing a new one. This changes the display name only (not the name of the dimension in the data feed). If you change the display name and want to see the one that’s being used in the data feed, hover over the dimension’s name. Note: If you change a name for a dimension that’s also being used by other metric visualizations, associated filters and segmentations will be removed from those visualizations and need to be reapplied.
4. Under Date and Time, select the column from the data feed that contains the date/time associated with each value.
   
   If the data feed doesn’t include a date column or history, deselect the Data feed contains historical data toggle to use the date and time the data feed is refreshed.
   
5. Click the Settings tab.
   
6. Under Date handling, select Use all values or Use most recent values only. Your choice determines the data points your metric will use when calculating the metric value for a time period.
   
   If you chose Use most recent values only, select the desired time period.
   
   If you need more help deciding which date handling option to choose, check out this article: Choosing the right date handling method for your custom metrics.
7. Under Format, select from Numeric, Currency, Percentage, or Duration.
   
   If you selected Currency as the data format, the default currency symbol that will display is USD $. You can select an alternate Currency symbol from the drop-down list. Note: This is a display option only. Currency is not converted.
   If you selected Duration as the data format, optionally, adjust the Maximum and MinimumGranularity settings.
8. Under Decimal places, select the number of decimals to display (from 0 - 9). The Auto setting displays up to 4 decimal places and drops trailing zeros.
   Note: If you change the decimal place setting for a metric and want to see the source data values with their original decimal places, reselect Auto.
9. Under Aggregation, you’ll see the aggregation type. It’s based on the measure you selected for the metric.
   • For numeric columns, the initial aggregation type is “sum”. For text columns, it's “count”. The aggregation type will be used when the aggregation has not been overridden by the user in a metric visualization and wherever there are no configuration options available. For example, on the Metric List page, metrics will display using an aggregation type based on your selection here.
     
10. Enable the Users can override aggregation option if you want to allow changes to the aggregation setting for the metric.
    
    • Note: When metrics are created, they’re automatically visualized using the most appropriate aggregation type. As a result, we recommend disabling the ability to override the aggregation type.
11. Under Blank values, decide how to treat empty values. Tip: For transactional metrics, we recommend you treat blank values as zeros.
    
12. Under Favourable trend, choose whether you want ascending or descending values to indicate a positive trend.
    • For example, if your metric includes sales totals, a higher (ascending) number demonstrates a positive trend but, if your metric includes cost to acquire customers, a lower (descending) number indicates a positive trend. Favourable trends are indicated by a green arrow. Unfavourable changes in metric values are indicated by a red arrow.
      
13. Click the About tab.
    
14. Optionally, enter a new name and description for the metric.
    • Note: The metric was automatically named based on the measure you chose.
15. Under Metric image, optionally, click Edit image to change the metric’s service icon. Learn more here.
16. Under Certification, optionally, enable the Certify this metric toggle. Learn more here.
17. When you’re done configuring your metric, click Save metric.

If you added the custom metric from the navigation sidebar or from your Metric List page, it's added to your list of metrics. If you added it from an open dashboard, it's added to the dashboard and to your list of metrics.

Next steps – Interacting with your data

Now that you're connected and have some metrics, it's time to start learning from your data and tracking your progress.

Here are a few suggestions for interacting with your data:

• View your data from multiple perspectives in the metric overview page.
• Organize your account by certifying metrics and applying asset tags to metrics, dashboards, and data feeds.
• Investigate and analyze your data in Explorer.
• Get contextual answers to your questions with the PowerMetrics AI Assistant.
• Gather your metrics onto dashboards and share them with your colleagues.
• Add goals to your metrics to help track their progress.