Making Sense of Your Facebook & Instagram Ad Results

Before we dive into specific numbers, here's the big picture: ad metrics fall into three buckets.

Performance metrics tell you if your ads are making you money. These are the ones that matter most—things like how many customers you got and what they cost you.

Delivery metrics show you if your ads are actually reaching people and what it costs to get in front of them. Think of these as the foundation—if these numbers are off, nothing else will work.

Engagement metrics reveal if people give a shit about your ads. Are they clicking? Commenting? Or just scrolling past like you don't exist?

You need to look at all three to understand what's really happening. A lot of clicks means nothing if nobody's buying. Tons of impressions don't matter if your cost per customer is through the roof.

Let's break down each metric so you know what you're actually looking at.

Results

This is the number of times your ad did what you wanted it to do.

Sounds simple, but what counts as a "result" changes depending on your goal:

• If you're selling stuff online, results = purchases
• If you're collecting emails, results = new leads
• If you're getting people to fill out a form, results = form submissions
• If you want downloads, results = downloads

This is the metric you care about most. Everything else is just context for whether you're getting enough results at the right price.

Cost Per Result

How much you're paying every time someone does the thing you want them to do.

Here's the math: Take your total ad spend and divide it by the number of results.

So if you spent €500 and got 10 customers, your cost per result is €50 per customer.

This number tells you if your ads are actually profitable. If it costs you €50 to get a customer but they only spend €30 with you, you're losing money. If they spend €200, you're printing cash.

Different businesses will have wildly different costs here. Getting a new customer might cost €10 for one business and €200 for another, it all depends on your industry and what a customer is worth to you.

The real question: Is what you're paying to get a customer less than what that customer is worth? If yes, you're good. If no, something needs to change.

Result Rate (Conversion Rate)

This tells you what percentage of people who saw your ad actually did something.

The math: Divide your results by your impressions, then multiply by 100 to get a percentage.

If 100,000 people saw your ad and 1,000 of them bought something, your result rate is 1%.

A strong result rate means your ad is reaching the right people with the right message. A weak result rate usually means one of three things:

• Your ad isn't interesting enough
• You're showing it to the wrong people
• Your landing page sucks

This metric helps you figure out where the problem is. If lots of people are seeing your ad but nobody's taking action, something in the chain is broken.

ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)

This is the big one. ROAS tells you how much money you made for every dollar you spent on ads.

The math: Take your revenue and divide it by your ad spend.

If you spent €1,000 on ads and made €3,000 in sales, your ROAS is 3.0. That means for every euro you spent, you got three euros back.

Here's what different ROAS numbers mean:

• Below 1.0 = You're losing money on every sale
• 1.0 = You're breaking even (not great)
• 2.0 to 4.0 = Pretty solid, you're making money
• Above 4.0 = You're crushing it

But here's the thing: ROAS by itself doesn't tell the whole story. A 2.0 ROAS might be amazing for one business and terrible for another, depending on profit margins and what you need to cover your other costs.

For businesses that don't sell stuff directly online (like service businesses or B2B companies), you'll need to calculate this manually. Figure out what a lead or customer is worth to you, then do the math.

Spend

This is just how much money you've put into your ads during whatever time period you're looking at.

Simple number, but important to track because:

• You need to make sure you're not going over budget
• You need to see if that spend is actually doing anything for you
• It helps you understand if you're spending enough to get results (spending €50/month probably won't move the needle)

Most businesses spend around €1,000 a month on Facebook and Instagram ads, but it varies a ton by industry. Some spend way less, some spend €10,000+.

The real question isn't "how much am I spending" but "am I getting more back than I'm putting in?"

Impressions

An impression is counted every time your ad is shown to someone. If the same person sees your ad three times, that's three impressions.

This tells you how much visibility your ads are getting. More impressions generally means more people are seeing your stuff.

The formula here: Impressions = Reach × Frequency (we'll get to those in a sec)

A typical campaign might get around 88,000 impressions per month, but this varies wildly based on budget and audience size.

By itself, impressions don't mean much. A million impressions is worthless if nobody clicks or buys. But when you look at impressions alongside other metrics, it helps you understand if your budget is enough to actually reach people.

CPM (Cost Per 1,000 Impressions)

This tells you how much it costs to show your ad 1,000 times.

The math: (Total spend ÷ Impressions) × 1,000

If you spent €100 and got 20,000 impressions, your CPM is €5. That means you paid €5 for every 1,000 times someone saw your ad.

CPM goes up and down based on competition. If a bunch of other businesses are trying to reach the same people you are (like during the holidays), CPM goes up. Less competition means lower CPM.

This metric helps you understand if Facebook/Instagram is getting more expensive for you over time. If your CPM keeps climbing but your results stay flat, you're paying more to get the same outcomes.

Cost Per Click (CPC)

How much you're paying every time someone clicks on your ad.

The math: Ad spend ÷ Number of clicks

If you spent €100 and got 200 clicks, your CPC is €0.50.

Across most industries, the typical CPC is around $0.57, but this varies a lot.

CPC tells you how expensive it is to get someone to your website or landing page. Combined with your conversion rate, it tells you if you're paying too much for traffic that isn't converting.

If your CPC is climbing, it usually means either:

• Competition is increasing (more advertisers want your audience)
• Your ads are getting stale and people are ignoring them
• Your targeting isn't tight enough

Frequency

Frequency tells you how many times the average person has seen your ad.

The math: Impressions ÷ Reach

If you got 10,000 impressions and reached 5,000 people, your frequency is 2.0. That means the average person saw your ad twice.

This number is important because:

• Too low (under 1.5) = People might not be seeing your ad enough to remember it
• Just right (2 to 4) = Good exposure without annoying anyone
• Too high (over 5) = You're showing the same ad to the same people too many times, and they're probably sick of it

When frequency gets too high, your performance usually tanks. People start ignoring your ads or even hiding them. That's called ad fatigue, and it means you need fresh creative or a different audience.

Clicks

Pretty straightforward—this is how many times people clicked on your ad.

But there are actually two types of clicks:

Link clicks are when someone clicks the main link in your ad and goes to your website or landing page. These are the clicks that matter because they can lead to sales.

All clicks includes everything—link clicks plus clicks on your profile, your page, other parts of the ad, etc. This number looks bigger but isn't as useful.

Focus on link clicks. Those are the ones that actually move people toward buying.

A typical campaign gets around 1,700 link clicks per month, but again, this varies based on budget and industry.

CTR (Click-Through Rate)

This tells you what percentage of people who saw your ad actually clicked on it.

The math: (Link clicks ÷ Impressions) × 100

If your ad was shown 10,000 times and 200 people clicked, your CTR is 2%.

Across most industries, a decent CTR is around 1.9%. Higher is better.

CTR matters because it gives context to your clicks. Getting 100 clicks sounds okay, but if those 100 clicks came from 100,000 impressions, your CTR is 0.1%—which means your ad isn't resonating with people.

A low CTR usually means:

• Your ad creative is boring or unclear
• Your targeting is off (wrong audience)
• Your offer isn't compelling enough

A high CTR means people see your ad and think "yeah, I want to know more about that."

Post Engagement

This counts all the ways people interact with your ad—likes, comments, shares, saves, all of it.

For some campaigns, especially brand awareness stuff, engagement is a key goal. It shows your ad is interesting enough that people want to interact with it beyond just clicking.

High engagement can actually help your ads perform better in Facebook's system. When people engage with your stuff, Facebook sees it as relevant and may show it to more people at a lower cost.

But here's the reality: likes and comments don't pay the bills. If you're running ads to make sales, engagement is nice to see but it's not the goal. Focus on the metrics that actually drive revenue.

Custom Events & Conversions

These are specific actions you set up to track—things that matter to your business.

Examples:

• Someone bought something
• Someone filled out a contact form
• Someone added something to their cart
• Someone called your business
• Someone downloaded your guide

You can customize these to track whatever action is most important to you. This is where you get really specific about measuring what matters.

The key here is making sure these are set up correctly. If Facebook doesn't know what you consider a conversion, you can't track if your ads are working.

Here's how to actually use all these metrics:

Start with performance metrics. Look at your results, cost per result, and ROAS. These tell you if your ads are making you money or losing it.

Check delivery metrics if performance is off. If you're not getting results, look at your impressions, CPM, CPC, and frequency. This helps you figure out if the problem is with reach, cost, or oversaturation.

Use engagement metrics to diagnose creative issues. Low CTR? Your ad probably sucks. High CTR but no conversions? Your landing page probably sucks.

The goal isn't to obsess over every single number. It's to understand the story your numbers are telling you:

• Are you reaching enough people?
• Are those people interested in your ad?
• Are they taking action?
• Is that action profitable for you?

If the answer to all four is yes, keep doing what you're doing and scale it up. If any answer is no, you know where to focus your energy.

Here are some benchmarks to give you a sense of what's normal:

• CPM: Around €5 to 15 depending on your industry and audience
• CPC: Around €0.50 to 1.00 for most businesses
• CTR: 1.9% is average, anything over 2.5% is solid
• Cost per lead: €50 is the median, but varies wildly by industry
• ROAS: Aim for at least 2.0 to 3.0 to be profitable after other costs
• Frequency: Keep it between 2 to 4 for best results

But remember: these are just averages. What's "good" for your business depends entirely on your margins, industry, and goals.

A €100 cost per customer might be amazing if your average customer is worth €500. It might be terrible if they're only worth €150.

Don't get too hung up on comparing yourself to benchmarks. Compare your numbers to your own business goals and profit margins.

Most of these metrics are just noise if you don't know what you're looking for. Here's what actually matters:

1. Are you getting customers? (Results)
2. Are those customers costing you less than they're worth? (Cost per result, ROAS)
3. If not, where's the breakdown? (All the other metrics help you figure this out)

That's it. Everything else is just helping you answer those three questions.

Your ads need to pay for themselves and then some. If they're doing that, great—figure out how to do more of it. If they're not, use these metrics to figure out where things are breaking down so you can fix it.

No magic formulas. No secret tricks. Just testing, measuring, and doubling down on what works.