16 Jul How to Actually Check Meta Ads Performance (Not on the App)
Checking your Meta ads performance on your phone gives you an incomplete picture — the mobile app is built for a quick glance, not a real read on whether a campaign is working. The reliable way to check performance is the desktop Ads Manager, with the right custom columns set up so you’re actually seeing the metrics that matter.
Why the default view isn’t enough
Open Ads Manager and the default columns show spend, budget, impressions, reach, and bid strategy — the basics, useful for a glance, but not enough to actually diagnose a campaign. To see whether something is working or not, you need a specific, deliberate set of metrics added on top of the defaults.
Setting up the columns that actually matter
In Ads Manager, click the Columns dropdown above your campaign table, then scroll down to Customize Columns. From there, add:
- CTR (link click-through rate) — not “CTR all,” specifically the link click-through rate, which tells you whether people are actually clicking through to your site rather than just engaging with the post itself
- CPM — cost per 1,000 impressions
- Frequency — how often the same person is seeing your ad
- Link clicks
- CPC — cost per click
- Cost per result — tied to whatever your actual conversion goal is
- Landing page views — to compare against link clicks and spot a gap
Once you’ve built this view, save it as your default so you don’t have to rebuild it every time you check the account.
Why this specific set of metrics
Each of these answers a different question. CTR tells you if the ad itself is working. CPM tells you what it costs to reach people, and whether that cost is moving. Frequency tells you whether you’re reaching new people or showing the same ad to the same audience too often. Link clicks versus landing page views tells you whether people who click are actually making it to your site. Cost per result ties everything back to the number that actually matters for the business.
Reading any one of these in isolation tells you very little. Reading them together, side by side, is what actually lets you diagnose what’s happening in a campaign instead of guessing.
What to do once you can see it clearly
This setup isn’t the diagnosis itself — it’s what makes an accurate diagnosis possible. Once you can see CTR, CPM, and frequency clearly, the next step is knowing what each one is actually telling you: what counts as a healthy CTR benchmark and when the gap between CTR and CTR-all signals a real ad problem, and what a healthy frequency actually looks like for top-of-funnel versus retargeting.
Most of this setup takes a few minutes once you know where to look. Where it gets harder is knowing which combination of numbers is actually telling you something meaningful versus normal day-to-day noise — that’s the part that benefits from someone who’s read a lot of these dashboards before.
Reviews are conducted personally by Jason Gan, a Meta Certified Professional and Badged Meta Business Partner who has audited over 1,000 advertiser accounts since 2007.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I check Meta ads performance on the mobile app? Not as your primary way of reading performance. The mobile app shows a simplified, incomplete view of your metrics. The desktop Ads Manager lets you add custom columns and see the specific metrics needed to actually diagnose how a campaign is doing.
What metrics should I add as custom columns in Meta Ads Manager? At minimum: CTR (link click-through rate), CPM, frequency, link clicks, CPC, cost per result, and landing page views. These give you the fundamentals needed to diagnose most performance issues, beyond the default spend and reach columns.
Where do I find custom columns in Meta Ads Manager? In Ads Manager, click the Columns dropdown above your campaign table, then scroll to Customize Columns at the bottom of the list. From there you can select the specific metrics you want visible and save them as your default view.
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