Decoding Your Facebook Ads Results

For so many businesses, running Facebook ads often feels like trying to read tea leaves. You pour your budget in, watch the numbers, and hope something clicks. But without a clear framework for interpreting performance metrics, you end up guessing instead of diagnosing.

The good news? Each key metric in your ad account actually tells a story - and knowing what story to listen for can make the difference between disconnect and direction.

Let’s walk through how to understand what’s actually happening in your campaigns and how to identify the root problem based on your ad results. 

*Disclaimer - the benchmarks shared in this blog are an average of what I typically see in ad accounts across various industries. Some industries fall in an outlier category, so these numbers should not be held to a concrete determination, but rather as a guide to help you get started in interpreting what your ad account is telling you. 

First, let’s talk about your click-through-rate.

Click-Through-Rate (CTR): This is calculated by dividing the number of clicks on an ad by the number of impressions on the ad. This tells you how many people who see your ad are actually clicking on it. 

This essentially measures how compelling your ad is within the feed based on how likely they are to click on it. If your CTR is under roughly 1%, this often signals that your creative and message aren’t resonating with the audience. In layman's terms, people are seeing the ad, but they’re not interested enough to engage with it.

If the ad doesn’t grab attention or communicate relevance quickly, people scroll past without clicking. This is a creative and targeting issue, not a conversion issue yet. When you experience a low CTR, consider revising:

• Your visual creative (image/video hook)

• Your headline or primary text

• Your audience targeting

• The promise you present in the ad

Now, let’s look at a scenario where your CTR is healthy, but your conversion rate is low…

Conversion Rate: This is calculated by dividing the number of conversions (opt-ins) by the number of clicks to a page (or, if using pixel data, you can also look at “Landing Page Views” for a more accurate number). Essentially, this tells us, out of all the people who visit the page, how many of them are converting. In general, we look for a conversion rate of around 20% (or more) on a lead magnet, webinar, masterclass, or other free offer. For paid offers, we look for an average of around 5%. NOTE that tripwires and extremely low cost purchases will likely be a much higher conversion rate, while high ticket offers may trend lower. 

Let’s talk about a common scenario: Your CTR looks okay - maybe 1.5–2%, but once people reach your landing page, the conversion rate (opt-in or purchase) is low.

A strong CTR with weak conversion usually means your ad is compelling, but your landing experience isn’t delivering on the ad’s promise. When this occurs, it’s important to analyze the following:

• Is your offer on the landing page clear and aligned with the promise in the ad?

• Does your landing page copy follow a logical decision-making journey?

• Is the form or CTA confusing or too demanding? (Keep in mind that each additional field in an opt-in form tends to decrease conversions by roughly 10%... If you don’t NEED to know it for them to complete this action, don’t request it.)

If people are clicking but not taking the next step, the problem isn’t the ad - it’s the landing page experience or offer alignment.

Now let’s talk about costs. Sometimes you see strong engagement — good CTR — but your cost per click (CPC) or cost per lead (CPL) feels out of control. This often points to audience quality and competitiveness.

Cost Per Click (CPC): Calculated by dividing the number of clicks into the amount spent. As an overall average, I typically look for the cost per click to be less than $1.50. On many ads, particularly engaging, highly relevant content ads, CPCs can trend as low as less than $0.05, while on more advanced ads (think, schedule a consultation for a B2B SaaS offer), CPCs can trend upwards of $20. This is something you’ll be able to track and determine a “sweet spot” for your business and industry as you run more ads.

Cost Per Lead (CPL): Calculated by dividing the number of leads into the amount spent. CPL can vary widely, though I often aim for less than $5 for a lead magnet type offer and less than $10 for a webinar/masterclass type offer. Again, depending on your business, your offer and your industry, these numbers can vary widely. As an example, I have run ads for a free meditation for an energy medicine influencer and costs averaged around $0.50 per lead… while at the same time I was running ads for “request more info” for a graduate school program, and we considered less than $150 to be a good CPL. Deciding what is a “good” range for your business will need to involve consideration of current market conditions, the costs associated with doing business, and the downfunnel revenue that is generated per lead. 

When CPC is rising:

• Your audience segment might be too broad or too competitive

• Your ad relevance score (how well Facebook thinks your ad fits the audience) might be dropping

• There may be ad fatigue (overexposure leading to declining interest)

A high CPL can also happen even with good CTR if your funnel after the click isn’t optimized, meaning you’re paying for clicks that don’t result in sign-ups or purchases.

Last, let’s talk about what it means if you’re getting engagement BUT your return on ad spend (ROAS) is poor…

This scenario is common when ads are effectively driving attention but not profitable outcomes.

Return On Ad Spend (ROAS):  is a revenue outcome metric determined by dividing the revenue coming in by the ad spend going out. In general, you want to breakeven at a minimum, so you’re looking for your revenue to at least recover the ad spend. Keep in mind that many sales take place off of Facebook or outside of the attribution window, so it’s important to take a look at your books and not just depend on Ads Manager for accurate reporting when analyzing ROAS.

If reach, clicks, and even conversions are okay, but revenue isn’t justifying your spend, it usually means one of two things… Either you’re generating low-quality leads or customers who don’t buy or don’t buy again… Or your funnel after acquisition doesn’t nurture or convert effectively.

In this case, marketing isn’t “not working.” It’s working at the wrong step of the customer journey, meaning you may need support tightening sales processes or nurturing sequences.

Regardless of what results you’re seeing or what stage of your Facebook ads journey you’re in… It’s important to understand that Facebook ads aren’t a magic lever… but they are a powerful data mirror. 

Every number tells you something about where the bottleneck really is, as long as you know how to read it.

Once you can interpret these signals, optimization becomes surgical instead of experimental and your decisions become smarter.