Meta Paid Social Tab — Wiki | Jack Archer Analytics

1Tab Overview

The Meta Paid Social tab tracks the performance and efficiency of Jack Archer's paid Facebook and Instagram advertising. All data originates from the Meta Ads API and is pre-joined to business metrics (Demand Sales) for context.

The tab answers:

Efficiency: For every dollar spent, how much revenue did Meta attribute? (ROAS)
Cost per result: What did it cost to acquire one conversion? (CPA)
Creative/targeting health: Are users clicking on ads? (CTR, CPC)
Business context: What % of total demand sales is Meta spend consuming?
Campaign mix: Which campaigns and ad sets are driving results?

2Data Source

Primary source: Meta Ads API data ingested via Fivetran, stored in Snowflake, and served by the /api/meta backend endpoint.

Granularity: Daily rows at the campaign + ad set level. Each row contains one campaign, one ad set, and one date.

Fields Returned by /api/meta

Field	Source	Description
`date`	Meta Ads API	The calendar date for this row (YYYY-MM-DD).
`campaign`	Meta Ads API	Campaign name.
`objective`	Meta Ads API	Campaign objective: `OUTCOME_SALES` (conversion-focused) or `OUTCOME_TRAFFIC` (click/landing page focused).
`adset`	Meta Ads API	Ad set name.
`spend`	Meta Ads API	Ad spend in USD for this row's date + campaign + ad set.
`impressions`	Meta Ads API	Total ad impressions served.
`clicks_all`	Meta Ads API	All clicks on the ad (link clicks + non-link clicks like "See More", reactions, etc.).
`website_conversions`	Meta Ads API	Conversions (purchases) attributed to Meta within the attribution window.
`website_purchase_conversion_value`	Meta Ads API	Revenue (USD) attributed to Meta within the attribution window.

📌

Important: clicks_all includes all interaction clicks — not just link clicks to the website. If you want "click-to-site" click rate only, that would require link_clicks from Meta (not currently in the data). CTR in this dashboard is therefore "CTR (All)" — a broader metric than "Link CTR".

3KPI Cards

Four headline KPI cards plus a context banner. All reflect the active objective/campaign filter and the selected period.

Context Banner: Shows "Meta spend is X.X% of total demand sales this period" with a badge showing the change in percentage points vs. prior period. This is the most important single number for budget allocation decisions — it anchors paid spend against actual business outcomes, not just channel-internal metrics.

Formula: Meta Spend / Demand Sales × 100%
Demand Sales sourced from the Overview Tab's /api/revenue endpoint (same period).

Total SpendMeta Ads Lower = Better

Total USD spent on Meta ads in the selected period, across all filtered campaigns.

Spend = Σ spend (all filtered rows)

The badge is green when spend decreases vs. prior period — lower spend for similar results is more efficient. But in isolation, lower spend could also mean reduced activity. Always read alongside ROAS and Demand Sales.

ROASComputed Higher = Better

Return on Ad Spend — the core Meta efficiency metric. For every $1 spent, how many dollars of revenue did Meta attribute?

ROAS = website_purchase_conversion_value / spend

A ROAS of 3.0x means Meta attributed $3 in revenue for every $1 spent. This is calculated using Meta's own attribution model (see §8).

ROAS is entirely Meta-reported revenue. It will typically be higher than Shopify-verified or GA4-tracked revenue for the same spend, due to Meta's more generous attribution window and cross-device counting. Do not use this ROAS directly in finance reconciliations without applying a discount factor.

CPAComputed Lower = Better

Cost Per Acquisition — how much was spent per attributed conversion (purchase).

CPA = spend / website_conversions

CPA is the inverse relationship to ROAS when AOV is constant. If AOV rises while spend and conversions stay flat, ROAS rises and CPA stays the same. CPA is more useful for evaluating acquisition cost independently of AOV.

Like ROAS, "conversions" here are Meta-attributed, not Shopify-verified. CPA may appear artificially low if Meta is double-counting conversions via view-through attribution.

CTR (All)Computed Higher = Better

Click-through rate across all clicks (link clicks + engagement clicks like reactions, "See More", etc.).

CTR (All) = (clicks_all / impressions) × 100%

CTR (All) is a creative quality signal — it measures how compelling the ad creative and copy are at generating any interaction. Higher CTR (All) means more users are engaging with the ad.

This is not the same as "Link CTR" (clicks directly to the website / impressions). CTR (All) includes non-navigating interactions. For pure landing page traffic efficiency, compare sessions on the Traffic Tab against impressions here.

4Full Metrics Reference

The summary table (accessible via the expandable rows) shows 11 metrics. All are computed from the raw fields described in §2.

Metric	Formula	Unit	Direction	Notes
Spend	`Σ spend`	$	Lower = Better	Direct from Meta Ads API.
Impressions	`Σ impressions`	count	Context-dependent	Higher reach is good if CPM is acceptable.
Clicks (All)	`Σ clicks_all`	count	Higher = Better	All interactions, not just link clicks.
Conversions	`Σ website_conversions`	count	Higher = Better	Meta-attributed purchases.
Conv. Value	`Σ website_purchase_conversion_value`	$	Higher = Better	Meta-attributed revenue.
CPM	`(spend / impressions) × 1000`	$ / 1K impr.	Lower = Better	Audience reach cost. Rising CPM can indicate auction competition or audience saturation.
CTR (All)	`(clicks_all / impressions) × 100%`	%	Higher = Better	Creative engagement signal.
CPC	`spend / clicks_all`	$	Lower = Better	Cost per click. Combines CPM and CTR efficiency: CPC = CPM / (CTR × 10).
CvR	`(website_conversions / clicks_all) × 100%`	%	Higher = Better	Click-to-conversion rate. Low CvR with high CTR = landing page or offer issue.
ROAS	`website_purchase_conversion_value / spend`	× multiple	Higher = Better	Meta-attributed revenue per $1 spent.
CPA	`spend / website_conversions`	$	Lower = Better	Cost per attributed conversion.

Diagnostic Framework

Understanding which metric is the lever helps diagnose performance issues:

High CPM, OK CTR → High CPC: Audience is expensive (saturation or competition). Expand targeting or test new audiences.
OK CPM, Low CTR → High CPC: Creative is weak. Test new ad creative or copy.
Good CPC, Low CvR → High CPA: Clicks are cheap but don't convert. Landing page, offer, or audience-to-page mismatch.
Good CPA, Low ROAS: Conversions are happening but AOV is low. Bundle offers or upsell messaging may help.

5Charts

Chart	Type	Data	Notes
Daily Spend	Line (dual series)	Current period spend (solid blue) + comparison period spend (dashed grey).	Useful for spotting day-of-week spend patterns and budget pacing.
Daily ROAS	Line (single, filled)	Daily ROAS = daily revenue / daily spend.	Noisy at daily level — look for trend direction more than individual day values.
Daily CTR (All)	Line (single, filled)	Daily CTR = daily clicks / daily impressions × 100%.	Declining CTR over time can signal creative fatigue.
Daily CPC	Line (single, filled, amber)	Daily CPC = daily spend / daily clicks.	Rising CPC can reflect either worsening CTR or rising CPM (audience competition).

📌

Each summary table row is expandable — clicking a metric row reveals an inline mini time-series chart for that metric at the selected granularity (daily/weekly/monthly). This allows quick trendline inspection without leaving the table.

6Campaign Detail Table

A hierarchical drilldown table: campaigns at the top level, expandable to show their constituent ad sets. Click the ▶ button on any campaign row to see the ad set breakdown.

Column	Formula / Source	Notes
Campaign / Ad Set	Campaign name + objective badge ("Sales" or "Traffic")	Campaigns show objective badge. Ad sets are indented below parent campaign.
Spend	`Σ spend`	Total spend for campaign or ad set in period.
CPM	`(spend / impressions) × 1000`	Cost per 1,000 impressions.
CTR	`(clicks_all / impressions) × 100%`	All-clicks CTR.
CPC	`spend / clicks_all`	Cost per click.
CvR	`(website_conversions / clicks_all) × 100%`	Click-to-purchase conversion rate.
CPA	`spend / website_conversions`	Cost per attributed purchase.

📌

Metrics in this table are aggregated across all days in the selected period for each campaign/ad set. Sorting by Spend quickly identifies where budget is concentrated; sorting by CPA reveals which campaigns are acquiring customers most efficiently.

7Filters & Controls

Control	Options	Effect
Objective	All (default) · Sales · Traffic	Filters to campaigns with the matching Meta campaign objective. "Sales" = `OUTCOME_SALES`. "Traffic" = `OUTCOME_TRAFFIC`. Affects all KPI cards, charts, and table.
Campaign	All campaigns (multi-select)	Shows/hides individual campaigns. Useful for isolating a specific campaign's performance. Label shows "All campaigns" → "X campaigns" → campaign name as you narrow down.
Granularity	Daily · Weekly · Monthly	Controls the granularity of charts and the L4M comparison calculation. Does not re-fetch data — aggregates client-side.
Period (global)	Fiscal Wk, WTD, MTD, Last N Days, Custom	Re-fetches both current and comparison Meta data.
Comparison (global)	Prev Period, Prev Week, Prev Month, Prev Year, Custom	Re-fetches comparison period data. Affects all badge deltas.

8Attribution Model

All revenue and conversion figures in this tab are Meta-attributed — meaning Meta's own algorithm determines which purchases to credit to which ads.

Meta's Default Attribution Windows

Event	Default Window	Meaning
Click-through	7 days	A purchase within 7 days of clicking the ad is credited to that ad.
View-through	1 day	A purchase within 1 day of seeing (not clicking) the ad is credited to that ad.

Note: Meta may have been configured with different windows in your account. Check Meta Ads Manager > Campaign Settings > Attribution Setting to verify the actual window in use for Jack Archer.

🚫

Meta-attributed revenue will almost always be higher than Shopify-verified revenue for the same period. Reasons: (1) View-through attribution credits purchases that may have happened organically. (2) Multi-touch — the same order can be attributed by both Meta and another channel (e.g., Email), so total attributed revenue across all channels will exceed total actual revenue. (3) Cross-device matching — Meta may connect a mobile ad impression to a desktop purchase using probabilistic matching. Use ROAS as a relative performance indicator between campaigns, not as an absolute revenue number for CFO reporting.

ℹ

The "Meta spend as % of Demand Sales" context banner uses Shopify Demand Sales (from /api/revenue) as the denominator — not Meta's attributed revenue. This gives a business-grounded view of spend intensity that is not inflated by Meta's attribution.

9L4M Reference Benchmarks

The summary table includes an L4M (Last 4 Months) reference column alongside the current period and comparison period columns. This provides a rolling baseline to contextualize whether current performance is above or below the recent trend.

How L4M Is Computed

L4M monthly aggregates (Aug 2025 – Feb 2026) are stored as hardcoded monthly totals in the dashboard. They are extrapolated to the current granularity:

Daily comparison: L4M monthly total ÷ 30 days
Weekly comparison: L4M monthly total ÷ 4.33 weeks
Monthly comparison: L4M monthly total (direct)

Heat mapping: current value is green if above L4M reference, red if below (directionally — Spend being above L4M is red since lower is better).

⚠

L4M data is hardcoded and does not update automatically. It reflects historical monthly totals as of the dashboard's last update. For the most current L4M benchmark, compare directly to Prev Month or Prev Year using the comparison period selector instead.

10Known Caveats

🚫

Meta data has a 24–72 hour delay for stable figures. Conversion data in particular continues to be updated by Meta as delayed purchase events are processed. ROAS for "today" or "yesterday" will be understated compared to the same date viewed a few days later. This is inherent to Meta's reporting — always compare periods of similar age.

🚫

CTR (All) ≠ Link CTR. The dashboard uses clicks_all which includes all ad interactions (reactions, comments, "See More" taps, page likes, etc.). Link CTR — the percentage clicking directly to the website — is typically 30–50% lower. When benchmarking against industry standards, verify which CTR definition the benchmark uses.

⚠

Spend total may differ from Meta Ads Manager by a few cents. Rounding differences accumulate across many daily rows. For billing reconciliation, use Meta Ads Manager directly as the source of truth for spend amounts.

⚠

Ad sets with zero spend are excluded. The data only includes rows where spend > 0. Paused campaigns that had no spend in the selected period will not appear in the campaign table even if they ran previously.

📌

Objective filter defaults to "All". If you want to isolate the performance of conversion-optimized campaigns only (which should have the highest ROAS and CPA accountability), filter to "Sales" objective. "Traffic" campaigns optimize for clicks, not purchases, and will have very different CPA/ROAS profiles — mixing them inflates click counts and dilutes conversion metrics.

Meta Paid Social Tab — Data & Metrics Wiki

Contents