How to Analyze Your Meta Ads Campaigns

Tracking Your Campaign Metrics: Metricool vs. Looker Studio

When you connect your Meta Ads account to Metricool, you can check key metrics directly on the platform or through our Looker Studio connector (available on Advanced and Custom plans).

However, it's important to know that not all the data available in Looker is stored in Metricool — some metrics are pulled in real time from Meta's API when the report is generated.

Here’s a breakdown of what data is available in each place and how it works.

📊 Metrics Available in Metricool

In Metricool, you can track your Meta Ads campaign data in two main sections:

1. “Analytics > Meta Ads” section

The data here is synced daily and stored in our database.

You'll find metrics like:

• Impressions

• Reach

• Clicks

• CPC, CPM, CTR

• Custom conversions at the campaign level (if you’ve set them up in Meta)

Notes about custom conversions:

• These are also stored and visible in the Analytics section.

• However, they’re not available through the Looker Studio connector, so you can’t use them in custom reports.

• ℹ️ For more details, check out the article: Conversions in Meta Ads.

2. “Ads” section

The metrics shown in this section are not stored. Instead, they’re pulled in real time from Meta’s API every time you access the page.

This applies to the campaigns tab, ad sets, and individual ads.

▪️​Campaign, Ad Set, and Ad Statuses

In this section, you’ll see the same statuses that appear in Meta Ads (Facebook Ads Manager). These values come directly from Meta’s official API and are not defined by Metricool.

The main statuses are:

• ACTIVE
  Indicates that the ad, ad set, or campaign is set as active.
  Important: being in ACTIVE status does not always mean it is currently delivering.
  Example: a campaign may have ended by date, or an ad may be pending review, but its configured status is still ACTIVE.
  To know if an ad is truly running (“live”), you need to check the effective_status field.

• PAUSED
  The ad was manually stopped and is not delivering or spending budget.
  It can be resumed at any time by changing the status back to ACTIVE.

• DELETED
  The ad was permanently removed and cannot be reactivated.
  It won’t appear in the list by default, although some historical information may be preserved for a while.

• ARCHIVED
  The ad was stopped and archived.
  This is useful to keep a record without showing it in the main view of active ads.
  Unlike DELETED, it can sometimes be unarchived.

▪️​Configured Status vs Effective Status

• configured_status → The status manually set by the advertiser (e.g., ACTIVE or PAUSED).

• effective_status → Reflects the real situation of the ad, considering the hierarchy (campaign > ad set > ad).

Examples:

• If an ad is ACTIVE but the campaign is PAUSED, the effective_status will show CAMPAIGN_PAUSED.

• If a newly created ad is ACTIVE, its effective_status may be PENDING_REVIEW until it passes Meta’s review.

📈 Metrics Available in Looker Studio

Metricool’s connector for Looker Studio (available on Advanced and Custom plans) gives you access to additional metrics — including ad-level data that you won’t find in the Metricool Analytics interface.

However, not all of these metrics are stored in our database.

So how does it work?

• Metrics that are stored in Metricool (like the ones in the “Analytics” section) are pulled from our database.

• Metrics that aren’t visible in Metricool’s interface are fetched in real time from Meta’s API when you build your Looker report.

What does that mean for you?

• If Meta doesn’t return some data at the time of the request, it may show up as blank or trigger an error.

• It all depends on what Meta sends back at that exact moment.

➡️ Example: if a Looker report tries to show ad-level leads, and Meta doesn’t return them in real time, they won’t appear — even if campaign-level leads are available.

⚠️ Reminder: custom conversions are not available in Looker Studio, even though they’re stored and visible in Metricool.

How are metrics organized in Looker Studio?

When you connect Meta Ads with Looker Studio, you'll see that the metrics are split into three main sections:

• Meta Ads Evolution: Shows the overall performance trends of all your campaigns over time. (Same as the Account view in Metricool Analytics.)

• Meta Ads Campaigns: Breaks down the data by campaign. Great for figuring out which campaigns are doing well and making strategic decisions. (Same as the Campaigns section in Metricool Analytics.)

• Meta Ads Ads: Shows performance at the individual ad level. Perfect for analyzing how each creative, format, or copy is performing. (This section isn’t available in Metricool Analytics.)

⚠️ Don’t mix metrics from different sections. Each section works at a different data level (time evolution, campaign, or ad). If you try to combine metrics from different sections in the same chart or table, the connector will throw an error.

🗂️ You can check out all the available fields for each section here: Metricool DS Connector Field Reference

Related articles

• Meta Ads Metrics

• Conversions in Meta Ads.

• Custom Reports with Looker Studio