This article covers the limitations, considerations, and workarounds for working with Facebook Ads data in Power My Analytics. For instructions on connecting your Facebook Ads account and creating reports, see the Facebook Ads Data Connector User Guide.

General Limitations and Considerations

• Backfilling: Limited to 2 years, with an initial backfill of 13 months when you first connect your account.
• Data Span: Lifetime metrics cover 37 months of data.
• Live Metrics: Reach and metrics starting with "unique" are live metrics and cannot be used in daily sums.
• Cached Data Requests with Unique Metrics and Date Dimension: When a unique metric is paired with the date dimension, this will result in a request for cached data instead of a request for live data. For this reason, only cached data will appear in a report or chart that pairs a unique field with the date dimension. For more information, see Cached Data Requests in Facebook Ads with Unique Metrics and Date Dimension.
• Campaign Daily Budget: Only current values for Campaign Daily Budget are available; historical data is not available for this field.
• User Segment Key (Audience Segment Breakdown): The User Segment Key field is supported for Advantage+ Shopping and Advantage+ Sales campaigns. For other campaign types, this field will return "unknown." These segment values depend on Meta's internal audience classification and may not appear if insufficient data is available, and the availability and behavior of this breakdown may vary by account, campaign setup, and reporting level.
• New Account Delay: Wait 24 hours after adding a new account in Facebook before using it in PMA reports.
• Time Zone: All data is reported in time zone UTC-8:00 (UTC-7:00 during Daylight Saving Time).
• API and Authentication: Facebook and Instagram use the same underlying API. PMA's Facebook Ads, Facebook Insights, and Instagram Insights data connectors use the same authentication process.

Removed Configuration Options

The following configuration options have been removed from the Facebook Ads connector due to changes in Meta's API:

• action_attribution_windows: This configuration option is no longer available. Attribution is now managed at the ad set level within Facebook Ads Manager.

Historical Data Limitations for Specific Fields

Due to changes in Meta's Facebook Ads API, the following fields have limitations on how far back historical data can be retrieved via API requests:

These limitations apply to new API calls only. If the data has already been cached in Power My Analytics' database through previous data syncs, PMA can provide historical data beyond these limitations.

Reach Reporting Limitations

As of June 10, 2025, reports that combine the Reach metric with breakdowns will have this report data limited to the last 13 months (394 days). This is due to a change in Meta's API. Reach data will only be available for the most recent 13 months when used with the following breakdowns:

• Action Target ID
• Action types/Action type with custom labels
• Age
• Applink Treatment
• Carousel Card ID
• Carousel Card Name
• Conversion Device
• Country
• Device Platform
• DMA
• DMA Code
• Gender
• Hour of Day - Advertiser Time Zone
• Hour of Day - Audience Time Zone
• Impression Device
• Place Page ID
• Placement
• Platform Position
• Publisher Platform
• Region
• Template URL

For more information, please see Meta's 2025 API Changelog.

Unavailable Data

The following data is not available through Meta's Facebook Ads API and cannot be reported through Power My Analytics:

• Purchase breakouts by device and publisher platform
• Offsite metrics
• Conversions by country
• Breakdowns by Objective

Report Custom Events

The Facebook Ads connector automatically includes any custom events you've configured in Facebook Ads. In Looker Studio, if your custom events have not appeared as available fields in your report, reconnect the Facebook Ads data source from within Looker Studio. The custom events fields should appear after reconnecting.

Replicating Custom Metrics

Custom metrics can be replicated with formulas in your report:

Create Breakdowns by Objective

Breakdowns by objective are available in Facebook Ads Manager but not in the API. You can use the following workaround:

1. Create a filter on your table.
2. Choose Include > Campaign ID (ad sets, campaign insights, campaigns, insights) > RegExp Match.

Report Result Rate

The Result Rate field is unavailable through Meta's Facebook API, so Power My Analytics cannot report total result rate for all KPIs. However, to report result rates for individual KPIs, please see our instructions at How to Report Result Rate in Facebook Ads.

Working with Ad Image Fields

Power My Analytics offers multiple image-related fields for Facebook Ads. Understanding their differences will help you choose the right field for your reports.

The Ad Creative Image field is recommended for most use cases. This field automatically displays the highest-quality image available:

• Uses the high-resolution Ad Image URL when available
• Falls back to the Thumbnail URL when Ad Image URL is not available
• Ensures your reports always display an image for each ad

To access this field, you may need to reconnect your Facebook Ads data source in Looker Studio.

Individual Image Fields

Video Ad Thumbnail Fields

For video advertisements, the following thumbnail-related fields are available:

• Video Asset Thumbnail URL — Direct URL to the video thumbnail (Dynamic Creative breakdown)
• Video Asset Thumbnail Hash — Internal identifier for the thumbnail image

Limitations:

• Video thumbnail fields are part of the Dynamic Creative asset breakdowns and can only be used with the metrics Impressions, Clicks (All), Amount Spent, and Reach
• An image will only be returned for ads that include image or video creatives; non-visual ad types will not return images
• Meta's API does not provide a dedicated field to identify specific ad formats (Reels, Standard, Videos, etc.)

Troubleshooting

Follow the instructions in Troubleshooting Facebook Ads for information on issues that may affect the Facebook Ads connector.