Choosing the Right Metrics for Website Actions and Pixels Performance Reporting

Learn how to find the right fields in Looker Studio to correctly report on Facebook Ads metrics including dealing with misaligned data. Accurately reporting your metrics will help you track leads, conversions, revenue, and Facebook Ads ROI.

If you’re using our Facebook Ads connector to track your advertising performance and ROI in Looker Studio, it can sometimes be difficult to find the right metrics and fields to report on. The Facebook Ads API provides dozens of potential fields, and some of the field names can be unintuitive.

This is particularly true when you want to report on revenue, leads, conversions, and other user activities on your website. In this guide, we’ll explain how to find the right fields for accurate reporting in Looker Studio, how to resolve mismatches between the data, and how to track the metrics that matter.

The issues this guide will help you solve

1. You want to track Facebook Ads performance in Looker Studio using the PMA Facebook Ads connector.
   
2. You already have Facebook Pixels set up on your website to track user behavior.
   
3. You are having difficulty finding the right fields or metrics to accurately show and match the Facebook Ads dashboard data in Looker Studio.
   
4. You want to report on revenue, leads, conversions, or other actions taken as the result of user actions on your website after interacting with a Facebook Ad.
   
5. You are having a mismatch between conversions and user actions between those reported in the Facebook Ads dashboard and those showing in Looker Studio.

Common terms we use in this guide

1. Conversion: A desired activity taken by a user on your website after seeing or clicking on a Facebook Ad (for example, requesting a free trial of a product).
   
2. Facebook Ads Connector: The PMA integration that lets you collect and report on data from Facebook in Looker Studio.
   
3. Facebook Ads Dashboard: A customizable reporting tool within Facebook to track the performance of your ads.
   
4. Facebook API: How Facebook collects and shares data from Facebook Ads reporting and makes it available to external systems like Looker Studio.
   
5. Pixel: A tracking pixel on your website that Facebook uses to track desired user actions and conversions.
   
6. PMA: Power My Analytics.
   

This guide covers several areas

1. How to choose the right metrics in the PMA Facebook Ads connector.
   
2. How to find custom pixel names in the PMA Facebook Ads connector.
   
3. How to troubleshoot discrepancies and mismatches between the Facebook Ads dashboard and Looker Studio.
   

Context and background

The PMA Facebook Ads connector displays field names that come from Facebook API information, rather than user-defined field names in Looker Studio. 

Example: You might call a metric “Leads from Facebook Ads” in Looker Studio, but Facebook’s API describes it as “On-Facebook Leads.” The PMA Facebook Ads connector will collect data from Facebook and make it available under the “On-Facebook Leads” field. You will need to identify that this is the field you require when reporting on leads in Looker Studio. 

This means unless you select exactly the right fields and metrics, the data you see in the Facebook Ads dashboard and the data you see in Looker Studio may not be the same.

How to choose the right metrics in the PMA Facebook Ads connector

These are some of the most popular metrics available from Facebook Pixels and how we identify them in the PMA Facebook Ads connector.

Facebook Ads API Field Name	Looker Studio PMA Connector Field Name
Website Purchases	Website Purchases (insights, ...)
Website Purchases Conversion Value	Website Purchases Conversion Value (insights, ...)
Website Purchase ROAS	Website Purchase ROAS (insights, ...)
Cost Per Purchase	Cost Per Purchases (insights, ...)
Lead	Leads (insights, ...)
Cost Per Lead	Cost Per Leads (insights, ...)

To use any of these fields, just drag them into Looker Studio.

How to find custom pixel names in the PMA Facebook Ads connector

If you have created a custom field name associated with your Facebook Pixel, you will also be able to find it in the PMA Connector list. To find the right field, just search for one or more of the words you used to name the Custom Pixel field. 

Recommendation: We recommend using highly identifiable, descriptive names for Facebook Pixels reporting. This will make it easier to locate the field in future. For example, you might call a Pixel that tracks requests for a demo “Demo Requests Facebook Ad Clicks.” This will also make it easier to search for.

Caution: If you named the field in your local language, the field name will be in your local language, not translated to English.

How to troubleshoot discrepancies and mismatches between the Facebook Ads dashboard and Looker Studio

If the numbers between the Facebook Ads dashboard and Looker Studio don’t match up, try the following steps.

1. Make sure you are comparing the same date range in both tools.
   
2. Make sure you have “backfilled” data in the PMA Facebook Ads connector for the date range you have selected. Learn how to backfill data into Looker Studio.
   
3. Make sure you are using the correct metric in Looker Studio and have dragged across the proper field from the PMA Facebook Ads connector into Looker Studio. Refer to the “How to choose the right metrics in the PMA Facebook Ads connector” table above.
   

Caution: Do not include “Today” in your date ranges as the Facebook API can lag behind the Facebook Ads dashboard and show inconsistent results.

Helpful resources

1. How to Set Up and Use the Facebook Pixel for Your Ad Campaigns
   
2. Create and Install a Facebook Pixel
   
3. Create a Facebook Pixel in Business Manager
   
4. How to Backfill Data into Looker Studio
   
5. Dealing with Facebook Ads Error "(#100) Requires business_management" permission to access the field."
   

Where to get further help

We hope this has solved any issues for misaligned or misreported data in Looker Studio for Facebook Ads. If you still need help, we recommend:

1. Reviewing the support topics in our knowledge base.
2. Reviewing our Looker Studio knowledge base.
3. Submitting a ticket to our support team so we can resolve your issue.
4. Please leave any recommendations or feedback for Power My Analytics here. Please do not use this link for support requests, instead, submit a ticket at the link above.

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