The short answer
Meta Ads Manager shows hundreds of metrics; six decide whether an MCA campaign is working. From least to most important: CPM around $30, link click-through rate of 2.5 to 3%, landing page conversion around 5%, cost per lead of $15 to $30 with qualification on the page, lead-to-submission of about 15%, and cost per funded deal of $1,000 to $1,500. The further down that list a number goes wrong, the more possible causes it has.
Log in to Ads Manager for the first time and there are, literally, hundreds of columns. It looks intimidating on the first visit and it still looks intimidating on the tenth. Six of those numbers are worth your attention, and they are worth it in a specific order.
| Metric | Benchmark | If it is off, it is usually | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CPM | About $30, plus or minus $5 to $10 | The creative |
| 2 | Link click-through rate | 2.5 to 3%; up to 5.5% on a good campaign | The creative or the offer |
| 3 | Landing page conversion rate | About 5% of visitors into qualified leads | Friction on the form, or the page says something the ad did not |
| 4 | Cost per lead | $15 to $30 with qualification on the page | Creative, page qualification, tracking: several things |
| 5 | Lead-to-submission rate | About 15%; 10% to the low twenties still works | The floor, mostly |
| 6 | Cost per funded deal | $1,000 to $1,500 | Anything above it in the funnel |
Why the order matters
The list runs from least indicative to most relevant, and the two ends behave very differently. A $200 CPM has one cause worth checking: the creative is not stopping anyone. Nothing else in the funnel has happened yet, so nothing else can be responsible. A $4,000 cost per funded deal, by contrast, could be the creative, the page, the passcode step, the tracking, the reps, the placement or the paper, because everything upstream feeds it. The further down the funnel a number sits, the more variables can be producing an irregular reading, and the less you can say from the number alone.
How to read it week to week
- Read top-down. If the CPM and click-through rate are in range, the creative is doing its job and the problem is further along.
- Treat the landing page rate as the handover from the ad to the page. A good CTR and a bad page rate means the page broke a promise the ad made.
- Do not manage to cost per lead. A $60 lead that funds is cheaper than a $10 lead that does not.
- The submission rate is where the ad account stops and the floor starts. It moves with the reps, not with the campaign.
- Judge the campaign on the sixth number, over enough weeks for it to mean something, and change one thing above it at a time.
The reason to hold these six and ignore the rest is not tidiness. A broker who knows their numbers can scale, because they know how much they are willing to spend to acquire a customer and whether the system is producing one at that price. A broker with a folder of spreadsheets and a hundred Ads Manager columns cannot, because they cannot tell whether it works. The week these came from is published in full.