Customize columns in Meta Ads Manager: the clear guide

What does customizing columns in Meta Ads Manager do?

It changes which numbers you see in the Ads Manager table. Instead of the default layout, you choose the metrics that tell you whether a campaign meets your business goal. Meta’s own example: if you want more people to view your video ad, add columns that show how many people watched it.

The table works at three levels, campaigns, ad sets and ads, and you can customize each one. A layout you build can be saved and reused, so you do not rebuild it each time you open the account.

The point is focus. A table with forty columns hides the two that matter. A table built around one goal makes the decision obvious.

How do you customize columns, step by step?

Click Campaigns, Ad sets or Ads, depending on the level you want to change. Click the Columns dropdown menu and select Customize columns. Select the columns you want to see. To keep the layout, check Save as a column preset. Then click Apply, and the table updates.

To use a saved preset later, click Columns again and pick it in the Column presets section. Your custom presets sit next to the ones Meta provides.

Example. You run a lead campaign and only care about leads, cost per lead and reach. Customize the columns at the ad level, tick those metrics, save the layout as a preset called Leads, and apply. Next time, one click brings it back.

Which metric categories can you add?

Meta sorts the metrics into four categories in the Customize columns window. Performance covers results, reach, frequency and impressions. Engagement opens more groups, such as page post, messaging, media, clicks and awareness. Conversions covers website and app results. Settings covers the campaign’s setup.

Some examples Meta gives for each one:

• Performance: results, reach, frequency, impressions.
• Engagement: page post, messaging, media, clicks and awareness metrics.
• Conversions: website conversions, website purchases, cost per website conversion, mobile app installs, mobile app purchases.
• Settings: start date, end date, ad set name, ad ID, delivery, bid, objective.

Settings columns are often forgotten. Adding delivery and objective next to the results saves you from opening each campaign to see why it is not spending.

Which column presets does Meta offer?

Meta offers ready-made column presets with key metrics at the campaign, ad set and ad levels. Performance is the default. The others are Delivery, Engagement, Video engagement, App engagement, Carousel engagement, Performance and clicks, Sales, Offline conversions, Traffic, Messaging engagement and App installs.

Each one bundles the metrics that suit a goal. Delivery shows impressions, reach, frequency and cost per 1,000 impressions. Sales shows link clicks, link click-through rate, cost per link click, cost per result and purchase return on ad spend. Video engagement shows impressions, ThruPlays, cost per ThruPlay and video plays.

The default Performance preset also shows settings, such as bid strategy and last significant edit. That last one is useful: it tells you when the campaign was last changed in a way that can affect delivery.

Which columns should you add for your goal?

Start from what the campaign is meant to achieve, then borrow from the matching Meta preset. For sales, take cost per result and purchase return on ad spend. For traffic, take link clicks and cost per result. For video, take ThruPlays and cost per ThruPlay. For reach, take impressions, reach, frequency and cost per 1,000 impressions.

Then add two columns from Settings: delivery, to see at once what is running, and the objective, so you never compare a traffic campaign with a sales one.

Example. An online store reading its sales campaigns keeps amount spent, cost per result, purchase return on ad spend, link click-through rate, frequency and delivery. Six columns. If return on ad spend drops and frequency climbs, the same people are seeing the ad too often.

How do you save and reuse a column preset?

When you customize columns, check the box Save as a column preset before you click Apply. The layout is then stored with your other presets. To use it again, click Columns and choose it in the Column presets section, at the campaign, ad set or ad level.

A good habit is one preset per goal: one for sales, one for leads, one for video. Name each one after the goal, so anyone on your team picks the right view without thinking.

Meta also lets you create a custom column preset from its ready-made ones: start from the closest preset, adjust the columns, and save it under your own name.

Why did some column presets disappear?

Meta retired three presets in 2023. The cross-device, bidding and optimization, and targeting and creative presets stopped being available after September 5, 2023. Three new presets, Sales, Traffic and App installs, became available after August 28, 2023.

If an old tutorial tells you to open the Bidding and optimization preset and you cannot find it, that is why. Rebuild the view with Customize columns, using the Settings category for bid and objective.

Meta also has a help page about metrics being removed, linked from its reporting section. Check it when a column you used to rely on is no longer listed.

How does Adwize read these columns for you?

Adwize reads your Meta results every day and explains them in plain words: what changed, why it likely changed, and what to do next. You still have every column in Ads Manager, but you do not need to scan them all to know where to act. See the Report page.

When something drifts, such as cost per result rising while frequency climbs, Adwize says it in one sentence and proposes a change. Nothing changes without your approval. See the Optimize page.

Adwize works with Meta ads only, on Facebook and Instagram, inside your own ad account.