Meta Ads Analysis & Diagnosis Skill

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when you need to analyze and diagnose Meta Ads campaign performance, including:

• Interpreting campaign, ad set, or ad-level performance data
• Identifying root causes of performance issues
• Generating actionable optimization recommendations
• Understanding why Meta's system makes certain budget allocation decisions

Result Recommendations (MANDATORY for Final Reports)

IMPORTANT: The following rules are MANDATORY and MUST be strictly followed when writing the final analysis report. These are not optional guidelines—they define the required standards for all deliverables.

• NEVER recommend pausing or reducing budget for any segment based solely on higher average CPA/CPM in breakdown reports. Higher average cost does NOT mean poor performance—it often reflects the system capturing low marginal cost opportunities earlier. Removing segments may increase overall costs. Always frame changes as testable hypotheses, not directives.
• ALWAYS justify recommendations with data evidence, Meta's system mechanics, and expected impact on overall campaign performance.
• EVERY insight must include data evidence and explanation. Every recommendation must be actionable and verifiable.
• USE QUALIFIED LANGUAGE. Say "Estimated Reach of ~1,000" not "You reached 1,000 people." All metrics are estimates.
• ALIGN WITH OFFICIAL RECOMMENDATIONS. Check get_recommendations API first. If diverging, explicitly acknowledge and explain why.
• Disambiguate clicks. Never use the term "clicks" alone. Use "Clicks (all)" for total interactions (likes, shares, page clicks, link clicks) or "Link Clicks" for clicks that lead offsite; these are distinct metrics with different meanings.**

Metric Naming Guidelines

IMPORTANT: Always rename metric names to standardized, non-sensitive names exactly as specified below in all responses:

Raw Metric Name	Standardized Display Name
impressions	Impressions
video_thruplay_watched_actions	ThruPlays
clicks	Clicks (all)
purchase_roas	Purchase ROAS (return on ad spend)

Core Principles

• Holistic First: Evaluate at aggregate level before drilling down. The system optimizes for the whole, not the parts.
• Dynamic over Static: Analyze performance over time, not single snapshots.
• Marginal over Average: The system prioritizes marginal CPA (cost of the next result), not average CPA. A higher average CPA segment might be preventing even higher marginal costs elsewhere.

Meta Ads Domain Knowledge

Legal Requirements & Terminology

• Audience Size Metrics: Due to legal requirements, when referring to audience size metrics (the total number of accounts that view the ad), you must use "Accounts Center accounts" (case insensitive) or report the metric without any unit instead of "people" (e.g., "Your reach is 17,000" or "Your ad reached 17,000 Accounts Center accounts").
• "People" Usage: When "people" is used in contexts referring to audience size (e.g., "reach more people", "seen by people", "your ad reached people", "show ads to people"), the word "people" must be replaced with "Accounts Center accounts". When "people" is used with specific actions, behaviors, characteristics, or qualifiers that describe what people do or are likely to do, "people" is acceptable.

Campaign & Performance Definitions

• Conversion Ads: Ad entities with objectives like Lead, Sales, or App Promotions are categorized as conversion ads.
• Conversion Rate: Conversion rate = conversion / impression.
• Performance Indicators: Lower value of Cost Per result or CPM is associated with higher performance. Higher value of ROAS is associated with higher performance.

Account & Asset Issues

• Disabled or Restricted Account: Occurs when one or more of the customer's assets (e.g., FB account, IG account, ad account, page, payout account) have been disabled or restricted by Meta, usually because the customer violated some policies. This is not relevant for general questions about business manager setup, deleting a business manager, or converting a Facebook page to a business page.

Budget & Billing

• Daily Spending Limit (DSL): The current daily spending limit that advertisers can check, increase, or decrease.
• Billing Threshold (Payment Threshold): The amount of ad spend that triggers a payment method charge when reached. Advertisers can check limit, lower, or increase their payment threshold. The billing threshold is also relevant to billing frequency (e.g., monthly billing, daily billing).

Support Intent Recognition

• Support or Troubleshooting Intent: Occurs when a user is seeking actionable help to fix, recover, or resolve a specific issue, error, or technical problem related to their Meta assets, accounts, payments, or advertising activities, or seeking to speak with a human agent. This intent is characterized by a need for step-by-step guidance, procedural instructions, or direct intervention—rather than general learning, strategic planning, or performance improvement.

Analysis Workflow

Reference Documents:

• references/breakdown_effect.md - The Breakdown Effect with examples (read this first)
• references/core_concepts.md - Ad Auction, Pacing, Learning Phase overview
• references/learning_phase.md - Learning phase mechanics
• references/ad_relevance_diagnostics.md - Quality, Engagement, Conversion rankings
• references/auction_overlap.md - Diagnosing auction overlap
• references/pacing.md - Budget and bid pacing
• references/bid_strategies.md - Spend-based, goal-based, manual bidding
• references/ad_auctions.md - How auction winners are determined
• references/performance_fluctuations.md - Normal vs. concerning fluctuations

Step 1: Identify the Correct Evaluation Level

This is the most critical step to avoid the Breakdown Effect.

Campaign Setup	Correct Evaluation Level
Advantage+ Campaign Budget (CBO)	Campaign Level
Automatic Placements (without CBO)	Ad Set Level
Multiple Ads within a single Ad Set	Ad Set Level

Step 2: Analyze with Meta-Specific Lens

Focus on these Meta-specific analytical angles:

1. Marginal Efficiency Analysis: Infer marginal CPA trends from time-series data. A segment with low average CPA but rising marginal CPA explains why the system shifts budget away.
2. Ad Relevance Diagnostics: Check Quality, Engagement, and Conversion Rate Rankings to diagnose creative, targeting, or post-click issues.
3. Learning Phase Status: Determine if ad sets are still in learning phase (~50 results needed to exit).

Step 3: Synthesize Findings Through Breakdown Effect Lens

Interpret all findings through the Breakdown Effect. Explain why the system makes certain decisions.

Example: "While Placement A shows $10 average CPA vs Placement B's $15, time-series analysis reveals Placement A's CPA rising sharply—its marginal CPA likely exceeds Placement B's. The system correctly shifts budget to secure more conversions at lower marginal cost."