# Meta Ads Manager Columns Worth Using, and What to Cut

> A practical guide to the Meta Ads Manager columns worth using, the pairs that only make sense read together, and the ones quietly wasting a slot.

Author: The DashOps Team  |  Published: 2026-10-14  |  Updated: 2026-10-16  |  Topic: Metrics & Analytics

You open Ads Manager to answer one question about a client's account, and the table in front of you is set up for a different one. The default preset gives you spend and results, so you add a column, then another, and soon the table scrolls sideways past the edge of the screen. Half of those columns are there because you needed them once, in another account, on a campaign with a different objective. The next time you open it you scan across, lose your place, and export the lot into a spreadsheet just to find the numbers you actually came for.

Columns are the simplest lever in Ads Manager and the one most people leave sitting on the default. Here is a working view of which ones earn a permanent place, which only mean something in pairs, and which quietly waste a slot.

![image_20261017_003902](https://pub-ae7c0247bc134935855f21b665422e27.r2.dev/posts/1792179808164-a83ff2096278.jpg)

## Choose columns to answer a question, not to collect metrics

Almost every column you will ever need answers one of three questions. Is the ad being delivered, and to how many people. Is anyone acting on it. Is that action worth what it costs. A column that does not help you answer one of those, for the campaign in front of you right now, is taking up space you pay for every time you scan the table.

That framing also explains why one giant column set never works. A lead generation campaign and a catalog sales campaign answer the third question with completely different metrics, so they need different views.

## The columns that earn a permanent place

**Spend and outcome**

- Amount spent, so every other number has something to sit against.
- Results and cost per result. Both follow the optimisation event you chose, so they stay meaningful as you move between objectives.
- Result rate, which tells you how often an impression turned into the thing you asked Meta to optimise for.

**Delivery side**

- Impressions and reach, kept together rather than one or the other.
- Frequency, which is simply impressions divided by reach and is the fastest read on whether you are showing the same creative to the same people over and over.
- CPM, the cost to serve a thousand impressions, which is your early warning that auction pressure or audience size has shifted.

**Click side**

- Link clicks rather than clicks (all).
- CTR (link click-through rate) rather than CTR (all).
- CPC (cost per link click).
- Landing page views, the column most people skip and the one that explains results the click columns cannot.

**Conversion side**

- The conversion columns that match the campaign: leads, purchases, adds to cart, checkouts initiated, or whichever event you are optimising for.
- Cost per that event.
- Conversion value and return on ad spend for anything selling a product.

**Housekeeping**

- Delivery, so you can see at a glance what is actually running.
- Attribution setting, so you know which click and view window each row is credited under before you compare anything to anything else.
- Budget and schedule, so a row that looks like it underperformed is not simply a row that barely spent.

## The pairs that only mean something together

Single columns mislead. Pairs diagnose.

**Link clicks and landing page views.** People tapped, and then something happened between the tap and the page rendering. A wide gap points at a slow page, a broken destination, or a tracking problem. Either column on its own tells you none of that.

**Impressions and reach.** Together they give you frequency, and frequency is the difference between an audience that has not seen the ad yet and one that is tired of it.

**CTR (all) and CTR (link).** Clicks (all) counts reactions, comments, shares, expanding the caption and taps on the Page name. It reads higher than the link version because it is counting more kinds of taps. Report the flattering one to a client and you have set an expectation the traffic does not support.

**Cost per result and result rate.** A rising cost per result with a steady result rate is usually an auction story. A falling result rate is usually a creative or audience story. Read together, they point at which lever to pull.

**Amount spent and delivery.** A row with an ugly cost per result that also barely spent is not a losing ad. It is an ad that has not been given a chance yet.

## Columns to think twice about

- **Clicks (all) as a headline number.** Useful for spotting engagement on a creative, misleading as a measure of traffic.
- **Engagement columns on a lead campaign.** Post reactions and shares are interesting, but they are not the outcome, and they take a slot from a column that is.
- **Every cost column at once.** Cost per click, cost per unique click, cost per result and cost per unique result stacked side by side give you four numbers where one decision exists.
- **The ranking diagnostics as a reporting metric.** Quality ranking, engagement rate ranking and conversion rate ranking are genuinely useful as a private diagnostic when an ad starts to slip, because they compare your ad against others competing for the same audience. They are relative, they need delivery before they appear at all, and they are not something to put in front of a client as a score.
- **Any column nobody has ever made a decision from.** If you cannot name the action a column would trigger, cut it.

## Save a preset per objective, not one giant preset

Ads Manager lets you build a column set through Columns, then Customise columns, and save it under a name. Most people do this once and end up with a single sprawling view they use for everything. A better pattern is a small set of narrow presets you switch between:

- A lead review preset: spend, results, cost per result, result rate, link clicks, landing page views, CTR link, frequency, delivery.
- An ecommerce preset: spend, purchases, cost per purchase, conversion value, return on ad spend, adds to cart, checkouts initiated, CPM.
- A creative check preset: spend, impressions, frequency, CTR link, CPC, cost per result, and the ranking diagnostics.

Switching between three tight views is faster than scrolling one wide one, and each view answers a question you can say out loud. This kind of hands-on account work is something Ads Manager is genuinely good at, which is worth keeping in mind when you decide what belongs in the platform and what belongs elsewhere. We covered that split separately in [what Meta Ads Manager does well](/resources/what-meta-ads-manager-does-well).

## Where columns stop being enough

Columns are a working view, and they are excellent at being one. They strain in a few predictable places:

- **They live inside a single ad account.** A preset shows you one account at a time and does not add the accounts together, so an agency-wide read means opening each one in turn and reading the same view over again.
- **They belong to you, not your client.** A preset helps whoever is operating the account. It does not turn into something you can hand to a client who should not be in Ads Manager at all.
- **They are a table, not a narrative.** Someone asking how last month went does not want a wide grid, they want a short set of headline numbers with the previous period beside them.

That last point is where teams start rebuilding the same view in a spreadsheet every week, which is a reporting problem rather than a columns problem. We went through it in more detail in [the reporting limitations of Ads Manager](/resources/ads-manager-reporting-limitations). It is also why DashOps lets you choose which KPI cards appear, drag them into the order you actually read, save the arrangement as a view, and keep that same read in front of you as you move between the ad accounts you have connected.

If you are weighing up when column work is enough and when a separate reporting layer earns its place, the fuller comparison is in our guide to [choosing a Meta Ads Manager alternative](/resources/meta-ads-manager-alternative).

## What to do next

- Open one account and write down the questions you genuinely ask of it each week.
- Build one preset per question rather than one preset for everything, and name each preset after the question.
- Add landing page views and attribution setting to whichever preset you use most, since both catch problems the other columns hide.
- Remove any column you cannot tie to a decision. If you miss it, add it back.
- If you find yourself reading the same view across several accounts every week and stitching it together by hand, treat that as a signal about your reporting setup rather than your column choices. A dashboard with saved views and scheduled reports takes the repetition out of it.

## Frequently asked questions

### Which Ads Manager columns should I add first?

Start with amount spent, results, cost per result and result rate, because those tie every other number to an outcome. Then add link clicks, landing page views and CTR (link click-through rate) to see whether people are acting, and frequency to see whether you are repeating yourself to the same people. Finally add the conversion columns that match your objective. Anything beyond that should earn its slot by changing a decision you make.

### What is the difference between link clicks and landing page views?

A link click is counted when someone taps a link in your ad. A landing page view is counted when the destination actually loads and your pixel fires. Keeping both columns side by side shows you the gap between them, which usually points at a slow page, a broken destination, or a tracking problem rather than a weak ad. Neither column tells you any of that on its own.

### Should I use CTR (all) or CTR (link click-through rate)?

Use CTR (link click-through rate) for anything you report or optimise against. CTR (all) counts reactions, comments, shares, caption expands and taps on the Page name, so it reads higher than the link version simply because it is counting more kinds of taps. That makes it useful for judging whether a creative is generating engagement, and misleading as a stand-in for traffic. Keep the all version out of client-facing numbers.

### Can I save different column presets for different campaigns?

Yes. In Ads Manager, open Columns, choose Customise columns, pick the metrics you want, and save the set as a named preset. Presets are the whole point: build a narrow one per question, such as a lead review view and an ecommerce view, then switch between them. Naming each preset after the question it answers stops you from building one sprawling set you use for everything.

### Do column presets carry over into client reports?

No. A column preset is a working view for whoever is operating the ad account, and it stays inside that account. Clients generally should not be inside Ads Manager at all, and a wide metrics grid is not what they are asking for anyway. Reporting is a separate job: a short set of headline numbers with the previous period beside them, delivered as a dashboard, a scheduled report, or an email digest.

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Full page: https://dashops.io/resources/ads-manager-columns-worth-using