Meta Ads Reporting

AdTarget already knows which Meta campaign, ad set and ad brought each visitor: Meta adds those IDs to every ad link automatically. The Meta ads performance table on your project dashboard uses them to show visits, Telegram joins, business events (such as FTDs) and revenue for every campaign, ad set, ad and platform (Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network…).

Add a read-only Meta key and the same table also shows:

• the real names of your campaigns, ad sets and ads, and the ad account they ran on;
• the ad’s creative preview and status;
• what you spent, your cost per join and per key event, and your ROAS.

Why this matters

Meta credits a conversion to an ad only for 7 days after the click. Deposits and purchases often happen weeks later, so Ads Manager never sees them. AdTarget keeps the link between each person and the ad that brought them in, so the revenue in this table includes those late conversions.

Before you start

• A computer with Google Chrome (the Meta pages below don’t work well on a phone)
• The Facebook profile you run ads with — if an agency shares ad accounts with you, use the profile they share them with
• About 15 minutes

Part 1: Register as a Meta developer (one time)

This is free and only unlocks Meta’s settings pages for your profile. Skip it if you’ve done it before.

1. Log in to facebook.com  with the profile you use for your ads.
2. Go to developers.facebook.com  and click Get Started (top right). If you see My Apps instead, you’re already registered — go to Part 2.
3. Click Next to accept the Platform Terms.
4. Type the confirmation codes Meta sends to your phone and/or email.
5. Choose any role (for example Marketer) and click Complete Registration.

Part 2: Create your own small app (one time)

Meta only issues keys through an “app”. Here, an app is just a settings page that belongs to you: nothing to install, nothing published.

1. Go to developers.facebook.com/apps  and click Create App.
2. Name it, for example My Ads Reporting (the name can’t contain “Facebook”, “Meta” or “Instagram”). Click Next.
3. Select Create & manage ads with Marketing API and click Next. If you don’t see it, click Ads and monetization in the filters on the left.
4. Choose I don’t want to connect a business portfolio yet and click Next. If Meta insists, create a free portfolio — it doesn’t touch your ads.
5. Click Next, then Go to dashboard.
6. In the left menu, open Use cases → Customize next to the Marketing API use case. Make sure ads_read is listed; click Add next to it if needed.

Part 3: Generate your key

1. Open the Graph API Explorer .
2. Under Meta App, select the app you just created.
3. Under User or Page, choose Get User Access Token.
4. Under Permissions, add ads_read only. Remove ads_management if it’s listed: AdTarget only accepts read-only keys.
5. Click Generate Access Token and confirm in the Facebook window. If asked which ad accounts to allow, select all of them.
6. To check it works, type me/adaccounts?fields=name in the bar at the top and click Submit. You should see your ad accounts.

Part 4: Make it last about 2 months and add it to AdTarget

1. Click the blue ⓘ icon next to the key, then Open in Access Token Tool (or paste the key in the Access Token Debugger  and click Debug).
2. Scroll down and click Extend Access Token. Copy the new key that appears.
3. In AdTarget, open Settings → Meta Ads, paste the key and click Connect.

AdTarget loads the last 90 days of names and spend, then refreshes them every 3 hours.

Keeping it up to date

• Every ~60 days the key expires. AdTarget warns you a week before; repeat Parts 3 and 4 and click Replace key.
• New ad account from your agency? It appears automatically as long as it’s shared with the same Facebook profile.
• To remove access, click Disconnect in AdTarget, or delete your app at developers.facebook.com/apps  (App settings → Basic → Delete app).

Reading the table