Seeking Guidance on Capturing Comprehensive Click Metrics in Facebook Ads Reports

[matsantos33]

Hi guys.

I'm currently encountering a challenge with the click metrics in my ad_report using the Fivetran package for DBT with Facebook Ads data. While the spend (spend) and impressions (impressions) metrics are accurate, I have noticed discrepancies in the click data.

Upon closer examination, I realized that the clicks field is derived from coalesce(inline_link_clicks, 0) in the stg_facebook_ads__basic_ad model. However, this seems to capture only "Inline Link Clicks", which are clicks on links within the ad that direct the user outside of Facebook.

I am interested in obtaining a more comprehensive click metric that includes all types of interactions with the ad, not just external link clicks. Could you provide guidance on how I might modify the model to capture all types of ad clicks? Is there a specific column in the Facebook Ads data source that I should be using to obtain this data?

Any guidance or suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I'm looking to ensure our reports accurately reflect our ads' performance.

[James]

Hello, I don't use DBT myself, but you might be able to substitute in the clicks metric. See https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/insights/  > Clicks definition > Clicks (All)

[matsantos33]

Thank you for your assistance, @James.

From what I understand, the documentation you referenced is for directly downloading data from the Facebook API, correct? Can I also make these adjustments within Fivetran? In the Fivetran connector for Facebook Ads, I couldn't find any table that provides the clicks (All) metric. When examining the ERD, I only see data for inline_link_clicks.

Could you please clarify if it's possible to access the clicks(all) metric through the Fivetran Facebook Ads connector? This metric is essential for our analysis, and currently, we seem to be limited to inline_link_clicks only.

[Toby-Metcalf]

Thank you for the question @matsantos33 and your contribution @James.

Fivetran Community: anything to add?
Cheers,
Toby

[luke_alexander · Accepted solution]

Hi @matsantos33, 

I think Facebook/Meta recommends using inline_link_clicks instead of clicks (source). However, if you wanted to use clicks you could build a custom report. Fivetran supports the clicks field in Facebook Ads custom reports. You can create the custom report from your connector Setup tab and include the clicks field. Then you can modify this DBT package to leverage your custom report table instead of the prebuilt report, which only includes inline_link_clicks. Hope that helps.