> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.adalysis.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.adalysis.com/meta-facebook/performance/performance-analyzer.md).

# Performance analyzer

Find out why a metric changed between two periods, and where to look next

**Performance** > **Analyzer** compares one period with another and lays out how the metrics drove each other: delivery, then engagement, then conversion. Beside each step it checks the usual causes, such as rising auction costs, a tired audience or a tracking fault, and tells you which ones look likely.

## Run a comparison

![Performance analyzer, settings bar](https://3203600314-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FGlXujWJyreRidNjZDCw2%2Fuploads%2FF6AKkCaHWTDBaZkYpUwP%2FAN-01.png?alt=media)

1. **Measure**: what to compare.
   * **Whole account**: every campaign.
   * **Campaign objective**: the campaigns with one objective. Pick it in **Objective**.
   * **Campaign**: one campaign. Pick it in **Campaign**.
2. **Objective** or **Campaign**: appears when you choose one of those scopes.
3. **Date range**: the period to explain. It opens on **Last 14 days**. **Last 3 days** is offered too, as on performance monitors.
4. **Compare to**: **Previous period** or **Previous year**.
5. **Analyze**: nothing is fetched until you click it. Each comparison is read live from Meta, so it takes a few seconds.

{% hint style="info" %}
Figures use the attribution set on each ad set, as Ads Manager does. The line above the results repeats the two periods and what was measured.
{% endhint %}

## Why the cost changed

At the top, a headline explains the change in the cost you pay for a result, for example **Why cost per purchase changed**. It splits the change into its parts:

* **CPM**: what you paid for 1,000 impressions.
* **Link CTR**: how often people clicked.
* The conversion rate of the result, where there is one.

Each part has a bar. A part that pushed the cost up draws to the right in red. A part that pulled it down draws to the left in green. The figure beside each bar is its share of the change, in percentage points.

## How metrics affect each other

![Performance analyzer, the three lanes](https://3203600314-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FGlXujWJyreRidNjZDCw2%2Fuploads%2FeAhHmiWaLLcs6LzxQn3g%2FAN-02.png?alt=media)

① The lane and what it shows. ② The formula that links its metrics. ③ The change in percent. ④ The card's **View breakdown** and **Explain with AI** icons. ⑤ **Drivers to review**.

The comparison is drawn in three lanes, each with the formula that links its metrics:

| Lane           | What it shows               | Formula on screen                                                                                                   |
| -------------- | --------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Delivery**   | The budget buys impressions | Impressions = Spend ÷ CPM × 1000 = Reach × Frequency                                                                |
| **Engagement** | The ad earns the click      | Link clicks = Impressions × Link CTR · CPC = CPM ÷ (1000 × Link CTR) · Outbound CTR = Outbound clicks ÷ Impressions |
| **Conversion** | The site closes             | Each result = Link clicks × its conversion rate · Cost per result = Spend ÷ Results · ROAS = Purchase value ÷ Spend |

Each metric card shows the current value against the earlier one, the change, and the change in percent. A green card moved the right way, a red card the wrong way.

The **Conversion** lane only shows results the account recorded in one of the two periods. An account with no lead campaigns, for example, has no **Cost per lead** card.

## Drivers to review

To the right of each lane, **Drivers to review** checks the common causes of a change. Each driver has a short verdict and a line of evidence. A driver with nothing to check is left out rather than shown as fine.

![Performance analyzer, Drivers to review](https://3203600314-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FGlXujWJyreRidNjZDCw2%2Fuploads%2FXSLCH6ZE4VQikdI3rwMF%2FAN-03.png?alt=media)

① The verdict. ② The evidence.

| Driver                      | Lane       | What it checks                                                                                                                                                                     | Verdicts you may see                                      |
| --------------------------- | ---------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Budget use**              | Delivery   | Spend against what today's daily budgets allow over the period. Under-spending means something other than money held delivery back, such as a cost cap, a bid or a small audience. | On budget, Under-spending, Under-delivering, Above budget |
| **Auction costs**           | Delivery   | Whether CPM rose, and whether it rose in most ad sets at once (the market) or in a few (your account).                                                                             | Falling, Stable, Rising                                   |
| **Audience saturation**     | Delivery   | Frequency rising while reach falls: the same people seeing your ads more often.                                                                                                    | Likely, Unlikely                                          |
| **Learning phase**          | Delivery   | Ad sets still learning, or Learning limited.                                                                                                                                       | The number of ad sets, or Stable                          |
| **Creative fatigue**        | Engagement | Ad sets with high frequency and a falling link CTR.                                                                                                                                | Likely, Possible, Unlikely                                |
| **Placement mix**           | Engagement | Whether spend moved between placements, which changes every blended rate.                                                                                                          | Stable, Shifted                                           |
| **Landing page**            | Conversion | How many link clicks became landing page views. A drop points to a slow or broken page.                                                                                            | OK, Check page, No page views                             |
| **Pixel / Conversions API** | Conversion | Purchases or leads collapsing while clicks held up, which is usually a tracking fault.                                                                                             | OK, Check tracking                                        |
| **Attribution**             | Conversion | Whether the period ended in the last 7 days. If it did, Meta can still credit conversions to it, so results and cost per result may improve on their own.                          | Settled, Settling                                         |

The verdicts are pointers, not proof. Use them to decide where to look in Ads Manager.

### See the ads

When **Creative fatigue** finds tired ad sets, it shows **See the ads**, which opens the **Ads** screen filtered to the fading ads in those ad sets. See [Fading](/meta-facebook/performance/ads/fading-ads.md).

## View breakdown

Every metric card has a **View breakdown** icon. It opens the metric for both periods, split by one of these tabs:

**Campaigns**, **Ad sets**, **Ads**, **Placement**, **Age and gender**, **Device**, **Country**.

![Performance analyzer, View breakdown pop-up](https://3203600314-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FGlXujWJyreRidNjZDCw2%2Fuploads%2FQyMpzTo5SkJ5kZGlOJIZ%2FAN-04.png?alt=media)

① The tabs. ② **Amount spent** in the current period, which sorts the rows. ③ **Change** and ④ **% change** in the metric between the two periods.

Rows are sorted by amount spent in the current period. On the **Campaigns** tab, a campaign's name opens its ad sets. Each tab is read from Meta the first time you open it.

{% hint style="info" %}
Reach and frequency are counted without duplicates within each row, so the rows don't add up to the totals for those two.
{% endhint %}

On the **Device** and **Country** tabs, a link opens the same breakdown in [Segments](/meta-facebook/performance/segments.md), with every device or country, for the same dates and campaign.

![View breakdown, link to Segments](https://3203600314-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FGlXujWJyreRidNjZDCw2%2Fuploads%2F5sceu4EFEGDTC7IayE7N%2FAN-06.png?alt=media)

① The **Country** tab. ② **See every country in Segments** opens the **Location** tab of Segments on its **Country** view.

## Explain with AI

* **Explain with AI** above the comparison writes a plain-language summary of the whole change.
* The **Explain with AI** icon on a metric card explains that metric's change.

The explanation opens in a side panel and uses the figures already on screen.

## Open the analyzer from an alert

![Performance alerts pop-up, Root cause link](https://3203600314-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FGlXujWJyreRidNjZDCw2%2Fuploads%2FhUmFmbMP0wlsNp9UR81z%2FAN-05.png?alt=media)

① The **Root cause** icon of an alert, in the **Performance alerts** pop-up, opens the analyzer.

The analyzer opens on the alert's scope and on the exact days it compared, and runs straight away. A note at the top says "Looking into an alert on" followed by the metric and the two periods. The metric the alert was raised on is highlighted, and the screen scrolls to it.

See [Performance monitors and alerts](/meta-facebook/managing-meta-accounts/performance-monitors-and-alerts.md).