Meta Ads Manager insights export (Facebook/Instagram)
A campaign / ad-set / ad performance export from Ads Manager (Reports > Export) or the Marketing API Insights endpoint. Read as "what our ads made," it is really a delivery report whose conversions are back-dated by attribution window and whose people-based metrics cannot be added up.
The shape, how the file is really laid out
The CSV header is on row 1, but the columns are whatever breakdown and
column set were chosen, so two exports rarely share a schema. Money
("Amount spent," "Purchases conversion value") is in the ad account's
currency, and metrics are bucketed by the AD ACCOUNT time zone, not the
store's. Each conversion type becomes its own column ("Purchases," "Adds to
cart," "Leads"), while "Results" is a single polymorphic column whose
meaning depends on each campaign's objective. An "Attribution setting"
column (e.g. "7-day click, 1-day view") records the window. There is no
trailing total row, totals must be computed, and the UI's own total will
not equal a naive row sum for people-based metrics.
The traps
Attribution back-dating: purchases and revenue are credited to the day of the click/impression, not the day the purchase happened, inside the chosen window, so a day's "Purchases conversion value" keeps rising for days after and will never tie to the store's order timestamps.
- Every trap in this export, worked through
- The reconciliation anchor, the total the file asserts about itself
- The refusal cases, when to stop and ask instead of guess
Reference: Meta Business Help Center, export ads reporting, attribution settings, breakdowns · Meta Marketing API, Insights (actions, action_attribution_windows, reach de-duplication)