What Margly reads from Meta#
Margly connects to Meta via the Marketing API and loads data at the level of an individual ad — that means for every row you know the campaign and ad set the ad belongs to.
Metrics from an ad:
- Spend (delivered spend — how much Meta actually spent, not the set budget)
- Impressions, clicks, CTR, CPC, CPM
- Reach and frequency
Conversions from Meta Pixel / Conversions API:
- Completed purchases (count and order value)
- Add to cart
- Begin checkout
Margly doesn't load the "view content" event (product view) or other events beyond the three listed above.
Placement breakdown:
- Platform: Facebook vs. Instagram vs. Messenger vs. Audience Network
- Position within the platform: feed, stories, reels, etc.
Creatives:
Margly automatically downloads the image / video, name, and description for the top 50 ads by spend over the last 30 days so you can recognize them at a glance in the dashboard. For lower-spend ads, the ID and name are enough in Margly.
Connection procedure#
Have an active Meta Business account
For Margly you need a Business Manager (not a personal account). If you only have a personal ad account, create a Business Manager for free at business.facebook.com and move the ad account into it.
In Margly click Connect Meta
In Integrations → Meta Ads click Connect Meta account. The OAuth window from Facebook opens.
Approve 4 permissions
Meta will request these permissions (all read-only — Margly doesn't interfere in your campaigns):
- Read ad data (campaigns, spend, conversions)
- List available Business accounts and ad accounts
- Read statistics of your Facebook pages
- List Facebook pages under the account
Select an ad account
Margly shows a list of ad accounts you have access to in Business Manager. Pick one to track in Margly — in one Margly account you can always have only one Meta ad account active.
Margly pulls historical data
On the first connection Margly pulls the last 730 days (2 years) of daily data. A large account is split into 90-day batches, so it doesn't get stuck in one run. For regular accounts it takes on the order of minutes.
VAT and currency#
Meta bills you for advertising without VAT (reverse-charge for VAT payers in the EU). Margly therefore:
- Stores spend without VAT (as Meta bills)
- At the same time computes the spend with VAT according to the rate of your business country (CZ 21 %, SK 23 %, DE 19 %, …)
- Displays in the dashboard either with VAT or without VAT, according to your choice in Billing → Show prices with VAT
If the Meta account has a different currency than your e-shop, Margly converts the spend using the ECB rate to your e-shop currency.
POAS — how Margly evaluates Meta ad profitability#
Classic ROAS (revenue divided by spend) only tells you how much revenue advertising brought you — it doesn't say whether it was profit. Margly therefore uses POAS (Profit on Ad Spend) as the primary metric for Meta, which takes into account your real margin:
POAS = (revenue × net margin %) / 100 / ad spend
It says how much profit each unit of spent currency brought you. POAS is evaluated in Margly on a fixed scale:
| POAS value | Meaning |
|---|---|
| POAS = 1 | Break-even — advertising exactly covers its costs, no profit |
| POAS ≥ 1.5 | Advertising is healthy (50 % extra profit) |
| POAS ≥ 3 | Advertising is excellent (200 % extra profit) |
| POAS < 1 | Advertising loses money — spends more than the profit it brings |
Attribution#
Margly when querying the Meta API doesn't explicitly determine the attribution window — it takes conversions as Meta returns them in the default setting (Meta today by default uses 7-day click attribution). The conversions Meta API returns are shown in Margly unchanged.
One technical detail: Margly during ongoing data loads reaches back 7 days past the last successful load — this is to capture conversions that Meta reports later (Meta can add conversions retrospectively within a 7-day window).
Common errors#
- "Account not found" — OAuth went through a Facebook account that doesn't have access to the ad account in Business Manager. In Business Manager → Users → People add this account and give it at least read permission over the ad account.
- Conversions missing or very low — Meta Pixel isn't properly deployed on the e-shop, or doesn't send purchase / add_to_cart / initiate_checkout events with order value. In Business Manager → Events Manager check that the Pixel is actively receiving events and that for purchases the order value also comes in. Pixel deployment is handled by the e-shop developer.
- Spend in Margly differs from the budget you set — Meta API returns actually spent money (delivered spend), not the set budget. If a campaign didn't deliver the entire budget (e.g., narrow targeting, exhausted frequency cap), you'll see a lower amount in Margly than the budget.
- Spend differs from Meta Ads Manager by a few percent — Margly converts spend in foreign currency using the ECB rate; additionally Meta and Margly may round at the e-shop currency level differently. Small differences are normal in practice.
What's next#
- Connecting Google Ads — paid traffic from Google
- Understanding margins — what net margin is and how Margly calculates it (input for POAS)
- AI Advisor — compares Meta performance with other ad platforms