# Data Overview

The Instagram Ads source gives you access to four entities: performance insights with granular breakdowns, and structural lists of your campaigns, ad sets, and ads. The most powerful entity is **Reports and Insights**, which lets you combine metrics and dimensions in a highly flexible way.

## Available entities

| Entity               | Best used for                                            |
| -------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- |
| Reports and Insights | Performance analysis, trend tracking, audience reporting |
| List of Campaigns    | Campaign inventory, status monitoring, budget review     |
| List of Ad Sets      | Targeting and scheduling overview                        |
| List of Ads          | Creative-level tracking, ad status monitoring            |

## Reports and Insights metrics

#### Default metrics

| Metric                 | Description                           |
| ---------------------- | ------------------------------------- |
| Amount Spent (`spend`) | Total ad spend for the period         |
| Impressions            | Number of times your ads were shown   |
| Reach                  | Unique accounts that saw your ads     |
| Frequency              | Average times each person saw your ad |
| Clicks                 | Total clicks on your ads              |
| CPC                    | Cost per click                        |
| CPM                    | Cost per 1,000 impressions            |
| CTR                    | Click-through rate                    |

#### Additional metrics (selectable)

| Metric              | Description                                             |
| ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- |
| Conversions         | Actions completed as a result of your ad                |
| Cost per conversion | Spend divided by conversions                            |
| Video views         | Number of times video was played                        |
| Video play rate     | Percentage of impressions that resulted in a video play |
| Engagement rate     | Interactions relative to impressions                    |
| Link clicks         | Clicks specifically on your ad's link                   |
| Outbound clicks     | Clicks that take users off-platform                     |
| Post reactions      | Likes, loves, and other reactions                       |
| Post comments       | Comments left on your ads                               |
| Post shares         | Times your ad was shared                                |

## Breakdowns (dimensions)

Breakdowns let you split your insights data by a wide range of attributes. You can select one breakdown group per report.

#### Frequently used breakdowns

| Breakdown                             | Use case                                            |
| ------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- |
| Age, Gender                           | Audience demographic analysis                       |
| Country, Region                       | Geographic performance                              |
| Publisher platform                    | Compare Instagram vs. Facebook vs. Audience Network |
| Publisher platform, Platform position | Feed vs. Stories vs. Reels vs. Explore              |
| Impression device                     | Mobile vs. desktop performance                      |
| DMA (Designated Market Area)          | US regional targeting analysis                      |

#### Action and conversion breakdowns

| Breakdown              | Use case                              |
| ---------------------- | ------------------------------------- |
| Action type            | See what types of actions users took  |
| Action device          | Which device drove the conversion     |
| Action destination     | Where users landed after clicking     |
| Conversion destination | Final destination of converting users |

#### Asset-level breakdowns

| Breakdown                      | Use case                                |
| ------------------------------ | --------------------------------------- |
| Action carousel card ID / name | Performance by individual carousel card |
| Image asset                    | Compare images in dynamic creative      |
| Video asset                    | Video-level performance                 |
| Title asset, Body asset        | Copy performance in dynamic ads         |
| Ad format asset                | Format-level breakdown                  |

## Date range and aggregation options

* Set a **start date** and **end date** using the date pickers to define your reporting window
* **Split data by period**: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Totals only
* **Attribution settings**: inherit from ad account, ad set, or set manually (1-day click, 7-day click, 28-day click, 1-day view, 7-day view, and more)

## Common metric combinations

* **Audience report**: Spend + Impressions + Reach + CPC, broken down by Age + Gender
* **Placement report**: Spend + CTR + CPC, broken down by Publisher platform + Platform position
* **Geographic report**: Spend + Conversions + Cost per conversion, broken down by Country
* **Creative report**: Impressions + CTR + Engagement rate, broken down by Image asset or Video asset

## Use cases by role

{% tabs %}
{% tab title="Marketers" %}

* Track daily spend vs. performance across campaigns and ad sets
* Compare Instagram placements (Feed, Stories, Reels) to see where your budget performs best
* Build audience demographic reports by age and gender to validate targeting assumptions
* Use Append in Coupler.io to combine Instagram Ads data with Facebook Ads or TikTok Ads for a full cross-channel view
* Send insights to ChatGPT or Claude to generate performance summaries and optimization suggestions automatically
  {% endtab %}

{% tab title="Finance teams" %}

* Export monthly spend totals per ad account for budget reconciliation
* Use the "Totals only" aggregation and a monthly split to produce clean spend reports
* Join campaign-level data with CRM or revenue data in BigQuery to calculate true ROAS
* Track frequency to flag campaigns that may be over-serving and burning budget inefficiently
  {% endtab %}

{% tab title="Analysts" %}

* Use multiple breakdowns (e.g., Country + Action type) to build attribution models
* Pull List of Campaigns and List of Ad Sets alongside Insights and use the Join transformation to enrich performance data with campaign metadata
* Use the Publisher platform breakdown to separate Instagram-specific performance from broader Meta placements
* Export to Looker Studio or BigQuery for long-term trend analysis across date ranges
  {% endtab %}
  {% endtabs %}

## Platform-specific notes

* Instagram Ads data is served through the **Meta (Facebook) Graph API** — so you connect via Facebook OAuth, not an Instagram login
* You can only pull data from **ad accounts you manage** — public profile data and organic post insights are not available through this source
* Some metrics are not available for all ad objectives — for example, video metrics only appear when your campaign includes video creatives
* Deprecated metrics (such as older profile performance fields) may return empty or cause errors — check Meta's current API docs if a metric stops returning data
* Filters use **Graph API syntax** — refer to the Coupler.io Help Center article for correct filter formatting
* The **Publisher platform** breakdown will show data across Instagram, Facebook, and Audience Network if your campaigns run on multiple placements — use filters or the breakdown to isolate Instagram-only performance