Drill-Down — From Campaigns to Ad Sets to Ads

Drill-down lets you navigate from a high-level campaign view all the way down to individual ad performance. This hierarchical navigation is key to understanding what's working and what needs optimization.

Prerequisites

• Access to the Ads Manager Ads Manager Overview — Your Campaign Control Center

• At least one campaign with ad sets and ads

How It Works

The Ads Manager follows Meta's three-level hierarchy:

Campaigns → Ad Sets → Ads

You start at the campaign level, where you see aggregated metrics across all ad sets and ads. By drilling down, you progressively reveal more granular data:

• Campaign level — How is this campaign performing overall?

• Ad Set level — Which audiences/targeting combinations work best?

• Ad level — Which specific creatives are driving results?

Step-by-Step Guide

Drilling Into a Single Campaign

1. In the Ads Manager at the Campaigns level, find the campaign you want to investigate

2. Click on the campaign name — this drills down to show all ad sets within that campaign

3. The view switches to the Ad Sets tab with the campaign filter applied

4. A breadcrumb appears at the top: All Campaigns > Campaign Name

5. To go deeper, click on an ad set name to see its individual ads

6. The breadcrumb updates: All Campaigns > Campaign Name > Ad Set Name

Drilling Into Multiple Campaigns

1. At the Campaigns level, select multiple campaigns using the checkboxes

2. Click the "Ad Sets" tab in the level navigation

3. The view shows all ad sets across the selected campaigns

4. You can continue to the "Ads" tab to see all ads across those campaigns

Drilling Into Multiple Ad Sets

1. At the Ad Sets level, select multiple ad sets using the checkboxes

2. Click the "Ads" tab

3. The view shows all ads across the selected ad sets

Navigating Back

Use the breadcrumb navigation to go back to any previous level:

• Click All Campaigns to return to the top level

• Click the campaign name to go back to its ad sets

Or simply click the level tab (Campaigns, Ad Sets, Ads) to switch views.

Options and Configuration

What Metrics Change at Each Level

Each level shows metrics specific to that entity:

Missing Entities

The Ads Manager also shows entities that exist in your account but have no data in the selected date range. For example:

• A paused ad set that had no impressions this week still appears in the drill-down (with all metrics showing 0)

• This ensures you can see and manage all your entities, not just active ones

Summary Totals Update

When you drill down, the summary bar at the top updates to reflect only the filtered subset:

• Drilling into one campaign shows totals for that campaign only

• Drilling into one ad set shows totals for that ad set only

This makes it easy to compare an entity's contribution to the overall account.

Best Practices

Performance Analysis Workflow

1. Start at Campaign level — Sort by Spend (descending) to see your biggest campaigns

2. Drill into top spenders — Check if spend is translating to results (ROAS, CPA)

3. At Ad Set level — Identify which audiences perform best and worst

4. At Ad level — Find your winning creatives vs underperformers

5. Take action — Pause underperformers, increase budget on winners [See: ART-216]

Cross-Campaign Analysis

Select multiple campaigns of the same type to compare their ad sets side by side:

1. Select all your "Italy Traffic" campaigns

2. Drill into Ad Sets

3. Compare audience performance across campaigns

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I drill down directly from Campaigns to Ads, skipping Ad Sets? A: Yes. Select one or more campaigns, then click the "Ads" tab directly. This shows all ads across the selected campaigns without the intermediate ad set view.

Q: Why does the ad set show different metrics than the sum of its ads? A: Small discrepancies can occur because Meta sometimes attributes impressions or clicks at the ad set level that don't map exactly to individual ads. This is normal and usually negligible.

Q: Can I take actions (pause, edit budget) from the drill-down view? A: Yes. All actions available at each level work in the drill-down view. You can pause an ad set, edit its budget, or toggle individual ads — all while within the drill-down. [See: ART-216]

Q: How do I see all ad sets across all campaigns? A: Click the "Ad Sets" tab without selecting any specific campaign. This shows every ad set across all your ad accounts.

Related Articles

• Ads Manager Overview — Your Campaign Control Center

• Filtering and Sorting Campaign Data

• Understanding Campaign Metrics

• Bulk Actions — Pause, Resume, Edit Budget