My Instagram ads report shows both link clicks and all clicks: which one should I enter?
If your question is about store visits, what they cost and how they convert, enter link clicks. All clicks include interactions that never reach your store, such as tapping the account name or expanding the caption, so they make CTR look higher and CPC and conversion rate look lower than they really are.
What goes into all clicks
Meta's reports for Instagram ads have two columns with names close to 'Link clicks' and 'Clicks (all)'. The first counts taps on the link or the call-to-action button that take people to the ad's destination. The second is wider: it adds taps on the profile picture or name, opening the image, expanding the caption with 'more', and other interactions inside the app. Those interactions have their value, but they are not visits to your store.
Example: one campaign, two definitions of a click
A campaign was shown 30,000 times for a spend of 900 AED and brought 24 orders. The report lists 1,200 clicks under all clicks, and only 450 under link clicks.
With all clicks: CTR 4%, CPC 0.75, conversion rate 2%.
With link clicks: CTR 1.5%, CPC 2, conversion rate 5.33%.
Either way: CPA 37.5 and CPM 30.
The picture flips. With all clicks, the ad looks very attractive and visits look cheap, but visitors hardly buy. With link clicks, the truth shows: a real store visit costs 2, and people who reach the store buy at a decent rate. CPA did not move at all, because it is spend over orders and has nothing to do with how a click is defined. One more reason to judge sales campaigns on CPA before anything else.
A rule that ends the confusion
- For the cost of a visit and conversion rate in your store: link clicks.
- For engagement with the ad inside Instagram itself: all clicks, labelled as such in your report.
- Pick one definition and use it in every comparison, between ads and between months.
- Enter the figures in the Campaign performance calculator. It calculates with what you type and cannot tell which column you copied.
Where the mix-up usually bites
It bites when last month's ad, worked out with all clicks, is compared with this month's ad, worked out with link clicks, and CPC seems to have doubled when nothing changed. It also bites when a marketer sends you a report with an impressive CTR without saying which column it used. Always ask for the definition before you compare.
Even link clicks are not exactly store visits, since some people leave before the page loads. To see what actually arrived, add UTM parameters to the ad link with the UTM campaign link builder and check your store analytics, then work out the return on confirmed sales in the ROAS calculator.
Common questions
Why is CTR always higher with all clicks?
All clicks include link clicks plus other interactions, so the count is larger or equal, and dividing by the same impressions gives a higher rate.
Does my choice affect CPM?
No. CPM divides spend by impressions and never uses clicks, and the same goes for CPA.