Ad Relevance Diagnostics Explained for Meta Ads

Meta grades each ad against the other ads chasing the same people, on three separate questions: does it look like a quality ad, do people engage with it, and do they go on to convert? Each answer comes back as a band, from above average to the bottom 10%. Meta built these to help you diagnose ads that are falling short, not to give you a score to chase. They replaced the single ad relevance score Meta used before.

What do the three rankings measure?

Ranking	Compares your ad’s…	Against
Quality ranking	Perceived quality	Ads competing for the same audience
Engagement rate ranking	Expected engagement rate: how likely a person is to click, react, comment, share or expand	Ads competing for the same audience
Conversion rate ranking	Expected conversion rate: the likelihood that a viewer completes your optimization goal	Ads with the same optimization goal competing for the same audience

To judge quality, Meta draws on signals including what viewers do and say about the ad, such as hiding it, plus checks for low-quality traits: held-back information, sensational wording and engagement bait.

What does “average” mean in these rankings?

Each ranking takes one of five values: above average, average, or below average in the bottom 35%, 20% or 10% of ads. Meta defines average as the 35th to 55th percentile. A “below average (bottom 20% of ads)” label means at least 80% of competing ads scored higher on that measure.

Why are my diagnostics blank?

Meta lists several limits:

• Ads with fewer than 500 impressions don’t get diagnostics.
• The rankings are only available for the last 35 days.
• None of the three is available for dynamic creative.
• Engagement rate and conversion rate rankings don’t apply when the optimization goal is ad recall lift, impressions, reach, custom conversions or value.

On dynamic creative itself, Meta’s ranking articles warn that since June 2024 new Ads Manager ad sets using the sales or app promotion objective may not be able to use it. Meta points to the flexible ad format as the replacement for a similar result.

How do you add the rankings to Ads Manager?

They are default columns in the Performance preset. For a custom preset:

1. In Ads Manager, click the Ads tab.
2. Click Columns, then Customize columns in the dropdown.
3. Tick the three columns: quality, engagement rate and conversion rate ranking.
4. Click Apply.

How do you read the three together?

Meta advises reviewing the diagnostics together and lists combinations. A few of them:

Quality	Engagement	Conversion	Meta’s reading
Below average	Average or above	Average or above	Perceived as low quality
Average or above	Below average	Average or above	Not spurring interest
Average or above	Average or above	Below average	Not producing conversions
Below average	Average or above	Below average	Click-baity or controversial

Meta adds that lifting a weak ranking up to average matters more than pushing an average one higher. It also says some products, such as jewelry, naturally see lower conversion rate rankings than lower-priced ones like t-shirts.

FAQ

Do higher rankings lower my costs?

Not directly. Meta says ads that are more relevant cost less and see more results, but the diagnostics themselves aren’t inputs into the ad auction. They describe past auction performance over your date range, and Meta says high rankings don’t guarantee better results.

Should I fix an ad with below-average rankings that is profitable?

Not necessarily. Meta says that if an ad already meets your advertising objectives, reviewing the diagnostics may not be necessary, and that high-performing ads sometimes have below-average rankings. Its advice is to optimize for your objectives, not for the rankings.

What replaced the Facebook relevance score?

Ad relevance diagnostics did. Meta states plainly that they replaced the ad relevance score. Instead of a single number, you now get three rankings, quality, engagement rate and conversion rate, each compared with ads competing for the same audience.