What Are Outbound Clicks in Meta Ads?

Outbound clicks answer a narrow question: how many clicks actually left Facebook, Instagram and Meta’s other apps for a destination you own? Link clicks can stop short of that, because some of them open experiences that stay inside Meta. If your goal is visits to a website or installs from an app store, outbound clicks sit closer to that goal than link clicks, and landing page views sit closer still.

What does Meta count as an outbound click?

Meta counts clicks that lead to destinations outside Meta technologies. The count includes clicks on links in the displayed ad and on links inside extended experiences, such as Instant Experiences, collections and Facebook forms. Clicks count when they go to:

• websites
• your app in an app store
• app deep links

Meta adds one exception: in Instagram app versions 10.14 and older, every click on an ad link counts as an outbound click, whatever the destination.

How are outbound clicks different from link clicks?

Link clicks count clicks on links in the ad that lead to external destinations and to certain Meta experiences. Meta’s example uses an Instant Experience:

1. Someone taps the ad in feed, and a full-screen Instant Experience opens. Meta records a link click.
2. They scroll, then tap through to the advertiser’s website. Meta records an outbound click.

So one person can create both a link click and an outbound click, and an Instant Experience tap that never leads off Meta creates a link click only.

Click	Link click	Outbound click
Shop now in feed straight to your website	Yes	Yes
Tap in feed that opens an Instant Experience or collection	Yes	No
Click from inside an Instant Experience to your website	Meta’s example records the earlier feed tap as the link click	Yes
Click to your app in an app store	Yes	Yes

Which metrics are built on outbound clicks?

• Cost per outbound click: amount spent divided by outbound clicks.
• Outbound CTR: outbound clicks divided by impressions.
• Unique outbound CTR: unique outbound clicks divided by reach, using sampled data.
• Cost per unique outbound click: total amount spent divided by unique outbound clicks.

Do outbound clicks equal visits to your site?

Not exactly. Meta says some traffic may drop off between an outbound click and a page view, so outbound clicks are an approximation of intended traffic. For loads Meta could record, use landing page views, which are counted when a web page loads after an ad click.

FAQ

Should I report outbound clicks or link clicks?

For ads that send people to a website or app, outbound clicks are the closer measure, since Meta says link clicks also include some Meta experiences. For ads built around Instant Experiences or lead forms, link clicks show how many times people opened the experience.

Is outbound CTR the same as link CTR?

No. Both divide by impressions, but outbound CTR uses outbound clicks and link CTR uses link clicks. Because link clicks include taps into Meta experiences such as Instant Experiences, the two rates can differ for ads that use those formats.

Why are my outbound clicks higher than my landing page views?

An outbound click is recorded on the click; a landing page view needs the page to load and be recorded by Meta’s in-app browser or your pixel. Meta notes that some traffic may drop off between the click and the page view.