What Are Qualified Leads in Meta Ads Manager?

Qualified leads counts the leads that have converted and are attributed to your ad, not every form submission. Once your CRM reports back which leads moved forward, Ads Manager can show how many converted, what each cost, and their share of all your leads. Meta makes these numbers available for lead ads with instant forms on the conversion leads performance goal, once your CRM is connected through the Conversions API.

What do the three metrics mean?

Metric	Meta’s definition	How it’s calculated
Qualified leads	Leads that have converted and are attributed to your ad	Estimated from CRM events, partly modelled
Cost per qualified lead	The average cost of a qualified lead	Amount spent on lead ads ÷ qualified leads
Qualified lead rate	The share of qualified leads among total leads submitted	Qualified leads ÷ total leads

Meta describes qualified lead rate as a metric in development.

Why are these numbers estimates?

Meta says the three metrics are derived from the custom events it receives from your CRM and partly derived through modelling rather than a straight count. Where events can’t be counted directly because data is partial or missing, statistical modelling may account for some of them. So they may differ from the actual number of people who filled in your form.

How do you add the columns in Ads Manager?

1. Go to Ads Manager and click Campaigns.
2. Click Columns: Performance on the toolbar.
3. In the Suggested columns pop-up, click Customize columns.
4. Under Conversions on the left, click Leads.
5. Tick qualified leads, cost per qualified lead and qualified lead rate.
6. Click Apply to add the columns to your table.

Is there a ready-made preset?

Yes. Open the Columns dropdown, go to Discover more column presets, click Sales, then click Qualified leads. The preset gives you a dedicated set of metrics for lead ads.

What appears in the Results column?

If your CRM is integrated through the Conversions API and the campaign uses the qualified leads performance goal, Ads Manager uses qualified leads as the default metric in the Results column.

FAQ

Why is my qualified leads column empty?

Meta makes these metrics available when you integrate your CRM through the Conversions API and the campaign uses the conversion leads performance goal. With both in place and the qualified leads performance goal selected, qualified leads also becomes the default metric in the Results column.

Which metric should I use for an A/B test?

Meta says that for A/B testing of campaigns, you can use cost per lead as your key metric for results. Meta notes that the qualified lead metrics are estimated and partly derived through modelling rather than a straight count.

What makes a lead count as qualified?

Meta describes a quality lead as one followed by a later conversion event you configure, typically a purchase, subscription, app installation or similar. Your CRM sends those stage changes to Meta, and Meta attributes the converted leads back to your ad.