Facebook Ads

Connect Meta (Facebook + Instagram) paid advertising. One Meta connection covers ad placements across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the Audience Network.

The Meta Ads connection is SMAQ's most-used paid-social source. It also powers creative intelligence — ad fatigue detection, audience decay monitoring, and competitor ad scraping via the Meta Ad Library.

What SMAQ pulls

• Campaign, ad set, and ad-level performance

• Impressions, reach, frequency, clicks, conversions, spend, CPM, CPC, CPA, ROAS

• Ad creative — copy, images, video thumbnails

• Audience and placement breakdowns

• Custom conversion events you've defined

What you'll need

• A Meta account with access to the ad account you want to connect (not just the Page).

• Business Manager access is recommended but not required.

Steps to connect

1. Data Source → Add data source.

2. Pick Facebook Ads (this is the Meta Ads connection — covers both Facebook and Instagram placements).

3. Authorize SMAQ via Meta OAuth.

4. Pick the ad account from the dropdown.

5. Optionally select specific campaigns or ad sets to narrow scope.

6. Name (e.g. "Acme - Meta Ads") and click Connect.

[Screen video needed] Meta OAuth flow with ad-account picker. ~60 seconds.

[Screenshot needed] Ad account picker showing multiple ad accounts available to the Meta login.

Automations powered by Meta Ads

• Campaign Performance Check

• Ad Fatigue Detector

• Audience Decay Monitor

• Competitor Ads Monitor (Meta)

• Budget Pacing Alert

• Cross-Channel Attribution

Tips

• Token refresh — Meta access tokens expire every ~60 days. SMAQ refreshes automatically, but if the connection's owner changes their Meta password, you'll need to re-authorize.

• iOS 14+ attribution — Meta reports modeled conversions for iOS users opted out of tracking. Expect ~10–20% modeled vs observed split.

• Don't mix prospecting and retargeting in one connection if you want clean segmentation. Use ad-set-level filtering at connection time, or filter at the dashboard level.

Troubleshooting

• "No ad accounts found" — the Meta account you authorized doesn't have advertising access. Get added as an Advertiser or Admin in Business Manager.

• Conversion attribution looks wrong — Meta's attribution window settings (7-click vs 1-click, etc.) live in your ad account. SMAQ uses whatever Meta returns.

• Creative thumbnails missing — happens occasionally with video ads; Meta's media API can be flaky. Re-run the fetch.

Related

• Instagram — for organic Instagram content (separate connection).

• Facebook Page — for organic Page insights (separate connection).

• Pre-signup audit (Meta branch)