Ad performance on Facebook and Instagram is no longer determined solely by targeting precision or bidding strategy. A critical yet often overlooked factor is Facebook Ad Quality, a set of metrics that evaluate how your ad resonates with real users. Understanding how Meta measures ad quality can help you diagnose performance drops, reduce ad costs, and improve long-term account repuftation.

Many advertisers still confuse ad quality with account quality, but these are separate elements. Ad quality focuses on how individual ads perform in the auction environment, while account quality looks at your overall business and compliance history. Knowing how to improve both can directly affect your ROI.

This guide breaks down how Facebook measures ad quality, what factors influence it, and the actionable steps you can take to raise your rankings and keep your account performing at its best.

What is Facebook Ad Quality?

According to Meta’s Business Help Center, ad quality represents “how people react to and perceive your ad.” In other words, it measures the user experience your ad delivers — not just clicks or conversions. Ads that generate positive engagement and align with user intent are rated higher, while those that trigger negative feedback (like hides or reports) score lower.

It’s also key to distinguish ad quality from account quality. Ad quality focuses on creative relevance and engagement at the ad level, whereas account quality evaluates your entire advertising behavior, including policy compliance, disapprovals, and appeal history.

Meta’s system uses machine learning to assess ad feedback and user interactions. As Facebook states, “Your ad’s perceived quality is compared to ads competing for the same audience,” meaning your quality score is relative to others targeting similar segments.

The Three Key Ranking Metrics

Since 2019, Meta has replaced the old Relevance Score with three distinct performance rankings to provide more granular insights:

1. Quality Ranking: Compares your ad’s perceived quality to other ads competing for the same audience.

2. Engagement Rate Ranking: Estimates expected engagement (clicks, shares, reactions, comments).

3. Conversion Rate Ranking: Predicts expected conversion performance based on your campaign objective.

How to Check Your Ad Quality Rankings

Many advertisers overlook where to find ad quality data. Meta provides full visibility within Ads Manager but only if you know where to look.

Step-by-Step Access in Ads Manager

1. Open Ads Manager.

2. Click Columns → Customize Columns.

3. Add metrics for Quality Ranking, Engagement Rate Ranking, and Conversion Rate Ranking.

4. Apply and view results at the ad level.

You’ll start seeing rankings once your ad reaches around 500 impressions, enough for Meta’s algorithm to evaluate audience reactions.

Interpreting Your Results

When analyzing your three rankings, think of them as complementary indicators rather than isolated scores.

• Low Quality Ranking → Ad creative or message may feel misleading or low-value to users.

• Low Engagement Rate Ranking → The ad fails to capture attention; creative fatigue or poor audience match could be the cause.

• Low Conversion Rate Ranking → Post-click experience or call-to-action misalignment.

If only the Conversion Rate Ranking is poor, your targeting might be fine — but your landing page needs optimization. You can review our guide on Facebook Ad Optimization for strategies to boost ad performance holistically.

Factors That Influence Facebook Ad Quality

Facebook doesn’t explicitly disclose its full algorithm, but the following factors are well-documented by Meta and validated by experienced advertisers.

Core Quality Signals

• User feedback: Hides, reports, or negative reactions signal poor user experience.

• Ad attributes: Clickbait headlines, exaggerated claims, or deceptive visuals lower quality.

• Landing page experience: Pages that load slowly or don’t match ad content reduce trust.

• Audience relevance: If the ad doesn’t fit audience intent, engagement drops sharply.

• Comparative performance: Meta compares your ad against others in the same auction group.

As Meta explains, “We use various signals to assess ad quality, including people’s feedback and post-click behavior.” This ensures that even ads with high CTR can still rank poorly if users react negatively afterward.

Advanced Factors

Beyond basic signals, several advanced factors can impact your ranking:

• Creative fatigue: Ads running too long become invisible to users, reducing engagement.

• Account-level trust: Accounts with past policy violations or disapprovals can see reduced reach even for compliant ads.

• Market competition: In highly competitive regions like the US, your relative quality score is harder to maintain.

• Placement performance: Certain placements (e.g., Stories vs. Reels) yield different engagement norms.

• Cross-platform consistency: Ads performing well on Instagram but poorly on Facebook may affect aggregate rankings.

If you notice performance discrepancies between placements, check your Facebook Ads CTR for a deeper understanding of engagement benchmarks.

How Ad Quality Impacts Performance Metrics

Facebook ad auctions reward high-quality ads and penalize poor ones. Understanding this relationship helps advertisers optimize beyond just bidding.

Effect on CPM, CPC, and CPA

Low-quality ads often pay more for impressions and clicks. Meta prioritizes positive user experiences, so ads with poor feedback must bid higher to compete.

Conversely, ads with “Above Average” rankings can enjoy:

• Lower CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions)

• Lower CPC (cost per click)

• Better CPA (cost per acquisition)

In some cases, improving Quality Ranking from “Below Average” to “Average” can reduce CPM by up to 30%, especially in competitive markets.

Impact on Ad Delivery and Reach

Quality directly affects ad delivery speed and frequency. Ads with consistently poor quality might enter limited learning or face slower delivery rates. Over time, Meta’s system may “deprioritize” ads or accounts with recurring quality issues.

Maintaining healthy account history helps stabilize delivery. For more insights, review how the Facebook Ad Learning Phase interacts with quality signals.

How to Improve Facebook Ad Quality

This is the playbook. We've diagnosed the problem; now let's fix it, one ranking at a time.

Step 1 — Fix Quality Ranking

This ranking is all about creative excellence and message-to-market match.

• Optimize Creative Assets: This is table stakes. Use high-resolution images and videos. Pixelated, stretched, or amateurish visuals are an instant "low-quality" flag. Ensure your assets meet the recommended Facebook ad size and specs for each placement.

• Ensure Message Clarity: Stop using clickbait. Be clear and direct. What is the offer? What is the benefit? Why should they click?

• Align Ad and Landing Page: This is critical. If your ad screams "50% OFF FLASH SALE," the landing page must immediately reinforce that message above the fold. Any disconnect (e.g., landing on a generic homepage) is a major quality violation.

• Rotate Creatives: Monitor ad frequency. Once an ad in a cold audience passes a frequency of 3-4, its "Quality Ranking" is at high risk of dropping due to fatigue. Swap in a new creative.

• Monitor Feedback: Read your ad comments. If you see a lot of negative sentiment, hide the comments and take the hint. Your ad is missing the mark.

Step 2 — Boost Engagement Rate Ranking

This ranking is about stopping the scroll and sparking interaction.

• Target Warm Audiences: Targeting users who already know your brand (website visitors, past purchasers, email lists) is a great way to stabilize engagement. They are primed to interact.

• Use High-Interaction Formats: UGC (User-Generated Content) style videos, Reels, and ads with Poll stickers are designed to drive interaction. They feel native to the platform.

• Encourage Participation: Write copy that asks questions ("Which color do you like better?"). This invites comments, which signals high engagement to the algorithm.

• Test Hooks: The first 3 seconds of your video or the first line of your copy (the "hook") determines everything. Test 3-5 different hooks against the same ad body to find what truly grabs attention. A higher engagement rate is a strong indicator of a high Facebook Ads CTR (Click-Through Rate).

Step 3 — Increase Conversion Rate Ranking

This ranking is all about the post-click experience and technical setup.

• Optimize Conversion Flow:

• Page Speed: Use Google's PageSpeed Insights. If your mobile landing page takes 8 seconds to load, you've already lost the conversion.

• Friction: How many fields are in your lead form? How many clicks to get to checkout? Remove every unnecessary step.

• Match CTA to Intent: The Call-to-Action (CTA) button on your ad should match the action on the landing page. If your ad CTA is "Shop Now," the landing page should be a product page, not a "Learn More" blog post.

• Ensure Accurate Event Tracking: This is a technical trap many fall into. If your Pixel or Conversions API (CAPI) is not firing correctly, Meta thinks no one is converting. Your ad could be a huge success, but if Meta can't see the conversions, it will give you a "Below Average" Conversion Rate Ranking. Audit your events in Events Manager.

• Analyze Post-Click Drop-off: Use analytics tools to see where users are dropping off. Are 90% abandoning the cart? The problem isn't the ad; it's your shipping costs or a broken checkout button.

Advanced Strategies for Experienced Advertisers

Once you’ve mastered the basics, take your ad quality to the next level with data-driven and automated optimization.

Leveraging A/B Testing and Dynamic Creative

Run structured A/B tests that isolate variables like headline, image, or CTA. Use Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO) to let Meta automatically test combinations and identify the best-performing variants.

Automation and Advantage+ Campaigns

Meta’s Advantage+ campaigns use automation to dynamically adjust delivery based on predicted engagement and conversion likelihood. However, it’s still essential to feed the algorithm with high-quality creative assets — automation amplifies good inputs, not bad ones.

Data-Driven Benchmarks and Predictive Insights

Monitor how shifts in Quality, Engagement, and Conversion Rate Rankings affect key performance metrics like CPM and CTR. Experienced advertisers often maintain benchmark data across industries to predict performance movements and budget accordingly.

FAQs About Facebook Ad Quality

Does Quality Ranking apply to all campaign types?

It applies to most auction-based campaigns, especially those with Traffic, Engagement, or Conversion objectives. You may not see it for objectives like Reach & Frequency or Brand Awareness, which are optimized differently.

Can a low Quality Ranking on one ad affect my entire ad account?

Yes. While a single bad ad won't get you shut down, a pattern of ads with low-quality rankings and negative feedback signals to Meta that your account is a poor contributor to the user experience. This contributes to a lower "Account Quality" reputation over time, which can throttle all your future campaigns.

How long does it take to see improvements after fixing issues?

The rankings are dynamic. After you make a fix (e.g., improve the landing page), the system needs new data to re-evaluate. You should see the ranking begin to change after another 500+ impressions post-edit. This can take anywhere from 24 to 72 hours.

Is it possible to recover from a "Below Average" ranking quickly?

Yes. The fastest way is to pause the low-quality ad and launch a new, improved ad. A new ad gets a fresh start in the auction and learning phase, allowing you to establish a high-quality score from the beginning. Simply editing an old, failing ad is often less effective.

Does Quality Ranking affect boosted posts differently from Ads Manager campaigns?

No. A "boosted post" is just an ad created through a simpler interface. It still competes in the same ad auction and is judged by the same quality-ranking criteria.

Can high engagement but misleading content still be low-quality?

Absolutely. This is a classic "engagement bait" scenario. An ad saying "Tag 3 friends to win a free car!" might get a high Engagement Rate Ranking. But if it leads to a spammy, data-harvesting website, Meta's system will see the high drop-off rate and user reports, flagging it with a "Below Average" Quality Ranking and Conversion Rate Ranking. Meta is smart enough to spot the mismatch.

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