Sprout Social Reporting: Effectively Managing and Analyzing Your Paid Social Ad Performance

This guide provides a comprehensive overview of how to manage and analyze your paid advertising data within Sprout Social's reporting suite.

How do I set the stage for Paid Data Analytics? 

Before diving into Sprout's paid reporting features, review this checklist with your team:

• Do you have the right Ad Account permissions and connections in place?
  • Ensure that your organization has the correct admin permissions over your native Ad Accounts and that you’ve taken steps to connect your Ad Accounts in Sprout
    • How do I connect My Meta Ad Account in Sprout?
    • What do I need to know before connecting my X profile to Sprout?
    • How do I connect my LinkedIn Campaign Manager?
• Double check your Sprout plan and access to reporting features

Access to certain advanced paid reporting features and My Reports custom report building is dependent on your Sprout plan. Review your current plan's features or consider add-ons like Premium Analytics for the most robust paid reporting capabilities.

What Paid Data is available in Sprout Reporting?

Sprout is dependent on the way in which each network makes data available on the profile-level, post-level, and campaign-level.

Profile-level Reporting

The following article provides an overview of what is available within our profile-level and post-level reporting: Which network reports include Organic vs Paid data?

In some cases, Sprout's profile-level reporting can provide you with a calculated breakdown of paid vs organic data using applicable campaign-level data from the associated Ad Accounts connected to your Sprout Group.

Currently, there is not the option to filter the Cross-Network Profile Performance Report by paid and organic data. This is due to the fact that this report includes multiple networks and not all networks have the option to access or calculate separate metrics for paid and organic data.  

However, Sprout can provide paid vs organic filtering in the following individual network reports: Facebook Pages Report and Instagram Business Profiles Report. This filtering is available by connecting your corresponding Meta Ad Accounts within your Sprout Groups. 

The Premium Analytics add-on offers additional options for creating custom reports using individual network widgets to access additional filtering options where available. This add-on also provides access to our Paid vs Organic widget for additional profile-level comparisons available for LinkedIn.

Post-level Reporting

The following article provides an overview of what is available within our post-level reporting: Which network reports include Organic vs Paid data?

With the exception of Facebook Impressions, the Cross-Network Post Performance Report doesn't provide a direct breakdown of paid versus organic data with each metric. However, this report does offer the ability to filter by post type and published status. 

This filtering provides the option to exclude or isolate Facebook Ads within the Post Types filter and utilize the Published Status filter to isolate or exclude boosted posts for both Facebook and TikTok, as well as filter out Unpublished posts (i.e. dark ads) for Facebook.

Campaign-level Reporting 

Sprout provides campaign-level paid performance data for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X within the Cross-Network Paid Performance Report and individual Paid Performance by Network reports. This requires connecting your corresponding Ad Accounts within Sprout to access these reports.

How can I expand my Paid Data Analytics?

• Be sure to connect all corresponding Meta, X, and LinkedIn Ad Accounts to your Sprout Groups
• Unlock custom reporting and additional tools with Premium Analytics
• Leverage internal tagging and Sprout campaigns

How do I interpret Paid Data Metrics in Sprout? 

While Sprout strives for accuracy, you may occasionally notice slight discrepancies between the metrics in your Sprout reports and what you see on the native social media platforms. This could be due to any of the following reasons: 

• Metric definitions: While largely consistent, there can be subtle differences in the way in which certain metrics are defined between campaign-level reporting within native ads manager insights compared to page-level paid data certain networks may provide. Additionally, Sprout often provides a unified view, which can lead to minor variations from the network's specific breakdown.
• Data aggregation and refresh times: Sprout pulls data from the networks at regular intervals. There might be a minor delay in when the latest data is reflected in your Sprout reports compared to the real-time data on the native platform.

How do I separate Paid and Organic Data in Sprout Reports?

• Take advantage of the paid vs organic filtering available within the Facebook Pages Report and Instagram Business Profiles Report
• Create organic-only reports using Premium Analytics
  • This article provides a great overview of creating an organic-only report using My Reports: How do I make an organic-only report?
• Utilize the Paid vs. Organic Widget with Premium Analytics 

API limitations to data collection and parity

• Historical data: When you first connect an ad account, Sprout backfills a certain amount of historical data. The exact timeframe varies by network. This article provides an extensive overview of data availability: What data is available in Reports?
• Not all native metrics are available: While Sprout offers a comprehensive set of paid metrics, it may not include every single metric available within the native ad manager of each platform.
• Focus on trend analysis: The greatest value of Sprout's paid reporting lies in its ability to track performance trends over time and across networks in a single, unified view.

FAQs

Can I filter the Cross-Network Profile Performance Report to be organic-only? 

The Cross-Network Profile Performance Report can't filter by paid and organic data due to varying network capabilities. However, individual paid vs. organic filtering is available in the Facebook Pages Report and Instagram Business Profiles Report  by connecting Meta Ad Accounts within Sprout Groups.

Why don't the numbers in my Sprout report exactly match what I see in Facebook Ads Manager?

When comparing campaign-level data from Facebook Ads manager to the page-level data available within the Facebook Pages Report, you can expect slight differences in the content that is included by each source in their measurements.

How do I see the performance of a specific ad campaign in Sprout?

The Cross-Network Paid Performance Report provides the option to filter by campaigns and the Campaign tab allows the option to drill into data per each individual campaign. The Facebook & Instagram Paid Performance report provides the option to drill into the campaign and ad level within reporting.

Can I see how much I've spent on boosted posts?

The Campaign and Ad tabs available within the Paid Performance Report provides Spend data per each individual campaign. 

Do I need a specific Sprout plan to see paid data?

Campaign-level Paid Performance Reporting is available with the Professional plan and higher. All plan levels can access the profile-level paid vs organic filtering within the Facebook Pages Report and Instagram Business Profiles Report. The Premium Analytics add-on is required to access the Paid vs Organic Widget and additional custom report building features. 

How far back does Sprout pull in paid data when I connect a new ad account?

The exact timeframe varies by network. This article provides an extensive overview of data availability per each network: What data is available in Reports?

Can I manage my ad campaigns directly from Sprout's reporting section?

Editing ad campaigns isn't available via Sprout or Sprout’s Paid Performance Reporting. However, promotions can be applied to Facebook and Instagram posts in Sprout using the instructions outlined in this article: How do I run a promotion on my Facebook or Instagram (Meta) Ad Account in Sprout?

How do I connect my ad account to Sprout?

The following articles can be utilized to review your native permissions and complete connections in Sprout: 

How do I connect my Meta Ad Account in Sprout?

What do I need to know before connecting my X profiles in Sprout?

How do I connect my LinkedIn Campaign Manager?

What is the difference between the "Paid vs. Organic" widget and filtering within the Facebook Pages Report and Instagram Business Report widgets?

The Paid vs Organic Widget provides a centralized comparison of paid vs organic results for Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn when building custom reports using Premium Analytics. The filtering available for Facebook and Instagram has the option to isolate the specific breakdown needed (i.e. organic-only).

I've connected my ad account, but my paid data appearing in my reports. Why?

Sprout typically anticipates data becoming available within 8-24 hours after an Ad Account has been connected. If data isn't listed after this time period, be sure to check the Ad Account ID connected in Sprout and ensure active campaigns are listed natively. 

If I boost a post from within Sprout, where do I see its paid performance metrics?

Campaign-level metrics for your boosted post are available within the Cross-Network Paid Performance Report and the Facebook & Instagram Paid Performance Report.

Can I compare my paid performance across Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn in a single view?

Yes, the Paid vs Organic Widget provides a centralized comparison of paid vs organic results for Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn when building custom reports. This requires access to the Premium Analytics add-on.

Is it possible to create a report that only shows my paid metrics and nothing organic?

Yes, there are options to isolate and filter reporting widgets using the custom report building features available with My Reports and the Premium Analytics add-on. Additionally, the Cross-Network Paid Performance Report and Individual Paid Performance by Network reports exclusively provide campaign-level reporting. 

Can I track conversions from paid campaigns in Sprout's reports?

Yes, this is available within the Cross-Network Paid Performance Report and Individual Paid Performance by Network reports. The events included within the conversions metric vary per network. 

My ad accounts use different currencies. How does Sprout handle this in reporting?

You can only view campaigns in one currency. However, our campaign filtering allows you to toggle between the various currencies used by your campaigns 

Can I see a paid performance breakdown by ad placement?

The Facebook & Instagram Paid Performance Report includes the Ad Set name with each available campaign. Exporting this report as a CSV offers the option to organize and isolate totals based on the Ad Set name. Additionally, you can arrange the campaigns by the Ad Set name within the Ads tab of the Facebook & Instagram Paid Performance Report. 

Are there any additional resources available to understand issues I am encountering with promoting and viewing boosted posts within Sprout? 

Yes. This article provides an extensive overview of Troubleshooting Promoted and Boosted Posts in Sprout Social.

My ad account keeps disconnecting from Sprout. How does this impact my paid reporting?

Disconnected Ad Accounts can lead to missing data within your calculated paid vs organic filtering, as well as missing content within your campaign-level reports. Review your native permissions and ensure you reauthorize your Ad Account as quickly as possible.