We spent a month on Instagram ads — how do we track if they drive sales and not just likes?

Browser-based pixels aren't enough on their own anymore; OS-level privacy updates and ad blockers cause a huge chunk of conversions to get lost. Definitely set up server-side Conversions API in your e-commerce platform and keep that event match quality score high.

We spend about 10,000 AED a month on a similar budget. When Ads Manager claimed 60 orders, the actual number of UTM-attributed orders in our site's database was only 38. Those other 22 orders were actually people coming through other channels who just happened to see the ad in their feed. If you don't make this distinction, you'll end up pouring money into the wrong ad sets.

The quickest fix: set up an ad-exclusive 10% coupon code and only share it in your Instagram ad copy. At the end of the month, filter your dashboard by that code to see how many orders came through. Even if you're not tech-savvy at all, you'll see down to the penny exactly how many orders the ad brought in.

If you ran profile visit and engagement campaigns the dashboard will gladly sell you plenty of interactions, but nobody is going to add anything to their cart. Are you sure you selected Purchase as your campaign objective? In e-commerce, traffic or engagement campaigns are usually just money thrown down the drain.

Don't scale your budget during the first month's review without running these three checks: 1) Consistency between the Purchase count in Ads Manager and actual charges on your bank dashboard, 2) Checkout abandonment rate, 3) Whether the customer acquisition cost for a single ad-driven order exceeds your gross profit.

Dont be discouraged by making 18.500 AED in revenue in your first month; thats not a bad number at all for starting out. The key is getting your tracking infrastructure properly set up. Once you hook up the right tracking codes and let some data accumulate, things will look much clearer in the second month.

running ads without utm parameters is like driving in the dark. slap a distinct utm on every ad and check the source report in analytics, itll show clear as day where everyone is coming from.

Saved.

You're right, I've been down that road too. Everything goes well for the first three months; problems arise in the fourth.

Just leaving this note, it might be useful.

Yes, that's exactly how it is with Instagram ads. If rankings stay the same but clicks drop, the issue isn't your page, but the search result appearance.

Of course, it varies if your situation is different.

Let me share what happened to me; it might be useful. When making decisions, write down the worst-case scenario too, not just the best.

If you post the result here, it will help others too.

Three different views emerged, they all complement each other. A page with low traffic might be reaching the right people. Look at where sales come from.

That's all, sorry if I went on too long.

To get into the details: If it's your first time, start small; scaling comes later.

I'm also curious if anyone does it differently.

I have no experience with Instagram ads, so I'm asking. If rankings stay the same but clicks drop, the issue isn't your page, but the search result appearance.

If I were you, I'd go this route.

I went through the same thing.

Let me write how its done in practice. like hasty decisions become decisions you have to fix six months later.

Most time waste accumulates in tasks waiting for approval.

The opposite happened to me, that's why I'm writing. Ranking is the result, search intent is the input. Look at intent first.

If I were you, I'd go this route.

I'd appreciate it if you shared the outcome.