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Columns, verdicts and Pro mode on Ad performance
This page explains the What's working table on Performance > Ad performance. It covers every column, the five verdict badges and the Pro detail level. For the page itself, see Ad performance.
Problem and intended user
This page is for the media buyer (the person who runs your paid ads) and the creative strategist (the person who plans and makes ad creatives). A long list of ads with many numbers is hard to read. It is hard to tell which ads deserve more budget, which cost you margin, and when creatives wear out. A wrong call keeps money on weak ads or retires a creative too early.
Current workflow
You compare ads by hand. You export results from Meta Ads Manager or Google Ads to a spreadsheet and add formulas for return, cost per acquisition and share of spend. You track creative age and launch dates in a second sheet, or ask an agency for a creative report.
Prerequisites
- Wait for the first ad sync to finish.
- Your order and customer data in Nexus. Predicted revenue return and True profit need it. Without it, both columns show a dash, and you hover the dash to read why. A verdict then falls back to ROAS.
- To use your own definition of a winner in Pro mode, set Winning criteria. Without it, Nexus compares each ad with your other ads.
How Nexus works
Fixed rules produce every column, verdict and score here. Nothing needs an approval, and nothing changes your ad accounts.
Compute the columns
Select Metrics to show or hide columns. Name is always on. The first column shows a concept, hook, ad or other group, depending on the view. Nexus reads spend, revenue and transactions from your synced ad data. It adds your order data for Predicted revenue return and True profit.
Decide each verdict
A verdict compares a row with your account average return. The row uses Predicted revenue return when Nexus has order data for the row. Otherwise it uses ROAS. A row with little spend, or very few ads, stays at Promising whatever its numbers say. A row with no resolvable value on the current view shows Needs classification instead.
The verdict does not use your winning criteria. That setting defines what counts as a winner elsewhere. See Winning criteria.
Switch to Pro mode
Use the Simple and Pro buttons at the top of the page to switch between the two. The headline numbers stay. The What's working table gives way to a Creative fatigue section. It reads from the same dates and platform as the rest of the page.
Exact output
Columns
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Spend | Total spent in the period. |
| Revenue | Revenue the ad platform attributes to the row in the period. |
| ROAS | Platform-reported return: Revenue divided by Spend. |
| Predicted revenue return | Nexus's estimate of your customers' lifetime revenue divided by ad spend. It measures revenue, not profit. Needs your order and customer data. |
| True profit | Profit on the orders Nexus matched to the row, minus the part of its spend those orders cover. Needs your order and customer data. |
| CPA | Cost per acquisition: spend divided by transactions. |
| CPC | Cost per click: spend divided by clicks. |
| CTR | Click-through rate: clicks divided by impressions. |
| Transactions | Purchases the platform attributes in the period. |
| Spend share | The row's share of total account spend. |
| Ads | How many creatives the row rolls up. |
| Trend | A small line of the row's trailing 7-day return over the 30 days that end on your end date, with the change as a percentage. In the By ad view, the Trend column shows a dash. |
| Verdict | How the row compares with your account average return. |
INFO
Predicted revenue return is a forecast Nexus fixes when it matches an order to an ad. It does not follow the dates you pick.
WARNING
True profit counts only matched orders, so it is smaller than the full picture. If your profit figure already subtracts marketing cost, True profit counts that cost twice. For store-wide profit, use Gross profit after ad spend on the page.
Verdicts
Scale, Strong, Leaking and Toxic also tint the left edge of the row. The label always shows, so you never need the colour alone.
| Verdict | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Scale | Well above your account average and holding. Put more budget here. A row whose Trend is falling does not get Scale. |
| Strong | Above your account average. |
| Promising | Needs more data. The row is too close to average, or has too little spend to call. |
| Leaking | Below your account average. It costs you margin. |
| Toxic | Far below average on meaningful spend. It is the biggest drain in the account. |
Pro mode sections
The Creative Health Score card rates your creative mix as Strong, Healthy, Watch or Needs Attention. It shows three bars: Monthly Churn, Age Mix and Hit Rate. The overall score averages Monthly Churn and Hit Rate. Age Mix is not included, because it rises when more ads stop early.
A recommendation under the score offers See more and See full analysis. Below it, the three metric cards and a fourth Creative capacity card each open one section:
| Section | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Monthly Creative Churn by Launch Cohort | How spend from each monthly launch cohort decays over time. Oldest cohorts sit at the bottom. |
| Creative Age Mix — Daily Spend Composition | What share of daily spend comes from ads of each age. The darkest shade is the newest creatives. |
| Testing Quantity & Hit Rate | Weekly creative output by type and win status, with a hit rate trend line and a list of tested ads. |
| Creative capacity | How fast creatives stop delivering, how long winners last, and how many new creatives to launch to keep up. |
The tested ads list labels each ad Winner, Potential winner or Not a winner. When you set Winning criteria, the hit rate uses them to decide what a winner is. Otherwise it compares each ad with your other ads. A note appears if the criteria changed while the launches were judged.
Ads that ran
The Ads that ran list appears under Monthly Creative Churn by Launch Cohort and under Creative Age Mix — Daily Spend Composition, when you open either section. It has the columns Ad, Platform, Start, End, Days lived, Status (Active or Inactive), Spend, Revenue and ROAS. Money shows in your ad account's own currency. Use Previous and Next to page through the list. Select an ad name to open its Ad detail page.
If no ad spent in the period, the list reads No ads spent in this period. If it fails to load, it reads Couldn't load the ads that ran in this period. with a Retry button.
What to do with it
| What you see | Decision or action | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Scale | Put more budget here. Change the budget in Meta Ads Manager or Google Ads, outside Nexus. | media buyer |
| Strong or Promising | Keep it running and watch its Trend. Wait for more spend before you decide on Promising. | media buyer |
| Leaking or Toxic | Review Toxic first, the biggest drain. Lower, pause or rework its ads in your ad platform, outside Nexus. | media buyer |
| Needs classification | Switch to By ad, or wait until Nexus has broken more of your creatives down. | media buyer |
| Creative Health Score at Watch or Needs Attention, or a Creative capacity result | Plan new creatives to replace those that stop delivering. | creative strategist |
| A Winner in the tested ads list | Reuse its idea in the next brief. | creative strategist |
Expected value and measurement
These views can help you act sooner on ads that lose margin and find creatives that last. They show a signal. They do not guarantee that a change will pay off.
To check a decision, open Performance > Ad performance. Compare the row's ROAS or Predicted revenue return and its Verdict over two equal date ranges, before and after your change. In Pro mode, compare Hit Rate and the Creative Health Score the same way.
You cannot isolate one change when budgets, offers or seasons moved at the same time. A verdict compares a row with your whole account, so changes in other ads can move it.
Limitations and exceptions
A verdict is a prompt. Treat a verdict as a prompt to look closer, not as a final call.
Estimates. Predicted revenue return is a forecast. True profit covers matched orders only, and it can count marketing cost twice.
Order data missing. Predicted revenue return and True profit show a dash when Nexus has no order and customer data for the row. Hover the dash to read why. Verdicts then use ROAS.
Thin data. The whole Creative fatigue section reads Not enough data yet to score creative fatigue. Choose a longer date range or wait for more ad history. The Creative Health Score band can read Not enough data. A Based on N of M signals line can appear when only some of the signals have data.
Load errors. Couldn't load creative fatigue data. and Couldn't load creative capacity data. each come with a Retry button.
Demo Mode. The data is sample data.
A card in Pro mode can show its own message instead of a score:
| Card message | When it appears | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Not enough launches yet | Monthly Churn needs 2 complete months with 3 or more ads each. | Wait for more launches, or choose a longer date range. |
| No ads ran in this period | Age Mix found no ad with spend in the period. | Choose a different date range. |
| No tested launches yet | Hit Rate found launches that are still below the test threshold. | Wait until your launches finish testing. |
| Can't measure this range | The range holds too much history to load at once. | Narrow the date range. |