Facebook Ads “Link Clicks” Demystified

There are quite a few “Link Clicks” metrics that are tracked when you are running Facebook Ads. In this article, we will demystify the different types of “Link Clicks”.

4 Different Types Of “Link Clicks”

Typical Breakdowns Of Clicks

Broadly speaking, there are 4 different types of “Link Clicks” metrics when you are looking through your Facebook Ads manager.

The confusion is that most people would assume “Link Clicks” to track all clicks on a broad basis. But this is not the case for Facebook ads.

Here are the 4 different types of “Link Clicks”:

  • Type 1: Clicks (ALL)
  • Type 2: Link Clicks
  • Type 3: Outbound Clicks
  • Type 4: Landing Page Views

Let’s go through them individually.

Type 1: Clicks (ALL)

Clicks-ALL-Facebook-Ads

In layman terms, what “Clicks (ALL)” means is that as long as a user clicks anywhere on your ad, it’s considered a “Clicks (ALL)“.

Let’s take a look at a sample ad by Fave to illustrate this better.

A “Clicks (ALL)” will track all of these user’s clicks:

  • Clicking to Fave’s Facebook page
  • Clicking on the shortened bit.ly link
  • Clicking the “See More” button to expand the text
  • Clicking on the image that leads the user to a website/app
  • Post reactions (likes, comments or shares)
  • Clicking on the call to action of “Shop Now”

Type 2: Link Clicks

Link Clicks” is a smaller subset of clicks as compared to “Clicks (ALL)“. That’s where the confusion kicks in. So “Link Clicks” does not track all clicks, as one might incorrectly assume.

I would generally label “Link Clicks” as clicks that require a user to take action.

From the Fave Ad example, a “Link Clicks” will track all of these user’s clicks:

  • Clicking on the shortened bit.ly link
  • Clicking on the image that leads the user to a website/app
  • Clicking on the call to action of “Shop Now”

So you can see that for “Link Clicks“, they are tracking lesser clicks as compared to “Clicks (ALL)“.

These are the other destinations that are tracked under “Link Clicks“. These destinations will differ according to your Facebook ads.

  • Websites
  • App store links or app deep links
  • Clicks to call
  • Clicks to message
  • Map/direction links
  • Facebook Canvas
  • Facebook lead forms
  • Facebook Marketplace
  • Playable experiences
  • Videos that launch the Watch & Browse experience
  • Videos hosted by another website (including videos embedded in News Feed ads but hosted on a video platform such as YouTube or Vimeo)

Type 3: Outbound Clicks

Outbound Clicks” are clicks that take the user outside of Facebook’s properties (Facebook, WhatsApp & Instagram).

As long as a user clicks on a click that brings them outside of Facebook, that is considered an outbound link. Common outbound links include:

  • Websites
  • App in App store
  • App deep links (for example, Zalora, Shopee, Lazada ads are usually app deep links. Clicking on the ad leads to a page inside the app itself)

Type 4: Landing Page Views (LPV)

Landing Page Views” or commonly known as “LPV”, tracks the clicks from an ad that results in a successful loading of the website page.

Notice that I have underlined successful. Why?

Because if a user clicks on your ad and your website didn’t load the page successfully, it wouldn’t be counted as a “Landing Page Views”.

Also, for tracking “Landing Page Views”, you will need to have a Facebook pixel installed on your website.

In most or if not all Facebook ads that you run, you will see that the “Clicks (ALL)” metrics will have the greatest numerical value.

Followed by “Link Clicks” and “Outbound Clicks”.

In summary, # of “Clicks (ALL)” > # of “Link Clicks” > # of “Outbound Clicks”.

Outbound Clicks VS Landing Page Views

Your “Outbound Clicks” will always be equal or more than your “Landing Page Views”.

This is because there are instances of people clicking your ad (which counts as an “Outbound Clicks”, but didn’t stay long enough for the webpage to load completely (“Landing Page Views”).

Always track your “Outbound Clicks” to “Landing Page Views” ratio, as this could mean that your website is suffering from poor page speed issues and this could impact your ad performance detrimentally.