Skip to main content

Post Reactions

Which creative in a campaign people responded warmly to.

60 second readAppears on: Campaigns

What it means

Post Reactions is the number of reactions left on an ad's post during the period. The app shows one figure per ad, not a breakdown by reaction type, and it's a count rather than a rate — so it grows with the budget behind the ad as much as with the quality of it. It sits on the Ads In Campaign table, one row per ad.

Show the math

Formula and a worked example

There's no formula. Every reaction on the ad's post adds 1, whatever kind it was. The column carries no rate and no denominator, which is what makes it easy to misread.

The comparison that works is reactions per euro. Divide by SpendSpendWatch it to control budget and back the winners. on the same row and a budget difference stops deciding the winner.

Worked example. Ad A collects 1,800 reactions on €6,000 of spend. Ad B collects 700 on €1,000. Per €1,000 that's 300 for A and 700 for B, so the ad with under half the reactions is earning them at more than twice the rate.

Ranking the table by this column would have picked A. The creative worth copying is B.

It answers the question

Which ad in this campaign did people feel something about? A tap of approval is the smallest positive thing a viewer can do, so this is the widest and shallowest signal on the table.

Why it matters

It's the cheapest signal a creative can earn, and that cuts both ways. A reaction costs the viewer nothing and commits them to nothing, so a big count proves the ad was likeable, not that it sold anything. Read it as a creative comparison inside one campaign, never as a result.

Where it earns its place is in explaining the numbers next to it. When one ad in a campaign collects reactions at several times the rate of its siblings on similar spend, something in that creative is working — an opening, a face, a claim — and that shape is worth briefing again before you change the targeting.

What good looks like

There's no published standard, and there couldn't be one: this is a count, so its size follows the budget and the run length of the ad. Compare ads inside the same campaign over the same window, normalise by Spend, and treat your own best row as the bar. Cost/Post Eng.Cost/Post Eng.Cost per post engagement. Use it to compare how efficiently each ad drives reactions, clicks, and other actions on the same table does part of that work already, though it prices a wider bucket of engagement than reactions alone.

How to improve it

LeverWhat you doExpectHow longWatch out for
Fast
Put more budget behind the ad already earning them
Shift spend within the campaign towards the row with the best reactions-per-euroThe count rises quickly3–7 daysSome of the rise is only the extra budget. Cost/Post Eng. is the column that tells you whether engagement actually got cheaper.
Fast
Open on something people can agree with
Lead with the result, the problem or a person, rather than with the product on a white backgroundReactions up on the new cut1–2 weeksWarm creative pulls reactions from people who were never going to buy. Watch ROAS on the same row before you call it a win.
Slow
Shoot something worth reacting to
Film the product doing its job, or a customer using it, instead of a static and a captionA structurally higher count across the campaign3–6 weeksProduction time and budget, and a likeable video can still lose to a plain static on cost per purchase.
Slow
Build a library from the shapes that work
Brief 3 ads a month in the shape of your best-reacting row and keep the winnerA new best row every few rounds1 quarterThe 2 losers spend real budget while you learn, and splitting spend slows the ad that was already working.

Every lever costs something somewhere. The last column is the one to read twice.

Read it with

A count next to the money that bought it is the only honest way to read this column.

Post Reactions and Spend, on the Ads In Campaign table
Spend up
Spend down
Post Reactions up

Bought, not earned

More money in, more reactions out. That's what a count does. The only question worth asking is whether each one got cheaper, and this column can't answer it.

Check Cost/Post Eng. before you credit the creative.

Earning attention

Fewer euros and a bigger response. This is the one corner where the creative is unambiguously doing the work, and it's the row to copy.

Brief 2 more ads in the same shape this week.
Post Reactions down

Paying more for less

Rising budget and a falling response usually means the audience has seen it. Adding budget to this row makes the gap wider, not smaller.

Check Thumbstop on the same row — the ad may have stopped being watched at all.

You turned it down

The count followed the money down, which tells you almost nothing about the creative. Cutting an ad back is not a test of it.

Nothing to read here — restore the budget or retire the ad and judge it properly.
Post Reactions + ROASROASRevenue earned for every ad dollar spent.4 or more is healthy

Warmth against money. A row with heavy reactions and weak ROAS is an ad people enjoyed and didn't buy from, which is worth knowing before you brief 5 more like it. A row with almost no reactions and strong ROAS is a direct-response ad doing its job — leave it alone. Neither column can tell you which kind you have on its own.

Post Reactions + Video Comp.Video Comp.Video completion rate. Helps you see which creatives keep viewers watching till the end

On video ads this separates a reaction to the hook from a reaction to the whole thing. Reactions climbing while completion stays low means people responded to the opening seconds and left, so the reaction is grading your first frame rather than your offer. Both climbing together means the edit held them all the way to the point.

Common misreads

“This ad has the most reactions, so it's our best creative.”

Sort the table by Spend and check whether it's the same row. A count rewards the ad with the biggest budget and the longest run, which is usually the one you already decided to back.

“Reactions mean people want to buy.”

It's the lowest-effort action available — one tap, no commitment, nothing given up. Post SavePost SaveNumber of saves. Use it to find content people want to revisit, a strong sign of deeper intent asks more of a viewer and PurchasesPurchasesHow many sales advertising drove; pair with CPA for the cost. asks the most. Read this one as warmth, not intent.

“Almost no reactions means the ad failed.”

Plenty of ads sell steadily and are never reacted to. This column grades how likeable a creative was, and likeability is not on the list of things you're paying for.

Also called

Reactions · post likes · ad reactions · likes

See yoursReactions per ad inside a campaign, next to the Spend and the engagement cost behind each row.

Open Campaigns