Spend Share
Which creative formats your Meta budget actually went to, as a percentage.
What it means
Spend Share is the share of your Meta ad spend that went to one creative format in the selected period, shown as a percentage. The formats are Video, Photo, Carousel, Dynamic and Unknown, worked out from each ad's creative, and the column adds up to 100% down the table. It describes where the budget went — it carries no verdict on how any of it performed.
Show the math
Formula and a worked example
Spend Share = this format's Spend ÷ the Spend of every format on the table × 100. On the table the denominator is the period total. On the chart it's that day's total, which is why the shares add to 100% on every single day.
You don't set this anywhere. Budgets are set on campaigns and ad sets; the format split is worked out afterwards from what each ad actually spent.
Worked example. A week spends €6,000 on Video, €3,000 on Photo, €900 on Carousel and €100 on Dynamic — €10,000 in total. Video's Spend Share is 6,000 ÷ 10,000 = 60%, Photo 30%, Carousel 9%, Dynamic 1%.
Nothing there says video was the right call. Read the row across instead: 60% of the budget earning 40% of the Purchase ValuePurchase ValueTotal purchase value attributed to this format. Pair it with spend to judge which formats return the most revenue is a very different week from 60% earning 75%.
It answers the question
Where is the creative budget actually going? You decide campaigns and audiences; the format mix is what those decisions add up to, and this is the only column that shows it.
Why it matters
A budget mix is something you can end up with by accident. Format isn't a setting anywhere — money is committed to campaigns and ad sets, and lands on individual ads — so a month meant to test three formats can finish with one of them holding most of the spend, and nothing on the campaign screens says so.
It also makes the comparison you actually want easy. Two columns, side by side: the share of the budget a format took and the share of the return it produced. When those two orders disagree, the budget is in the wrong place, and that's a decision you can make this afternoon.
What good looks like
There's no target mix, and no benchmark applies — the right split depends on what your team can produce and what your buyers respond to. Two readings are worth making. First, does the share order match the return order? The format taking the most budget should not be the worst performer on the table. Second, how concentrated are you? A mix that is nearly all one format leaves you nothing to switch to when it tires, and it will tire.
How to improve it
| Lever | What you do | Expect | How long | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fast Move budget towards the format that returns most | Rank the formats by ROAS on the table, then shift budget from the weakest row to the strongest | The share order starts to match the return order | 1–2 weeks | Concentration tires a format faster. Frequency climbs on the winner, and it isn't on this table — read it on Meta Overview. |
| Fast Fund the underweight winner | Raise budget on a format holding a small share and a strong return, in steps, until the share fits the performance | Spend Share rises on the row that earns | 2–3 weeks | A format that looked strong on little spend often weakens as it scales. Judge it again at the new share, not on the old numbers. |
| Slow Brief creative for the format you're short of | Produce for the format the table says you're underweight in, rather than the one that's cheapest to make | A mix you chose instead of one you inherited | 1 quarter | Production budget, and new creative spends before it earns — the share moves first and the return follows weeks later, if at all. |
You don't raise or lower this number directly — you choose it. Each lever is a deliberate move of the mix, and each one costs something.
Read it with
A share is a fact, not a verdict. Next to what each format returned, it tells you whether the money is where the results are.
Funding the winner
Most of the budget is in the format that returns most. Watch how long it holds — this is also the row that fatigues first.
The budget is in the wrong place
The majority of the money is behind the weakest format. Nothing else on the page will fix that, and no creative change is faster than the reallocation.
Underfunded
A small share earning well. The most common opportunity on this table, and the one that disappears if you scale it in one jump.
Small and weak
Little money, little return. Worth checking there's enough spend behind it to judge at all before you write the format off.
Share is where the money went; ROAS is what came back per euro. Read them as two rankings — when the budget order and the return order disagree, the gap between them is the money you're leaving on the table, and neither column shows it alone.
The percentage hides scale. A format on 40% of a €2,000 week and 40% of a €40,000 week are completely different commitments, and only the euro column tells you which one you're looking at. Check both before you call a share large.
Common misreads
All it says is that video got the money. A high share and a poor return on the same row is the worst combination on the table, and it looks identical here to the best one.
The page works on a short window and a capped set of ads. The chart is built from the top spending ads of each day and says so on the card, and its caveat line warns that it won't tie out with the table below. Read that line before you quote a percentage to anyone.
Unknown is a format bucket, not a gap. Creatives the app can't classify are put there rather than guessed at, so the spend is counted — you just can't tell which format it bought. A large Unknown share means the mix isn't readable, not that money vanished.
Also called
Share of spend · budget mix · spend mix · budget split
See yoursYour Spend Share by creative format for the period, next to the return each format produced.
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