How to track subscription purchases in Meta Ads

View subscription purchases side-by-side with standard purchase metrics in Meta Ads Manager!

See how many new subscribers each campaign, ad set or ad brings in, right next to your standard purchase metrics in Meta Ads Manager. This page shows how to send the event from Littledata and set it up as a custom conversion in Meta.

Why set up a custom conversion?

Meta counts one-time purchases and subscription orders together in the overall Purchase metric. A custom conversion for new subscriptions gives you clearer reporting:

• Direct attribution: see how many new subscribers each campaign, ad set or ad brings in.

• Side-by-side reporting: compare new subscribers with one-time purchases in the same Ads Manager table.

• Goal alignment: focus on new subscriber volume, without relying on Meta for ROAS or LTV calculations.

Send first recurring purchases to Meta

Littledata sends new subscription orders to Meta as the First Recurring Purchase - Littledata custom event. This event comes from the First recurring purchase recipe, so you need to add it to your Meta connection first.

If your store already sent this event before it became a recipe, it was kept for you. Check the Event Editor events list for First Recurring Purchase - Littledata and skip to the next section.

Open the Event Editor

In the Littledata app, find the Meta card, click the ⋯ menu on its card and choose Settings. Then open the Event Editor tab.

Add the recipe

In Recommended for your store, find First recurring purchase. Click Preview to see how it works, then click Add event. The event is enabled right away and sends with the next new subscription order.

Create the custom conversion in Meta

1

Open Events Manager

Log in to Meta Ads Manager. In the navigation menu, select Events Manager.

2

Create a custom conversion

In the left sidebar, go to Custom conversions and click Create custom conversion.

3

Pick the event

Under Data source, make sure your Meta pixel is selected. In the Event dropdown, select First Recurring Purchase - Littledata.

4

Name it and create it

Give the custom conversion a clear Name, for example first_recurring_purchase. Any name works. Click Create.

You can also enter a conversion value for the estimated worth of a new subscriber. This is optional if you mainly want to track how many subscribers you get.

Show the metric in Ads Manager reports

1

Open Customize columns

In Meta Ads Manager, click the Columns dropdown above the performance table and select Customize columns.

2

Add your custom conversion

Search for the name of your custom conversion (for example first_recurring_purchase) and select it.

3

Apply

Click Apply. You can now see new subscribers for each campaign, ad set and ad.

Related articles

• Custom metrics in Meta reporting

• New and returning customer purchases in Meta Ads

• Create a new-subscriber conversion event

• Recipes