TL;DR: If your custom event (e.g., BrijPurchase) isn’t available to add as a reporting column in Ads Manager, “prime” it by creating a campaign that optimizes for that event. You can set the start date in the future so it never runs. After publishing, your event should immediately become selectable as a column.
Why this happens
Meta only surfaces custom events as reporting metrics after you’ve used them as an optimization event at least once. Until then, they won’t appear in the column picker, even if the event is firing.
What you’ll need up front
- A working pixel/dataset connected to your ad account.
- Your custom event firing (via pixel and/or Conversions API).
- Verify/approve new custom events in Events Manager if prompted, so they’re eligible for ad features.
The fix (no spend required)
1) Create a campaign
- In Ads Manager, click + Create → choose Engagement as the objective.
- Proceed with Manual engagement campaign (or the equivalent “manual” setup option).
2) Point the ad set at your website and your event
- In the ad set, set Conversion location to Website.
- Select your site’s Pixel (or dataset).
- For Conversion event, choose your custom event (e.g., BrijPurchase).
- If you don’t actually want to run this, set a start date in the future and publish.
3) Add the event as a reporting column
- Back in Ads Manager, open the Columns dropdown → Customize columns.
- Use the search bar to find the custom event and add it to your view (save a preset if you like).
Result: The custom event metric should now be available to add as a column, typically right away after publishing that draft campaign.
FAQs & gotchas
Do I have to actually run or fund the campaign?
No. Setting a future start date and publishing is enough to register that you’re optimizing for the event; you can delete the campaign after confirming the column appears.
I still can’t see custom event in the column picker. Now what?
Try these quick checks:
- Confirm the event fired recently. Use Events Manager’s diagnostics/testing to make sure the custom event is being received.
- Verify/approve the custom event if you see a “Verify your custom website event” prompt in Events Manager; unverified custom events may be restricted from ad features like reporting or optimization.
- Double‑check the pixel/dataset selection in your ad set matches the one receiving the custom event. (If you pick the wrong pixel, the event won’t be available.)
- Republish the “primer” campaign once more to ensure the event is truly selected as the optimization event. After that, look again under Columns → Customize columns.
Where exactly do I add columns again?
In Ads Manager, use Columns → Customize columns. That’s also where you can save presets and share them with teammates.
Why does Meta do it this way?
Per practitioner guidance and Meta’s own behavior, custom events are only surfaced as metrics after they’ve been used to optimize delivery, which signals to the system that you care about tracking that action in reporting.