Most advertisers already encode a lot of useful information in their naming conventions — the campaign name might tell you what type of campaign it is, and the ad name might include the content creator who made the video or the hook being tested. Custom breakdowns let you turn that information into structured data you can actually visualize and analyze.
What are custom breakdowns?
A custom breakdown is a way to group your ads based on something that's already in your naming conventions. You define the groups — Superads applies them across all your ads and shows you performance side by side.
For example:
if your ad names include the content creator's name, you can create one group per creator and instantly compare their performance.
If your campaign names encode the type of campaign (prospecting, retargeting, brand), you can group by that. Anything you track in your ad names, campaign names, or ad set names can become a breakdown.
💡 Tip: Custom breakdowns work best when your naming convention is consistent. The more structured your naming, the more useful custom breakdowns become. |
Three ways to use them
Depending on your naming conventions and how you want to work, there are three approaches:
Rule-based groups: Manually define groups based on rules. Best if you have a few meaningful values to compare — e.g. a handful of creators, two or three formats, or a set of markets.
Formula-based groups: Use a formula to extract any segment from a structured naming convention automatically — no need to type every possible value. Best if your names follow a consistent pattern like
Name_Audience_Hook_FormatAI Assistant: Let Superads scan your existing naming conventions and suggest groups for you. A good starting point if you're not sure where to begin.
How to access custom breakdowns
There are three ways to get to the custom breakdown builder:
Option 1: from inside a report (most common)
1 | Open any report |
2 | Click the 'Group by' selector |
3 | Click '+ Custom Breakdown' The custom breakdown panel opens inline. You'll see named groups (A, B, C…) each with their own set of rules, and suggestions from our AI |
4 | Name each group and set its conditions |
5 | Click 'Apply' or 'Save and apply' Apply uses the breakdown just for this session. Save and apply stores it for reuse across reports. |
Option 2: from the new report flow
When creating a new report, select 'Compare Custom Groups' from the template options. This opens a new report with the custom breakdown editor already active.
Option 3: manage saved breakdowns in Settings
Go to Settings > Custom Breakdowns to view and manage all breakdowns saved in your workspace. From here you can create, edit, rename, or delete any saved breakdown.
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💡 Tip: Saved custom breakdowns are reusable across all reports in the workspace. Build your 'Hook type' or 'Partner' breakdown once and apply it anywhere. |
Not sure where to start? Use the AI Assistant (Pro only)
If you're not sure how to map your naming conventions to groups, let Superads do it for you. Inside the custom breakdown builder our AI will suggest groups for you.
Simply click on any of the suggestions or click on the arrows to see more suggestions.
For each suggestion you can choose to: use it as-is, edit it before applying, apply it immediately, or save and apply it to make it available across reports. It's a great starting point even if you plan to tweak the groups afterwards.
Rule-based groups: grouping by rules
The most common approach. Each group has a name and one or more conditions — you pick what to match on (ad name, campaign name, or ad set name), whether it should contain or not contain a keyword, and Superads sorts your ads accordingly. You can combine multiple conditions using AND or OR to handle more complex naming patterns.
Example: comparing performance by content creator
Say you're running ads with multiple content creators, and each ad name includes the creator's name (e.g. Caleb, Paul, Alex). You want to see which creator's ads are performing best. You'd create one group per creator like:
Caleb: Ad name contains 'Caleb'
Paul: Ad name contains 'Paul'
Alex: Ad name contains 'Alex'
Superads also shows how many ads fall into each group, and allows you to dive deeper by clicking on any of them.
The same approach works for any dimension you track in your naming convention: hook type, creative format, product line, market, audience, CTA, and so on.
ℹ️ Note: Any ad that doesn't match any group will appear under 'None'. It's worth checking that group occasionally to catch typos or new ads that weren't named following your usual convention. |
Approach 2 — Formula-based groups: extracting from naming conventions
If your naming convention follows a structured format with a consistent separator (like underscores), you can use a formula to automatically pull out any segment — without having to type out every possible value. This is especially useful when you have many values in a dimension, like dozens of hooks or product names.
You can find this option under: Settings --> Custom Breakdowns --> Create Custom Breakdown --> Extract from naming convention.
How it works
The formula is called SPLIT_PART. You tell it which field to look at (ad name, campaign name, or ad set name), what character separates the segments, and which position to pull out. For example:
SPLIT_PART(#adName, '_', 2) |
If your ad name is US_Hook_Video_Jan, this returns Hook, the second segment split on underscores. Change the number to get a different position: 1 gives US, 3 gives Video, 4 gives Jan.
Example: breaking down a full naming convention
Say your naming convention is Market_Audience_Hook_Format_Month. Instead of creating a rule for every possible hook or market, you'd set up four separate breakdowns, one per dimension:
SPLIT_PART(#adName, '_', 1) → Market (US, UK, AU, ...) |
SPLIT_PART(#adName, '_', 2) → Audience (Retargeting, Prospecting, ...) |
SPLIT_PART(#adName, '_', 3) → Hook (Hook1, Hook2, PainPoint, ...) |
SPLIT_PART(#adName, '_', 4) → Format (Video, Static, Carousel, ...) |
Each breakdown becomes a reusable filter you can apply to any report. Switch between them to look at creative performance from any angle, without rebuilding anything.
Troubleshooting
Many ads are showing under 'None'
This means those ads don't match any of your defined rules. Common causes: inconsistent naming (typos, extra spaces), ads from a different campaign structure that doesn't follow the convention, or conditions that are too specific. Review the ads in 'None' to identify patterns and adjust your rules.
Breakdowns work for Meta and LinkedIn but return 'None' for Google
Most Google Ads formats (Search, Display, Shopping, Performance Max) do not use ad names in the same way as paid social. Ad name-based breakdowns will return 'None' for those ad types. For Google, use campaign name or ad set name as the source field instead, or structure your campaign/ad set names to carry the breakdown information.
SPLIT_PART returns unexpected values
Check that the separator character and position number are correct, and that all ad names follow the same structure. If any names have more or fewer segments than expected, the formula will extract the wrong part or return blank. A rule-based breakdown may be more reliable when naming is inconsistent.
Still need help? Chat with us using the icon in the bottom-right corner of Superads. We typically reply in under 2 hours.