7 Ways to Improve Your Meta Estimated Action Rate and Lower CPA in 2026

Leveraging the core metrics of the Meta algorithm becomes critically important, especially the Meta estimated action rate (EAR). This metric reflects the likelihood that a user will take the desired action (such as making a purchase or registering) after seeing your ad, and it is a key factor in determining ad placement and cost. However, many businesses still struggle to maintain performance, causing their Cost Per Action (CPA) to escalate. This article will delve into 7 proven strategies that will help you not only significantly improve the Meta estimated action rate but also effectively reduce CPA, ensuring the sustainable success of your ad campaigns in 2025.

Meta estimated action rate: The metric that determines campaign success

When Meta decides who to show your ad to, the Meta estimated action rate is considered the core performance predictor, alongside your bid and content quality. A high Meta estimated action rate signals to the algorithm that your ad is valuable to the user, meaning you have a greater chance of winning the ad auction. Focusing on improving this metric is fundamental to optimizing any Meta ad campaign.

How does EAR work?

Meta’s algorithm is designed to maximize Total Value for both users and advertisers. The basic ad auction winning formula is often considered to be:

Total Value = Advertiser Bid x Estimated Action Rate + User Value

EAR is the “Estimated Action Rate” factor in this formula. The algorithm not only considers the amount of money you are willing to spend but also predicts the relevance and conversion potential your ad will bring. This prediction is built upon the user’s activity history, the quality of the ad content, and especially your past conversion data (via Pixel or Conversions API). In other words, EAR is a Machine Learning forecast of your conversion performance.

EAR’s impact on CPA

The relationship between EAR and Cost Per Action (CPA) is inverse: the higher the EAR, the lower the CPA. When your EAR is high, the Meta algorithm perceives your ad as high-quality and relevant, helping you win the auction at a more efficient bid. Meta tends to “reward” advertisers who provide a good user experience by reducing their eCPM (effective Cost Per 1000 Impressions).

This allows your ad to be displayed more frequently and at a lower cost per impression, leading to the acquisition of conversion actions with an optimized CPA. Conversely, a low EAR will force you to significantly increase your bid to compete, causing the CPA to skyrocket. Therefore, investing in creative content, landing page optimization, and event data is the most direct way to control your advertising costs.

7 Practical strategies to achieve 2026 goals

To truly master the Meta platform, increase the Estimated Action Rate (EAR), and tightly control the Cost Per Action (CPA), you need to adopt a multi-faceted approach, integrating all 7 strategies below. Each strategy has its role, but when combined, they form a comprehensive optimization system that helps you outperform your competition.

Creative optimization

The Ad Creative has the most direct and powerful impact on your EAR. The Meta algorithm always prioritizes content that provides the best user experience, so focusing on the 3-Second Hook tactic is key: the video or image content must immediately attract attention, solve the customer’s problem, or generate curiosity in the first few seconds; if the user watches the entire ad, the EAR will be rated higher.

Furthermore, conducting Diverse A/B Testing is mandatory; you should not only run one type of Creative but should regularly test different angles (emotional vs. logical), formats (Short Video, Carousel, Static Image), and Call to Action (CTA) variations; this testing process helps Meta find the most optimal combination for each audience segment, thereby increasing CTR and consequently boosting EAR. Finally, maintaining Native Feel and Freshness is vital, as saturated content (High Frequency) will cause users to scroll past, decreasing EAR and increasing CPA; therefore, you need to refresh content on a short cycle (2-4 weeks) to sustain performance.

Standardizing event data (Pixel/Conversions API)

Data is the “blood” that feeds the Meta algorithm, and if the event data is inaccurate or delayed, the algorithm cannot calculate the EAR effectively, leading to poor optimization and increased CPA. To fix this, implementing the Conversions API (CAPI) is necessary, especially after privacy changes like iOS 14; CAPI helps send conversion data directly from your server to Meta, ensuring higher accuracy and timeliness compared to relying solely on the Pixel, thereby improving the quality of the information the EAR relies on.

Simultaneously, you need to Ensure Priority Events in Events Manager, configuring and prioritizing the most critical events (like Purchase or Lead) so that Meta focuses its optimization on the actions that bring the highest value. Lastly, Parameter Matching (sending customer parameters like email, phone number) via both Pixel and CAPI is a strategy that helps increase the data match rate, allowing Meta to accurately identify the user who took the action, strengthening the accuracy of the EAR.

Smart targeting (Lookalike and Custom)

The smart targeting strategy helps you reach people with the highest probability of conversion, directly reducing CPA and increasing EAR from the start of the campaign. You should prioritize using Custom Audiences based on existing customer lists (purchases, email sign-ups) or people who have deeply interacted with your content (95% video views) to create a high-quality Audience. Next, create Lookalike Audiences based on the highest-quality data source, for example, 1% or 3% of customers who have made a purchase; a 1% Lookalike often yields the best CPA due to the high similarity with the converting group.

For larger-scale new customer acquisition campaigns, enabling the Advantage Detailed Targeting feature will be effective, allowing Meta to automatically expand beyond the detailed targets you have selected if the algorithm finds better conversion opportunities, helping to maintain EAR at the required scale.

Improving landing page speed and experience

Even the most excellent ad will fail if the Landing Page provides a poor experience; therefore, an optimized landing page is a prerequisite to converting the estimated EAR into the actual EAR. The most important thing is Page Load Speed; you must reduce the load time to under 3 seconds (especially on mobile devices) because speed is 90% of the user experience; use the PageSpeed Insights tool to check and fix speed issues.

Next is Relevance (Ad-to-Page Congruence): ensure the message, image, and CTA on the ad perfectly match the content on the landing page, as inconsistency causes distrust and makes users leave immediately, reducing the Conversion Rate. Finally, because the majority of Meta traffic comes from mobile devices, Mobile-First Design is mandatory: the landing page must be easy to read, easy to navigate, and have minimalist sign-up forms on the phone screen.

Appropriate bidding

The bidding strategy directly affects CPA and your ad delivery potential, so choosing a bidding method that aligns with your business goals is essential. You can use Cost Cap, which allows Meta to optimize to keep your average CPA below a specified level; this is a good choice when you have a clear CPA goal and want to maximize the number of conversions within that cost threshold.

Alternatively, you can choose Bid Cap, setting a limit on the highest bid you are willing to pay in each auction; this method should be used when you want tight control over input costs and only want to compete for the highest-value users. Furthermore, Lowest Cost remains the default choice and is often the most effective for those who want to maximize the number of conversions without tight CPA control, allowing the Meta algorithm complete freedom to seek the best possible CPA.

Ad frequency control

Frequency is the average number of times a user sees your ad; excessive frequency causes boredom, reducing the Click Through Rate (CTR), which in turn reduces EAR and increases CPA. To manage effectively, you need to Monitor and Cap the Frequency metric (aim to keep it below 3.0 over 7 days for Top of Funnel campaigns).

When Frequency starts to rise, use the Audience Exclusion Strategy to exclude people who have seen the ad too many times in the past 7 days, redirecting the budget to fresh, non-saturated audiences. However, the best and most sustainable way to deal with high frequency is Creative Innovation, as changing the ad content will reduce the viewer’s “annoyance level” and refresh their experience, thereby maintaining a high EAR.

Retargeting potential customers

Retargeting is the most effective “harvesting” strategy, helping to convert people who are already familiar with the brand, thereby delivering the lowest CPA and the highest actual EAR. To optimize, you need to Segment the Retargeting Audience instead of Retargeting everyone equally; segment based on behavior, for example: (1) Viewed 75% of the video, (2) Visited the product page, (3) Added to cart but did not purchase.

Then, apply personalized messaging, sending specific messages to each group (a Free Shipping promotion for the abandoned cart group; a Testimonial for the group that only viewed the video). Finally, using Facebook Dynamic Ads is a very powerful tactic, displaying the exact product the user viewed, significantly increasing relevance and the Retargeting conversion rate, thoroughly optimizing CPA for the bottom of the funnel.

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