In two lines: if the number you report doesn't exist on any platform, you can build it yourself with a formula. You define it once in the workspace and use it in the widgets and report blocks of every account.

Every client has a number that no platform gives you already calculated: what a lead is worth to them, the real cost of a qualified result, the total investment across Meta and Google together. Until now that number lived in a spreadsheet you had to redo every month. With a custom metric it lives inside the dashboard and updates itself.

What you can build

Estimated lead value — multiply the leads of a campaign by your client's average ticket, and show the money the campaign generated instead of a raw count.
Cost per qualified result — divide the spend by the results that actually matter to you, not by every conversion the platform counts.
Combined cost across platforms — add the impressions or the spend of Meta and Google in a single number, to report total reach or total investment.

Who can create them

Only the owner and the admins of the workspace create, edit and delete custom metrics. Members and viewers use them normally: they see them in the picker and choose them like any other metric, but they don't get the create or edit options. That way the definition of a reported number stays under control and doesn't change on you from one account to the next.

Where they live

A custom metric is defined once at the workspace (agency) level and is available in every child account. There's no separate administration section: you create and edit them from the metric picker itself, in any dashboard widget or report block, under the Custom group.

How to create one

Open a dashboard widget (or a report block) and go to its metrics setting.
In the picker, find the Custom group and click Create metric.
In Identity, give it a Name and, if it helps you remember the calculation, a Description (for example, "Leads × average ticket").
In Formula, build the calculation with chips: Metric inserts an existing metric, Number inserts a fixed value, and you join them with the +, -, × and ÷ operators and parentheses. When the formula is complete you'll see the Valid formula badge.
In Format, choose the Type (Number, Currency or Percentage), the Decimals, and whether An increase is positive (green) — that's what tells the dashboard which direction is good news.
Check the result in Preview: pick an Account and a Range and you'll see the metric calculated with real data. If it looks right, confirm with Create metric.

Use the preview before saving, with an account you know well. A formula can be valid and still be wrong: the preview against real data is what tells you whether the number makes sense.

One platform or several: where each metric appears

If your formula only uses metrics from one platform, the metric behaves like any native one: it works in KPIs, charts and tables — and in tables it computes the subtotal correctly.

If it combines several platforms (a blended metric, like Meta + Google impressions), it appears in the KPIs and charts of the platforms it combines, and it never appears in tables. The reason is simple: a table breaks the data down by a dimension —campaign, ad, keyword— and those dimensions aren't shared across platforms, so there's no honest row to place the combined number in.

Data sources of a combined metric

When a metric crosses platforms, the widget shows a Data sources section with one source per platform, already pre-filled with the account's connections. On the widget you'll see a stack of platform logos: hover over it and the tooltip breaks down how much each platform contributed. If a platform has no connection in that account you'll see Not connected, and if its data failed to load, Source error.

If one of the sources fails, the widget shows — instead of the total. It is not a bug: the total is hidden on purpose so a partial sum isn't presented as if it were complete. Reconnect or fix the failing source and the number comes back.

If the accounts you're combining use different currencies, the values are not converted automatically: the metric warns you about it and adds up the raw amounts. Before reporting a combined money figure, check that every source is in the same currency.

Edit and delete

In the metric picker, hover over a metric in the Custom group and click the pencil to open it in edit mode.
Change the formula, the format or the name and apply Save changes. The change applies to every dashboard and report in the workspace that uses it — the builder tells you in how many places it's being used before you confirm.
To remove it, use Delete metric inside the same panel and confirm.

Deleting a custom metric cannot be undone, and it doesn't delete the widgets that used it: those widgets show — with a notice explaining the metric was removed from the workspace. Before deleting one, check how many places use it and update those widgets to another metric.

A formula can reference up to 20 different metrics, and each workspace can hold up to 50 custom metrics. If you hit the limit, it's usually a sign that several metrics are variations of the same idea and can be merged into one.

Where they don't apply yet

Custom metrics work in dashboard widgets and report blocks. They don't appear in Explorer, in monitors and alerts, or in the client portal — even though Explorer sits in the same Analytics menu and its metric picker looks similar, it reads only the native metrics of each platform. If you need a custom metric in front of the client, take it there through a dashboard or a report.

To choose which widget best shows your new metric, see Which widgets to use in your dashboard and when. If a widget shows — and you don't know why, see I don't see data in my dashboard, monitor or report.

Still have questions?

Ask MIA, the MB Suite AI assistant: open it with the MB AI button (⌘J) in the top bar. MIA knows the section you're in, so you can ask it about what you see on screen — and it can also answer how-to questions about using MB Suite.

Create your own metrics with formulas