We’re going to get real with you: if your business is on Facebook, you need to be using Facebook analytics. Full stop.

If you’re not collecting data and insights from the activity on the platform, then you’re never going to maximize your impact on the social network’s 1.62 billion daily users.

When using Facebook for business, it’s essential to take a structured approach that ties your social media efforts to real business goals. Facebook analytics provide valuable information that can help you track and measure your results so you can refine your strategy and measure your return on investment.

Understanding how and when people interact with the content you post on Facebook is also an important way to make sure the Facebook algorithm works for you, rather than against you.

Facebook is discontinuing its official Facebook Analytics tool as of June 30, 2021, but the platform still offers many other ways to collect valuable information and insights. And we’re here to share just how to make the most of each one. (We also have suggestions for other tools, like Hootsuite, that will help you track your Facebook performance alongside other social networks.)

Here are the essential Facebook analytics tools you need to maximize your business on Facebook, plus the key metrics that matter.

Facebook analytics tools

While Facebook Analytics (with a capital A) may be shutting down, never fear. There still are three in-platform ways to access important data and insights: Facebook Business Suite, Creator Studio and Facebook Insights. And of course, Hootstuite’s own social analytics for Facebook are here if you need them, too. Let’s dig in.

Facebook Business Suite

As Facebook shuts down Facebook Analytics on June 30, 2021, they’re recommending users switch to Facebook Business Suite, if available.

Facebook Business Suite is a one-stop-shop to manage all your connected accounts across Facebook and Instagram. All your Facebook business tools live here; it’s where you manage all of your Facebook marketing and advertising activities.

And if you’re looking for insights into the results of your organic and paid social media on Facebook (and Instagram too!), you’ll find them here in Business Suite’s Insights section.

Here, you can see metrics, trends, and visual reports to help you gain insights about your overall account, or individual posts. These insights might include…

• Engagement, including likes and comments
• Demographic information about your followers
• Reach of your Facebook Page

Note that Business Suite is rolling out to replace Business Manager and may not be available in your region quite yet. To access Business Suite, just log into the Facebook account associated with your business — if you’re eligible, you’ll be redirected to Business Suite when you go to business.facebook.com on desktop.

Creator Studio

Creator Studio is a section of Facebook specifically designed for content creators, compiling all posting, tracking, managing and monetizing tools into one place. Creator Studio is also the easiest way to learn what new features or monetization opportunities you may be eligible for.

The Insights tab will feature a range of metrics to give you information about performance and reach of your content, Pages, and earnings.

With Creator Studio, you’ll be able to access insights like…

• New followers (and unfollowers!)
• Impressions, reach, and engagement
• An in-depth breakdown of your viewers and followers
• Loyalty and performance

Find more information about Insights in Creator Studio here.

Facebook Insights

Is it infuriating that Facebook calls everything on its website “Insights”? Yes, yes it is. But here we are: on the Facebook Insights page, buried within Facebook Business Manager.

Here you can review content insights, overarching traffic trends and incredible detail about your audience. It’s a great way to get a clear picture of just who is following, watching and liking your content.

This tool can help you dive deep into your audience, so you can learn how to effectively target your Facebook ads and organic content.

Hootsuite

While things may be a little topsy-turvy at Facebook right now as it reshuffles its analytic tools, at Hootsuite, analytic tracking will stay the same.

Users will continue to be able to track their Facebook performance alongside all their other social networks from the Hootsuite dashboard.

Hootsuite Analytics offers a complete picture of all your social media efforts in one place. This simplifies your social media analytics work. It saves time and makes it easy to compare aggregate results across networks.

You’ll see key metrics for each of your social posts, including:

• Clicks
• Comments
• Reach
• Shares
• Video views
• Video reach

You’ll also see metrics for each of your profiles, including follower growth over time. You can select the metrics that matter most to you so you can see all the relevant results at a glance.

You can also see suggestions for the best times to post based on your account’s historical performance.

5 reasons to track Facebook analytics

Understanding performance

How do you know what worked and what didn’t? You need to look back.

This won’t just give you a chance to pat yourself on the back for successful campaigns — it’s information that will help you understand what direction to take your strategy in for the future.

What kinds of content consistently collected likes? Why did 40 people unfollow you last Wednesday? Seeing the cold, hard facts of what happened on your account is essential to learning, growing, and making your Facebook presence the most impactful it can be.

Reporting

If you have stakeholders or just some curious co-workers who want to see a snapshot of how things are going over on Facebook, the reporting tools are awfully handy.

Export graphic PDFs, spreadsheets or charts from the analytics tool of your choice to share clear and concise findings and trends.

Understanding your audience

Maybe you’ve set out to target one specific group with your campaign, content and branding. But you won’t know if you’re actually connecting with them unless you check.

Facebook’s treasure trove of data will help reveal exactly who is engaging with and following your content, with demographic and geographic data that covers age, sex and location.

When is your audience online? Do you have a surprising amount of followers from Germany? Having the answers to these questions will help you either refine your content to reach the audience you want, or pivot your strategy to even better engage the people who are tuning in.

Optimizing your Page

Facebook Page analytics can show you what actions people take on your website, from interacting with posts to clicking on your contact information to clicking through to your website.

So how do those actions align with the goals stated in your Facebook marketing strategy?

How can you refine your Page to steer them in the direction of your preferred actions? Maybe you should consider changing your call-to-action button. Maybe you need to change your pinned post. Think about what you really want people to do on your Page. Then use Page Insights to see which of the possible actions on your Page people engage with the most.

Scheduling your posts at the best times

Of course, there are general suggestions out there for the best times to post on Facebook. But the very best time to post will depend on your specific audience.

Having the data on when your followers are most likely to be online is incredibly helpful for planning posts, especially when you pair this intel with a scheduling tool like Hootsuite.

Important Facebook analytics metrics

Your audience is interacting with your brand in so many different ways on Facebook: they might be visiting your page, clicking on an ad, buying tickets to an event or interacting with a Live video.

Beyond the overarching Facebook analytics tools mentioned above, it’s important for marketers to understand the unique behavior, engagement and demographics behind each of these digital spaces and activities.

Facebook Page Insights

Digging into the analytics from your Facebook Page, you can reveal a wealth of information about what’s clicking with audiences… and what’s not.

Reach

How many people saw your posts? Who interacted with them? Which posts did people hide? Did people report any posts as spam?

Post types

What type of content is popping off: links, video, text-based posts, or photos? Measure the reach versus the engagement for a compelling picture of what clicks with your audience.

Page views

This tab doesn’t just track how many page views you’re getting… but also who is viewing your page.

Facebook Audience insights

Within Facebook Insights, you can check in on both your current audience and custom potential audiences.

Location

You’ll see the top cities and countries for your audience, so you can understand just where the likes and followers are coming from.

Age & Gender

The breakdown of age groups and percentage of women and men (no statistics for non-binary folx at this time, unfortunately) is visible here too.

Facebook ads analytics

Ads Manager lets you view, make changes and see results for all your Facebook campaigns, ad sets and ads.

Impressions

How many people saw your ad? This number is important to compare to the actual number of click-throughs or engagement — if they’re seeing it but not following your CTA, what may have gone wrong?

Cost per result

To measure the ROI of a campaign, this piece of data is key to revealing just how much bang you got for your buck.

Breakdowns

With the Breakdowns tool, you can view your audience’s ages, where they’re viewing your ads from, and whether they’re on mobile or desktop.

Facebook Group analytics

Facebook Groups are an amazing way for brands to build fan communities — and an even better way to collect data on who your most passionate followers are through your group’s Admin Tools. Data like…

Top contributors

Reveal who the most-involved members of your community are — and possibly tap them for influencer or partnership opportunities.

Engagement

Understanding when your members are most active can help brands understand when to post and what to post for maximum reach.

Growth

Track how many members are joining your community, and what the catalysts to surges have been. This might give you insight into possible future promotional opportunities.

Facebook Live analytics

You’ve already pored over our story on creating Facebook Live videos people actually want to watch — now it’s time to dig into the data to see if your creative content actually hit the mark. You can find Live analytics by clicking on the Live video you’d like to see the metrics for, or find them in your Video Library tab in Page Insights.

Peak concurrent viewers

Track the highest number of simultaneous viewers at any point during your video when it was live.

Views

The overall number of views your Live video experienced on a particular day.

Average % completion

Did viewers tune in and stick around… or drop out right away? If you’ve got a retention problem, it might be time to rejig your content strategy.

Facebook video analytics

Does your audience love video or hate video? Only one way to find out: dig into the analytics of this specific type of post. Head to Page Insights and click on Post Types to see just how any video is performing overall. For more specific insights on any individual video, click on the post title to see metrics like…

Video retention

An interactive graph will allow you to see exactly which frame in your video corresponds to any given moment in the video’s run… and what the retention percentage was at that particular moment.

Average view duration

As with Live video, this statistic is a helpful one for determining just how your content is hitting. After all, if someone is tuning in and immediately leaving without watching the video, how much does their “view” actually matter?

Video engagement

Here, likes, comments and shares are compiled for a clear picture of just how engaging this content is.

Facebook Analytics and the Facebook Analytics app may be winding down, but as you can see, there is still plenty of data to analyze from this platform—and a million different ways to do just that. If knowledge is power, your brand is going to be well equipped to have the most powerful social media marketing strategy ever.

Use Hootsuite to schedule all of your social media posts, engage with your followers, and track the success of your efforts. Sign up today.

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