In an era where digital interaction shapes consumer behavior, businesses must leverage every tool at their disposal to stay ahead.
Facebook, a titan in the social media sphere, offers a wealth of social media analytics and insights that empower brands to make data-driven decisions.
By leveraging Facebook analytics when creating their social media marketing plan, companies can create more personalized and effective campaigns, driving growth and fostering stronger connections with their audience.
This article explores the critical role of Facebook metrics in shaping effective Facebook marketing and enhancing overall social media strategy.
Facebook performance metrics: which matter the most
Why is it important to analyze your Facebook metrics?
Facebook post metrics
Facebook page metrics
Facebook brand awareness metrics
Facebook video metrics
Facebook ad metrics
Why is it important to analyze your Facebook metrics?
It goes without saying, but weβll say it anyway. If youβre not tracking Facebook key metrics, then you donβt know whatβs working and what you need to improve, so all your marketing efforts are going to waste.
Once you start tracking the most important Facebook metrics, youβll be able to formulate a data-driven marketing strategy and:
- Target the right audience for your brand
- Increase your brand awareness by getting more reach and impressions
- Boost your engagement
Facebook post metrics
#1 Engagement rate
When it comes to Facebook engagement metrics, the Facebook engagement rate is a very relevant KPI.
It represents the average number of people who interacted with your post in some way or another: liked, shared, or commented on it.
The average engagement rate per post by followers is calculated as the sum of interactions, comments and shares divided by the number of posts, then all divided by the number of followers and multiplied by 100.
By calculating the average engagement rate, you rule out the outliers.
The average engagement rate per post by reach is calculated by the sum of interactions, comments and shares, divided by the total number of posts and then all divided by your posts' reach.
The result is then multiplied by 100 to obtain a percentage.
Continue reading π ββEngagement Rate for All Social Media Platforms.
#2. Reach
Reach refers to the total number of unique users who have seen your ad or content, enabling you to measure your content's exposure.
By monitoring Facebook reach metrics, you'll see how the content you've created echoes to your audience, and you'll be able to optimize your marketing strategy based on those insights.
For an accurate Facebook metrics report, what's important for you to know is that Facebook reach data is split into types, namely organic and paid.
These insights are available in both Meta Business Suite and third-party social media analytics tools, such as Socialinsider, that also offers access to competitive insights.
Additionally, social media analytics platforms provide more comprehensive information than native apps, such as average reach by type of posts or your page's reach breakdown.
#3. Impressions
Representing the number of times your ad or content was viewed on a user's screen, impressions are among those Facebook metrics that matter the most for performance evaluation.
If you want to keep tabs on this Facebook metric to see how many people viewed your content, you can either use Facebook insights or a third-party analytics tool.
To check your Facebook impressions metric in Facebook Insights by following these steps:
- Go to your Meta Business Suite
- Spot the "Page Insights" button from your "Manage page" side bar
- Access the "Content" button located on the left side bar of the screen
- Scroll left until you reach your Impressions section
Like Reach, Facebook impressions are also split into two main categories:
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Organic - the Facebook metric that shows how many times your posts have been displayed in people's News Feed for free.
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Paid - the Facebook metric that counts the number of times people bumped into your content on their pages if you paid for its display.
#4. Click-Through-Rate (CTR)
Click-through rate, also known as CTR, can be described as the percentage of people who click on a social post and is calculated by dividing the number of link clicks by the number of impressions.
What makes marketers so keen to invest huge budgets into Facebook promotion is the platformβs high click-through rate results.
Actually, according to data, Facebook is the social media platform that delivers the highest CTR, applied to both organic and paid posts.
Especially when talking about Facebook advertising metrics, this KPI is imperative to analyze, as it enables optimization on the go.
Facebook page metrics
#5. Followers growth
A growing page means you're getting more people liking and interacting with your content.
It's essential not only to measure how many new followers you get but also to know how many followers you have lost in a specific period.
The important thing to keep in mind is that you can track Facebook followers' growth only by using external Facebook analytics tools since this insight is not available in the native app.
From Facebook advertisements to influencer marketing, there are several ways to get new followers to your Facebook page. Eye-candy and bite-size content will always help you attract more Facebook users.
#6. Followers demographics
Understanding where your audience comes from allows you to shape your tone of voice and message and customize the content to your follower's specific requirements.
You can do this by looking at the follower demographics such as gender, location (country or even city), and education.
Worldwide, 9.3% of the total active Facebook users are young women between 18 and 24 years old, and 13.3% of them are male users from the same age category, according to Statista.
If your demographic consists of people over 25, or even over 30, keep the bulk of your content curated for that specific age group, while also including some posts meant to attract the younger segment.
Facebook brand awareness metrics
#7. Mentions
Mentions are among the top Facebook metrics to track when you want to measure your brand's brand awareness within the platform.
Helping you understand how your brand is perceived by your clients and potential customers as well, mentions make for a Facebook metric that leads to incredibly powerful insights - from customer service improvement to product development.
To gain access to important Facebook metrics that track brand exposure, such as mentions, you can choose a social media analytics solution, such as Socialinsider.
Facebook video metrics
#8. Video views
A picture is worth a thousand words, but videos are way more important today for an effective social media strategy.
If you're using Facebook videos to promote your business, tracking your video views is a must.
This Facebook metric will show you how appealing your video content is, indicating if your current video marketing strategy should be adjusted in any way.
An important thing to keep in mind is that a video view is taken into account after users see the first 3 seconds of your video posts.
#9. Average time spent watching a video
To gain a deeper understanding of how your most successful videos look like, Meta Business Suite displays several Facebook video metrics, indicating which videos succeeded in captivating the viewers for more than one minute and - for longer videos - for how many minutes.
This data set contributes to changing your social media strategy if you discover that a particular type of video is more suitable for your audience.
When a video has low audience retention, it means itβs too long, or the content is not engaging enough. You may need to alter the length and, in some cases, also the content of your videos.
It's really important to keep an eye on this Facebook metric because it can help you better understand how long people are watching your videos and at what point they tend to stop watching them.
Facebook ad metrics
#10. Cost per Click (CPC)
When all is said and done, how much did it cost to get that conversion? Take all the costs of the social media campaign you're running and divide it by the number of clicks you get.
So, when it comes to metrics for Facebook ads that matter, the cost-per-click data (also known as CPC) is an important KPI you should keep an eye on.
As many brands invest tremendous budgets into paid Facebook advertising, an in-depth view of your Facebook ads metrics is mandatory for a complete, bulletproof Facebook strategy evaluation report.
#11. Cost per Thousand Impressions (CPM)
If you want to build brand awareness through your Facebook ad campaign, then from the Facebook ads metrics list, a particularly important KPI is the CPM metric (standing for cost per mile).
CPM is the amount you pay every time a thousand people scroll past your sponsored social media content.
Final thoughts
While an effective social media strategy relies heavily on creativity, good results are also grounded in extensive research and analysis. By constantly keeping an eye on your Facebook metrics, you ensure you quickly adapt to the latest social media trends and don't miss a chance to boost your brand's Facebook image.
FAQs about Facebook performance metrics
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What Facebook KPIs can I track?
When it comes to Facebook measurement, you can analyze content data (such as engagement, reach, impressions, etc.), ad metrics such as CPC, and audience metrics such as follower growth and demographics. You can also track Facebook group metrics, such as top contributors.
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Where can I see Facebook metrics?
Facebook measurement can be done in the native app (Meta), but you're better off tracking the data with a professional social media analytics tool like Socialinsider, which offers a more unified, cohesive view of your performance and offers a lot of options for dashboard customization and social media reporting.
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What are Facebook ad metrics?
Facebook ad performance metrics are KPIs that describe your ad's performance on Facebook in terms of impressions and clicks. The most common Facebook ad metrics marketers track are CTR (click-through rate), CPC (cost per click), and CPM (cost per thousand impressions).