Facebook Analytics

Facebook Analytics: A guide to Facebook insights

Discover the ins and outs of Facebook analytics to optimize your marketing strategy and understand your audience better. This guide covers everything from key metrics to effective tools and actionable insights.

Reading time 15 minutes

Published on May 28, 2024

Table of Contents

Summary

Facebook is a primary choice for marketers due to its user base and analytics that help brands understand how to increase exposure and engagement.
Facebook analytics give insight into audience details, content effectiveness and overall marketing impact so brands can optimize their Facebook marketing strategies.
Despite Meta discontinuing native Facebook Analytics, effective tools like Meta Business Suite, Creator Studio and Sprout Social are available for Facebook reporting.

By using social media analytics, brands can identify how to increase engagement, exposure and leads. Because of its large user base and analytics capabilities, Facebook is a popular social network for marketers. But before you can enjoy the benefits of analyzing data, you need a foundational understanding of Facebook analytics. This article explains what Facebook analytics are, why they’re important, and the best tools and tips for tracking your data.

What is Facebook analytics?

The native tool Facebook Analytics is no longer available. It was discontinued on June 20, 2021, but you can now use Insights in Meta Business Suite and other effective tools for Facebook data reporting.

Facebook analytics is an overarching term for the data and metrics you use to track your brand’s performance on the platform. This data provides insights into your audience, content effectiveness, your Facebook Page performance and the overall impact of your marketing efforts.

By evaluating Facebook metrics such as likes, comments, Page views and shares, you gain valuable information on how to enhance your marketing strategy and user experience. By monitoring your Facebook Page analytics, you can track the customer journey and identify ways to reach audiences more effectively. This allows your brand to make data-informed decisions that drive business growth.

Why are Facebook analytics data important?

Facebook analytics enable you to analyze your competitors’ social presence and monitor the performance of your posts. You can also assess the overall effectiveness of your Facebook marketing strategy by tracking your data. Let’s explore why these benefits are so important.

1. Analyze your competitors

You can find your Facebook Page analytics in Meta Business Suite, which can provide you with a wealth of information, but it’s a good idea to start your analysis by looking at your competitors. Social media competitive analysis is necessary to understand what content interests your target customers. Facebook analytics enable you to see what others are doing (for better or worse) and how you can use it for your strategy.

Track key metrics to benchmark your Facebook page against competitor brands. Gather information about them, including the other social networks they use, the size of their following, how often they post and what their engagement is like. This information allows you to create content and campaigns that resonate better with your target market.

2. Monitor your Facebook Page performance

It’s not enough to batch content and post. You need feedback on what works and what doesn’t to optimize your marketing plan. By monitoring and tracking your overall Facebook Page analytics, you can identify opportunities to optimize your profile.

3. Track your Facebook post performance

Along with your overall Facebook Page analytics, it’s paramount to review the performance of individual posts. Looking at metrics like reach and engagement for individual posts will help you determine which posts resonate best with your audience. Once you know which posts worked, take what you can from them to duplicate success.

4. Assess your Facebook marketing strategy

By analyzing Facebook metrics, you can understand the effectiveness of your overall marketing efforts. Your data provides information about the content topics and formats your audience likes. This data helps you refine your Facebook marketing strategy and content plan, so you can find ways to maximize your return on investment (ROI).

Facebook analytics vs. Facebook Insights

It’s important to understand the distinction between Facebook analytics and Facebook Insights. Before we focus on Facebook, let’s define the difference between analytics and insights. Analytics refers to using tools to organize and assess data sets to help identify patterns and trends. Insights are the intelligence generated from analytics data. It’s the lightbulb moment that happens when an individual or organization discovers a pattern, relationship, trend or story writing the data.

Remember that Facebook analytics is an overarching term for the data and metrics you use to track your brand’s performance on the platform. This is not to be confused with the Facebook Analytics product feature that was sunset in 2021.

You can use third-party Facebook analytics tools or use Insights in Meta Business Suite to monitor and track data. With Insights in Meta Business Suite, you can review Facebook Page analytics, ad spend, organic content engagements and more. You can also view Insights within your professional dashboard, which can be accessed through your Facebook Page.

3 Facebook analytics tools to generate business insights

Although Meta has sunset its Facebook Analytics feature, there are still effective tools available to marketers to track their Facebook data. We’ve narrowed down your search and found some of the best Facebook analytics tools you can use:

Meta Business Suite

Meta Business Suite is a free tool you can use to manage your Facebook and Instagram profiles and ad accounts in a single dashboard. It offers access to your business activities, multiple Facebook Page analytics, insights, ads and goal tracking. Note: Facebook Business Manager is now part of the Meta Business Suite. Business Manager accounts were renamed and are now known as a business portfolio.

Key features:

Ads management and retargeting
Inbox automation
Post scheduling
Analytics reporting
User roles and permissions

Creator Studio

Creator Studio is another free tool for marketers to manage their Facebook and Instagram accounts within Meta Business Suite. With Creator Studio you can schedule content and centralize messaging. You can also track monetization and measure content across your accounts. With its robust dashboard, you can monitor your content performance, profile growth and insights in one place.

Key features:

Calendar planner
Content scheduler
Monetization plans
Ads monitoring
Insights

Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a social media management software that integrates with Facebook, Instagram and other major social media platforms. With user-centric s ocial media analytics and reporting tools, Sprout centralizes how you evaluate your data, create reports and optimize your strategy for better ROI.

Going beyond Facebook Page analytics and individual post metrics, Sprout provides seamless tools for social listening, competitor analysis and content reporting. You can manage your messages in one place and schedule content across multiple profiles in a single intuitive dashboard.

Key features:

Smart Inbox for unified messaging
Competitor analysis
Cross-network content scheduling
Social listening
Social engagement measurement
Chatbot automation
Trending topic identification
Built-in approval workflows for compliance and collaboration
Artificial intelligence-backed features like AI Assist
Customer care solutions like Case Management

Which Facebook Page analytics matter the most

While there are a ton of metrics you can look at, we’ve trimmed the list below down to key metrics we feel indicate strong content and a successful social strategy. You also have the option to use these metrics to conduct a Facebook audit and discover opportunities for improvement too. First, we'll discuss page-level metrics, then we'll go over analyzing individual post-performance. Here’s a brief breakdown of the Facebook analytics metrics that matter the most.

Facebook Page overview analytics

Your Facebook Page overview highlights several key metrics including reach, post engagement, new Page likes and new followers. You can also view metrics for your audience and your most recent content and ads. If you want to get more granular information about your Facebook Page, you can go to the overview sections within Meta Business Suite.

Facebook Page reach

Facebook reach includes the total number of people who saw and/or interacted with your posts at least once. It includes negative interactions such as sharing your Page, checking in on a Page, hiding a post, etc. According to Facebook, post reach is divided into four categories: paid organic, viral and nonviral. Learn more about Facebook reach in our guide on the difference between reach vs impressions.

Facebook Page engagement

Page engagement refers to the number of actions taken on your Facebook Page. It includes interactions with posts and other types of content on your Page such as following, liking, checking in or clicking on a link.

Facebook Page Likes

Facebook Likes are the total number of “likes” for your Page. It includes likes that happened directly on your Page or from a button on an ad. You can also view likes for specific posts.

Followers analytics

Facebook followers includes the total number of followers for your Facebook Page or profile. It’s calculated as the number of followers minus the number of unfollows over the lifetime of your Page or profile. If you want to determine how quickly your Page is gaining or losing followers, you can monitor follower growth rate.

Facebook audience insights

Facebook audience insights metrics include followers, language, age and gender and location. You can view locations by top cities and countries. In the Business Suite, you can also view metrics for your potential audience. Reviewing these metrics can help you learn more about your audience so you can optimize your strategy. For example, you might discover your Page has an international audience so it might make sense to collaborate with influencers from your most popular regions.

Post Insights

For Facebook post analytics, you can track basic metrics like post reach and post engagement from the Insights section of your professional dashboard. You can access the Insights tab and your professional dashboard by navigating to the Manage Page menu. Note: the professional dashboard and Insights tab is separate from the Meta Business Suite.

Post reach includes the number of people who saw your post via paid or organic. Engagement includes basic metrics like post reactions (e.g. likes), comments and shares. Meta Business Suite provides other reach and engagement metrics as well. For example, you can also view median post reach by media type and content format. You can also view top-performing organic posts by highest reach, reactions and comments.

Video analytics

Video analytics can tell you how users interact with your video content and indicates how your video strategies are performing. There are a lot of video metrics to consider, but video plays is a key metric for Facebook analytics. Video plays include the number of times your video starts to play. Video plays can happen when a video starts automatically or when someone clicks on your video.

Video percentage watched is another important metric because it shows the average percentage of your video that people played. There are also video metrics specific to Reels. Overall, video analytics helps you understand how long people are paying attention to your video and which videos perform the best.

Reels Page analytics

For Reels, you can track reach and engagement. Reach for Reels include the total number of people who saw your video at least once. Engagement metrics include shares, comments and reactions.

Facebook pixel analytics

Meta pixel, formerly known as Facebook pixel, is a code string you can add to your website to track conversion and run retargeting campaigns. Pixel analytics enable you to understand how people interact on your website so you can optimize your ads and user experience. A few pillar metrics include conversions, page views and cost per conversion.

Facebook ads analytics

Facebook ads analytics focus on your paid marketing efforts. Some common metrics include reach, impressions, cost per result and link clicks. Cost per result is the average of how much it costs to get your ad result. For example, if you spend $100 on a Facebook ad campaign and earn 50 clicks, the cost per result would be $2.

In other words, cost per result helps measure the return on investment (ROI) of a campaign and if your efforts are paying off. Link clicks include the total number of clicks on links within the ad that led to specified destinations like a website.

Competitive analytics

Competitive analytics gives you insight into how your industry peers are performing while identifying opportunities to get ahead of your contenders. You can view performance metrics like reach, followers and engagement for your top competitors. There aren’t competitive analytics available in the Meta Business Suite, but you can use social media management software, like Sprout, to pull those metrics.

Sentiment analysis

Sentiment analysis enables you to take some of the guesswork out of reporting by showing how customers truly feel about your product and/or service, competitors and industry. Metrics will vary depending on the platform you use to conduct your analysis, but you can use sentiment score to view how many positive and negative messages you get about your brand.

Hashtag analytics

Hashtags on Facebook remain relevant for businesses on the platform. But to determine if you’re using the right ones, you’ll need to monitor your hashtag analytics. Reviewing these analytics will help you track which hashtags are popularly used in your industry, branded hashtags and more.

Analyzing these Facebook metrics will help you determine what resonates best with your audience. Once you know which content worked, take what you can from them to duplicate this success.

How to track Facebook analytics with Sprout Social

Want to truly understand your Facebook performance and unlock data-driven insights? Sprout Social's powerful analytics tools make it easy. Let's dive in and discover how to leverage your data for social media success.

1. Start a free 30-day trial by setting up an account with your business email [you don’t even need a credit card].

2. Go to "Account and Settings" and click on "Connect a Profile."

3. If needed, choose a group for this Page from the "In Group" dropdown.

4. Click "Connect for Facebook." Next, click "Connect Page" to link your Facebook Page.

5. Click "Go to Facebook" and follow the simple instructions to authorize the connection.
6. Then navigate to “Reports > Profiles by Network > Facebook Pages”

Note: Facebook Page demographics are delayed 48-72 hours and only appear if there is data for 100 or more people.

How to use the Facebook Pages Report?

You need to extract insights that drive strategy and prove ROI. That's where Sprout's Facebook Performance Report comes in. This guide will equip you to not only navigate the report but also leverage its insights for social media success.

Customize Your View

Start by filtering the report to focus on the specific Facebook Profiles you want to analyze. This targeted approach allows you to hone in on individual page performance and compare strategies across different profiles.

Performance Summary: Beyond Vanity Metrics

This section provides a high-level overview of your key performance indicators (KPIs). Toggle between Total, Organic and Paid metrics to understand what's driving your results.

Impressions: Go beyond just reach. See how often your content was displayed. High impressions with low engagement? Time to rethink your content strategy!

Engagements: Track how users interact with your posts. This metric is a goldmine for understanding what resonates with your audience. Dive deeper to see which posts spark the most conversation and why.

Post Link Clicks: Measure how effectively you're driving traffic to your website. Remember, this only tracks clicks on links within your posts, not other interactions.

Audience Growth: The Heart of Your Community

This section helps you understand how your Facebook audience is evolving.

Fans: Track your total page likes. This is useful for monitoring overall growth trends.
Net Page Likes: This is where the real story unfolds. See the true growth of your audience by factoring in both likes and unlikes.
Organic vs. Paid Page Likes: Dissect the source of your new fans. Are your organic efforts paying off, or are paid campaigns driving the growth?
Page Unlikes: Don't shy away from this metric. A spike in unlikes can signal a content or strategy misstep. Investigate what might be turning your audience away.

Publishing Behavior: Content Strategy in Action

Analyze your content mix to understand what types of posts are performing best.

Photos, Videos, & Posts: See the breakdown of your published content. Are you striking the right balance? Experiment to see what resonates best with your audience.

Total Posts: Track your posting frequency. Consistency is key, but quality trumps quantity.

The Facebook Performance Report gives you the insights to refine your content, optimize posting, and prove your social media ROI.

Go deeper to uncover trends, identify top posts and benchmark against competitors for even greater strategic value. Alternatively, you can view analytics natively with Facebook on desktop or via the app.

How to access analytics with Facebook Insights

You can access analytics through the Insights section within the professional dashboard for your Facebook Page. You can also view Insights within the Meta Business Suite. Remember that the professional dashboard is separate from the Meta Business Suite, but you can access the Suite from your professional dashboard.

It’s also important to note that some metrics are only available in the professional dashboard, while others can only be viewed in the Suite. In the next sections, we’ll show you how to access metrics in the professional dashboard and the Meta Business Suite.

How to access Insights in the professional dashboard

If you have a Facebook Business Page, you can access Insights natively by following these steps:

Log into your account. If you’re using a desktop, select Pages from the left-hand navigation menu.

2. Select the Page you wish to measure analytics.

3. From here, you can navigate to the professional dashboard or directly to the Insights tab. Tap Professional dashboard.

4. The professional dashboard gives an overview of your Page performance, but to go a bit deeper you can click Home, Your Page, Content or Audience underneath the Insights tab on the left hand menu.

Pay attention to the left hand menu of the professional dashboard. From here you can navigate to other analytics and tools like the comments manager and events.

Page Overview

The page overview in the professional dashboard shows followers, post reach, post engagement, new Page likes, recent content and messages from the past 28 days. You can also see an overview by clicking Your Page.

Tap Your Page under Insights. From here, you get instant access to a variety of analytics data. With Insights you can track post reach and engagement, Page likes, interactions and other metrics. You can also view content and audience metrics.

Reach and likes

You can view reach, engagement and new Page likes in the Page Overview section within the professional dashboard. You can also see reach and likes by clicking Your Page.

Actions on Page

To see what people did on your page, click Your Page. From here you can review interactions (reactions, comments, shares, photo views and link clicks) listed in the Page Overview section.

Events

To see how successful your events are, navigate to the left sidebar in the professional sidebar and scroll down to Events. You can see events from the last 90 days, people reached, actions and responses.

Videos

If you want to see how well your videos are performing, navigate to the left sidebar and scroll to Content.

Follower Insights

To see follower insights in your professional dashboard, go to the Audience tab within your professional dashboard.

How to access Insights in the Meta Business Suite

As a rule of thumb, the Meta Business Suite typically has more granular metrics. In the next sections, we’ll share how to access common metrics in the Suite.

Page Overview

1. To see the overview within Meta Business Suite, scroll to Platform tools in the professional dashboard menu. Tap Meta Business Suite.

2. Select Insights from the left hand menu.

In the Meta Business Suite Overview, you can view metrics to determine how well your page performs during the last seven, 14, 28 or 90-day period. You can also look at the current year or enter a custom timeframe. The overview section includes reach, content interactions, followers, link clicks and other metrics.