A Beginner's Guide to Facebook Insight

How to Access Facebook Insights?

To access Facebook Insights:

• From the Facebook home page: news feed, tap on the dotted icon in the top left corner. 

Facebook Newsfeed

• Click on Pages.
• Visit your Facebook business page.
• Under the manage page section, scroll down and click on Insights in the right column.

Facebook Business Page

How to Use Facebook Analytics? 

The following sections of Facebook Insights display important information. Learn how to make the best use of every option available. 

1. Overview

It provides a summary of the most important pieces of information on your page in the following sections:

Page Summary

Page Summary contains various sections, as shown in the image below. The page summary is helpful for a quick assessment of a Facebook page’s key performance.

It allows you to access your growth via Page Likes and Reach quickly. You can conclude your traffic-driving strategy by looking at the post-engagement metrics. 

Facebook Insights Page Summary

Your 5 Most Recent Posts

You can check key information— published date and time, target, reach, post caption, post type, and engagement of your latest five posts. It helps you understand how well your recent posts are performing. Also, you can check out which types of posts are better-performing ones. Clicking on the post title will provide a detailed breakdown of posts’ performance. 

Facebook Insights- Your 5 Most Recent Posts Section

Pages to Watch

This section allows you to compare your posts’ performance with other similar Facebook pages. You can add pages of your choice for comparisons. 

The Pages to Watch Section in the Overview

2. Followers

This section of Facebook Insights provides information about the people who follow your page. It is beneficial for tracking traffic as it provides the number of organic page follows, paid follows, and unfollows. 

Followers Section in Facebook Insights

3. Likes 

It displays data under three sections allowing you to compare your average performance over time:

• Total page likes that tell about the current trend of your page likes.
• The net likes graph breaks down the proportion of likes and unlikes. 
• Where your page likes happened is all about how you got your likes— Facebook page suggestions, directly from your page, or from your ads.

Click and drag on a date range on any of the graphs mentioned above, and you will find details on the Like and Unlike sources for that period.

Facebook Insights Like section

4. Reach 

The Reach tab provides information on the reach of your posts and Facebook Page. Also, check out the factors that shoot up or shrink your reach. It includes the following sections:

• Post Reach
• Reactions, Comments, and Shares
• Reactions
• Hide, Report as Spam, and Unlikes
• Total Reach

Click on the section of the graph you want more details of. Facebook displays the active posts for that period in decreasing impression order.

Facebook Insights Reach Section

5. Page Views

Facebook Insights show all the traffic reports under the Page Views tab. It includes the following sections:

• Total Views: It displays the number of times people viewed your page, counting two visits of a single user as 2 views.
• Total People Who Viewed: It tells about the number of people who visited your page. So, if a single user visited your page twice, it is counted as a single view. 
• Top Sources: The graph informs about the top five traffic sources that have directed visitors to your Page. 

It also allows you to filter data by section, age, gender, country, city, and device. With all of this information, you can increase your efforts on the top sources and thus, increase your page views.

Facebook Insights Page Views Section

6. Actions on Page 

It is crucial to have knowledge of what visitors did on your page. For instance, a visitor clicks on “Get Directions” / your phone number/ website/ any other CTA button. The tab includes the following sections:

• Total Actions on Page
• People Who Clicked Action Button
• People Who Clicked Get Directions
• People Who Clicked Phone Number
• People Who Clicked Website
• Total Actions on Page

Facebook Insights Actions on Page Section 

7. Posts 

The Posts tab provides all the information about your Facebook page posts. It includes reach and engagement. Facebook also provides the option to boost your posts from this tab directly.

It has the following sections: 

• When Your Fans Are Online / Post Types / Top Posts from Pages You Watch

This is one of the most important information-providing sections of Facebook Insights. It tells you about the best way for your brand to post on Facebook by revealing details on how active your Facebook fans are each day/ week/ hour of the day. Pointing the cursor on each day allows you to see an overview of the activity on that day compared to the averages. 

Facebook Insights Post Section 

• All Posts Published

Here, you can sort your posts based on reach, published date, or engagement by clicking on the column title. You can check various metrics for reach, such as- 

• Reach: Organic / Paid
• Impressions: Organic / Paid
• Reach: Fans / Non-Fans

For engagement, you can view the following details: 

• Post Clicks / Reactions, Comments, and Shares
• Reactions / Comments / Shares
• Post Hides, Hides of All Posts, Reports of Spam, Unlikes
• Engagement Rates

All Posts Published Section with Key Metrics

8. Events 

Keep track of your organized events under this Facebook Insights tab. It allows you to be more data-driven. Using this information, you can figure out what is working and what is not in your event promotion. You can access the following information under this tab:

• Events Stats (Awareness / Engagement / Tickets / Audience)
• Upcoming / Past

Facebook Insights Events Section with Audience Breakdown by Gender

9. Videos 

Have you been posting videos on your Facebook page? This Facebook Insights tab tells you in detail about how well videos are performing and the number of times visitors viewed your videos via the following breakdown of views:  

• Organic vs. Paid
• Unique vs. Repeat
• Auto-Played vs. Clicked-to-Play
• Video Views: 10-Second Views, Top Videos, Video views graph

Facebook Insights Video Section with Overall Video Performance

Want detailed insights? Click on a video title, and a pop-up will appear with information on various stats of that video.

10. Messages 

It is essential to be responsive on your Facebook page. Your audience matters the most. The messages section allows you to view messaging stats for the past 180 days. You can choose a timeframe per your choice from the last seven days to the last 180 days.

Facebook Insights Messages Section

How to Export Facebook Insights Data?

You can export data from up to 2 years ago, and the time range should be no more than 180 days. The exported data might have a few additional metrics that are not found in Page Insights.

The following steps will help export your Page's insights data:

• From the Facebook home page: news feed, tap on the dotted icon in the top left corner. 
• Click on Pages.
• Visit your Facebook business page.
• Click Insights and tap on the export data option in the top right.
• Choose the data type, range, layout, and file format.
• To customize the layout, select the make new custom layout option.
• Enter a sheet name and then click Add in the bottom right.
• Now, choose the information you would like to add from the column on the left. 
• Click on the Apply button when you have finished selecting your custom data. 
• Finally, click on the Export Data option again.

Conclusively, Facebook Insights has a plethora of crucial information. Everything is displayed under a single tab, from what types of posts are most effective to the ideal timing for posting them. However, it is up to you how well you use the information to create something meaningful. Track the performance of your page and devise an effective social media strategy to capture traffic and stay ahead of your competitors.  

FAQs

1. Which Facebook insights are most important?

Some of the most important Facebook metrics to track and monitor are:

• Reach
• Video engagement
• Video retention
• Engagement rate
• Followers growth

2. What is the importance of Facebook Insights?

Facebook Insights offer multiple data points, including likes, reach, engagement, and demographics, that help you understand how your page is growing and how well your content resonates with your audience. These pieces of information help you formulate and practice the right Facebook strategies.  

3. Are Facebook Insights available for groups?

You can access Facebook Group Insights from both desktop and mobile. It is available on the left side panel on the desktop version. You can access Facebook Group Insights by clicking on the star icon in the top-right on your smartphone.

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