7 Crucial Facebook KPIs in 2024: Complete Guide

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By Tomislav

Key Takeaways

KPIs & Engagement: Focus on the most valuable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for efficiency. Track reach and engagement (likes, comments, shares) to gauge content effectiveness and audience resonance, but don’t let these metrics entirely dictate your strategy.
Actions & Growth Insights: Monitor Actions on Page for insights into user interactions and adapt strategies accordingly. Analyze growth metrics (followers, reach, page views) to understand the impact of your content over different periods.
Demographics & Content Types: Use demographic data to tailor content and ensure it reaches the intended audience. Utilize ‘Reach by Post Type’ to identify which content formats (like videos) perform best, guiding future content creation.
Negative Feedback: Regularly check and constructively use negative feedback (Hide, Report as Spam, Unlikes) to improve content relevance and appeal.

What are KPIs and Why is it Important to Track Them?

KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, are critical data points indicating how well your content aligns with your marketing goals.

For instance, if maximizing reach on a new Facebook post is your goal, focus on relevant KPIs.

However, remember, not all KPIs are equally important.

Prioritize KPIs that offer the most value for your efforts.

Spending time efficiently on creating new posts is more productive than overanalyzing every data point provided by Facebook.

Let’s delve into some key Facebook KPIs and their applications.

1. Reach

Facebook tracks both paid and organic reach.

For content marketing, organic reach is usually more relevant, though paid reach is also important if you’re using paid ads.

Currently, Facebook’s organic reach averages around 5.5% of Page followers.

This statistic doesn’t diminish the value of publishing on Facebook, especially for Pages with many followers.

Reach is crucial because it reflects the actual visibility of your posts.

Facebook Insights provides data on:

  • Post reach: The number of people who saw any of your posts at least once.
  • Story reach: The number of people who had your Page’s story on their screen.
  • Total reach: The number of people who saw any content from or about your Page.

Positive engagement like comments and shares boosts your reach, while negative engagement reduces it.

Tracking and analyzing Facebook reach helps you identify the most effective content types, allowing you to focus on what works.

Important note: Don’t confuse reach with impressions. Impressions count how often content is displayed, not clicked, and are more relevant to paid traffic, tracked in the Facebook Ads Manager.

2. Actions on Page

Actions on Page provides insights on four click-related metrics:

  1. People who clicked the action button
  2. People who clicked ‘Get Directions’
  3. People who clicked the phone number
  4. People who clicked the website

Each metric is broken down further by age, gender, country, city, and device.

Actions on Page also shows the total actions within a specified time frame.

This information is invaluable for both local and online businesses.

For example, local businesses benefit from knowing how many clicked ‘Get Directions’ or the phone number, while online businesses focus on website clicks.

Adapt your strategy based on these insights. If website clicks are low, rethink your approach. Similarly, if local engagement doesn’t translate into customers, it’s time for a change.

Competitive analysis and content experimentation are key. Remember, Facebook allows tracking of up to five pages, offering basic stats like total page likes, weekly engagement, and post count.

3. Engagement

Positive engagement like comments, likes, shares, and video views significantly amplifies the reach of your content.

Understanding which posts resonate with your audience is crucial.

Equally important is identifying posts that did not perform well.

Fortunately, Facebook provides comprehensive engagement analytics for your review.

Video Engagement

Video posts achieve at least 59% more engagement than other types.

Monitoring the performance of your videos is key to optimizing your Facebook video marketing strategy.

Facebook tracks the total minutes viewed and the number of 3-second video views over specific periods.

A 3-second video view indicates the viewer watched for at least 3 seconds, or almost the entire video if it’s under 3 seconds.

Facebook also differentiates 3-second views between organic and paid traffic, aiding in strategy refinement for both types.

Furthermore, Facebook helps identify your top-performing videos by minutes viewed and 3-second views within a chosen timeframe.

Upon selecting a video in the Top videos section, you’ll find details like:

  • Peak Live Viewers
  • Minutes Viewed
  • Video Views
  • 10-Second Views
  • Video Average Watch Time
  • Audience and Engagement

Utilizing Video Engagement Data

Analyzing video engagement data offers multiple insights for content creation.

For instance, a video with 10,000 views but only 500 10-second views suggests rapid loss of viewer interest.

Repeated patterns of this nature imply an unappealing intro in your videos.

Similarly, a low average watch time on a long video signifies content issues.

Reactions, Comments & Shares

Under “Reach,” a graph displays reactions, comments, and shares.

These actions are indicators of positive user engagement and help in organic reach expansion.

Drawing conclusions from this engagement requires a delicate balance.

While it’s important to track post performance to understand audience preferences, avoid letting these metrics dictate your content strategy.

Chasing likes and comments might yield short-term gains but can undermine long-term content marketing objectives.

Likes

Likes can seem superficial, but they offer insightful signals about your content’s performance when analyzed deeply.

Facebook Insights tracks three different aspects of Likes, each with varying usefulness.

The first is “Total Page Likes as of Today.” This metric isn’t very useful, and I recommend not focusing too much on it.

The second graph distinguishes between organic and paid Page Likes and includes Unlikes. This is moderately useful as it compares your organic content marketing to your paid efforts. Notably, the Unlikes statistic is particularly valuable.

The third graph shows where Page Likes occurred, such as:

  • On your page
  • In the search
  • In the ads
  • In page suggestions
  • In the news feed
  • Restored likes from reactivated accounts

Understanding the origin of Likes is crucial as it reveals where your audience engages with your content, helping to fine-tune your marketing strategies.

4. Growth

Growth, when stripped of vanity metrics, is a crucial KPI for content marketers on Facebook.

Growth exposes your offerings to new potential customers.

Caution: Organic growth on Facebook, where organic reach is limited, is a slow process. Patience and hard work are essential for organic presence enhancement.

To maximize insights from growth metrics like followers, reach, page views, or video views, break them down into:

  • Daily growth
  • Weekly growth
  • Monthly growth

This helps connect outcomes to specific actions. For instance, intensifying posts for a week and tracking KPIs allows for a comprehensive assessment of that period. It clarifies which content excelled or fell short, contributing to page growth.

Without systematic tracking, you’d rely on guesswork, potentially hindering growth.

5. Demographics

Facebook’s Page Insights provide demographics: age, gender, country, city, and device usage by your audience.

This data is critical for understanding your audience, essential for creating targeted solutions.

It’s particularly important when aiming at a specific demographic in terms of age, gender, or location.

A quick review can indicate whether you’re reaching your target audience or if you need to adjust your strategy.

6. Reach by Post Type

This feature is located in the Posts section.

Reach by Post Type is a valuable tool that shows which types of posts are successful and which aren’t.

For instance, you might discover a video post from a few months ago that performed exceptionally well, with high reach and engagement.

In such cases, it’s wise to post more video content and observe the results.

You may find that video content connects better with your audience than text-based content.

This is just an example, but the main lesson from Reach by Post Type is to identify successful strategies and capitalize on them.

7. Negative Feedback

Negative feedback types on Facebook include Hide, Report as Spam, and Unlikes.

This information is available under the Reach section.

While negative feedback isn’t enjoyable, it’s one of the most useful tools for crafting more relevant and appealing content.

Regularly checking this section helps you stay informed and responsive.

It’s important not to be overwhelmed by negative feedback, but rather use it constructively without hindering your content creation.