With over 2.13 billion monthly active users as of 2017’s Q4, Facebook is still the reigning social media champ. This is because the social giant isn’t only a friend to individuals, but to businesses as well, with over 5 million advertisers promoting content on the social media marketing site. Unfortunately, in recent years, users have been frustrated with Facebook’s Newsfeed prioritizing advertisements over social posts from friends and family.

This is the exact reason Zuckerberg announced in early January that Facebook’s Newsfeed would shift away from advertisers in 2018, and instead focus on optimizing posts from loved ones. This announcement hit advertisers hard. 57% of businesses surveyed say they’ve increased sales because of the platform, but with Facebook’s changing Newsfeed, where does that leave advertisers?

Why Facebook Updated Their Ad Metrics

Facebook may be changing its News feed to create a better user experience, but that doesn’t mean businesses need to be left behind to achieve this goal. The Facebook team recently released a new version of ad metrics that include a labeling system. The labels, “in development” and “estimated”, will give business owners more clarity on how certain metrics are calculated and how they can use that information to their advantage. In other words, they help business owners understand how to analyze Facebook ad performance. The labels can be found in the Ads Manager reporting table for ads running across Facebook, Instagram, and Audience Network.  

Facebook Ads Analytics Graph

What This Update Means

What this means is more defined data for users. The different labels that will appear on Ad Metrics indicate different procedures Facebook is using to obtain the data. If a metric is labeled “estimated”, it means the calculations were based on samples of models. Facebook runs different tests to help guide calculated results, and the outcomes from those tests help inform how Facebook produces certain metrics for business owners. In turn, business owners can use these separate metrics at different points in their content marketing plan.

Another label that will appear in the new Facebook Ads reporting tool is “in development.” This label indicates that the collected data is still a work in progress because Facebook is pulling information from automated measurements, machine learning and polling. This results in more accurate data based on more recent activity on the platform. According to Facebook, this label was created “[b]ecause the metrics may change as products evolve or as we get more feedback from businesses, we’re indicating these are still in development and subject to change.”

As some Facebook ad metrics get updated, others will be removed altogether! Also according to Facebook, they will be removing 20 metrics users have stated were “not actionable or infrequently used.” This change will help business owners focus on more important metrics in Facebook ad analytics. As a beginner, logging into Facebook as a business can be quite intimidating. Different charts and data spell out different aspects of audience activity and understanding where to start is almost impossible without some help. By removing excess metrics that are redundant or irrelevant to most business, Facebook is helping advertisers recognize the essential components for a successful social media marketing strategy.

Facebook Marketing

This update is taking social media marketing to a new level because Facebook will also begin providing educational services for users. Two tracks will be available — one will focus on brand objectives and the other will focus on response objectives. These tracks will help business owners learn how to effectively use Facebook measurement tools based on website-wide research and analysis. For marketers and advertisers, this is an invaluable addition to Facebook’s services because they can continue to learn, grow and adapt as the digital space changes. From these learned experience, users can alter their content marketing plan to deliver better quality social posts to their respective audiences.

How This Will Affect Advertisers and Other Businesses

Out with the old, in with the new! This update will help advertisers and businesses immensely. With Facebook’s changing Newsfeed, marketers need to understand what they need to focus on and how to achieve their advertising goals through social media, and that’s exactly what Facebook has done with this update. They have made it easier for users to understand Facebook Business and the piles of data that are available on the platform. Let’s go over these changes one more time:

  1. The new metric labels will help users understand the data Facebook is getting for them as well as give them information as to where they can use that data in their content plan.
  2. The removed metrics will help business owners focus their efforts on what’s important
  3. The educational tracks will keep users on top of their game by offering updates on research done throughout Facebook

Good luck and be sure to tag @Aumcore in your next Facebook post!