Chances are you want Facebook to support your pet business’s growth, right?
But let me ask you this…
Are you analysing your data regularly to understand if what you’re doing is working for you?
Facebook offers a ton of insights to help you monitor your results.
Which then allows you to optimise your strategy.
But I know how intimidating Facebook insights can be.
How do you access it… Which data matters most to your business…
I get it.
That’s why I’ve put together a handy guide to help you understand which metrics you should pay attention to, and where you can find them.
This post is inspired by the Facebook marketing module inside the Pet Biz Thrive Online Club. Where members get access to a complete tutorial walking them through Facebook insights, as well as a complete strategy to grow their audience, customer base and bank balance.
Not a member yet?
Click here to learn more and join the Club.
Options to track your data
Facebook has a few key areas to check your insights. Each one has varying levels of data you can dig into.
- Facebook Business Suite
- Creator Studio
- Page insights
To find Page Insights, navigate to the left-hand menu on your Facebook page, and click the insights tab.
Page Insights gives you an easy all-in-one place to analyse your page, so we’ll just be sticking to that here.
1. Reach
Reach gives you a good indicator of your potential audience size on Facebook. It allows you to see the number of people that have seen your content on Facebook.
Reach has been a frustrating rollercoaster ride for many businesses over recent years. And we have Facebook’s algorithm to thank for that.
These days, the average reach of a page is a little over 2%.
Even though that may seem disappointingly low, it’s still important to track your reach for individual posts. Because this helps you understand what kind of content your audience likes.
Where to track reach
You can view the reach of your individual posts by clicking on the ‘posts’ tab in Page Insights.
If you want more of an overview of reach based on all your posts over a time frame, click on the ‘reach’ tab.
2. Engagement
Engagement is one of the most important metrics you can track.
It measures the number of times someone took an action on your posts.
Engagement signals how well your audience is resonating with your content.
That’s important, not just because it can increase the chances of converting a follower into a customer, but because the more people engage with your content, the more likely the algorithm will show it to more people in your audience.
Where to track engagement
Again, you’ll find your engagement stats under the ‘posts’ tab in Page Insights. This allows you to get granular and track your engagement on individual posts.
3. Impressions
Impressions are similar to reach in that they help you track the visibility of your posts.
But while reach tracks how many individual people saw your posts; impressions measure the number of times someone has seen your posts. Which also includes if one post was seen multiple times by the same person.
This is important because it helps you track the virality of your content. It allows you to see if people are seeing your posts multiple times. And we want that. Because it means people are more likely to take action. More impressions, can lead to higher conversions.
Where to track impressions
To track impressions, head to the ‘posts’ tab in Page Insights. In the drop-down menu under ‘reach’ select impressions.
4. Facebook referral traffic
This metric allows you to track the amount of people visiting your website from Facebook.
This can be link clicks coming from the posts you share, other people who’ve shared your website, or any clicks from your profile links.
Ideally, we want to be bringing people onto our website to perform a specific action. So it’s an essential metric to measure.
Again, this is telling you how compelling your content is. So if people aren’t clicking, it’s a clear indicator you need to revisit your content strategy.
Where to track Facebook referral traffic
To track your referral traffic, you need to head to Google Analytics. Click on ‘Acquisition’ in the left-hand menu, then go to ‘social’, then ‘network referrals’
This page will then show you all the traffic from your different social networks, including Facebook.
5. Page views
This allows you to track the number of people that come to your Facebook page from your own websites.
This important because we need to understand the bigger picture of our online ecosystem. Everything should be connected. And it shows us that people visiting our website liked it enough to take the time to check us out on Facebook.
Where to track page views
In Page Insights, head to the ‘Page Views’ tab to see a graphical view of all the visitors coming in from your website.
6. Likes and followers
Likes and followers are often seen as a vanity metric. That’s partly true to an extent. But it also allows you to get a quick view of your audience growth on Facebook.
Over time, those numbers should be going up. If they’re going down or you’re stagnating around the same numbers, it’s a sign there’s something not right with your Facebook marketing.
Where to track likes and followers
You can see these figures on your Facebook page itself. But for a more detailed view, head to the ‘likes’ and ‘followers’ tab in Page Insights.
7. When your fans are online
The best time to post on Facebook is unique to each individual business.
And with reach way down, it’s important to know so you have the best chance of your content actually being seen by the people that matter to your business.
If you post when your audience is already browsing, they’re more likely to see and interact with your content. And the more they engage, the better your reach.
Where to track when your fans are online
To understand when most of your audience is online, head to the ‘posts’ tab in Page Insights. At the very top of the screen, you’ll see a graph. This tells you which time of day is the best time to post.
Do bear in mind that the times shown are in Pacific time. So if you live in another country, you’ll need to convert it into your own time zone.
Bonus metrics
There are a few bonus metrics to pay attention to depending on whether you share videos and stories on your page too.
8. Video engagement and retention
As with ordinary image posts, we need to know if our videos are resonating with our audience. By digging into insights we can see things like, how many unique viewers your videos get, if people are engaging, and where they’re dropping off.
Where to track video stats
Click on the ‘videos’ tab in Page Insights. Here you’ll see a graph representing minutes viewed from all your videos across your selected time period.
If you scroll down further, you’ll see your stats for your individual videos. If you click on an individual video, this will bring up more detailed stats for you to dig deeper into your audience’s behaviour.
9. Story insights
If you share stories to your page, you also need to understand how well they’re performing. Stories are a great way to share behind the scenes content from your business. But they’re also situated at the top of your audience’s newsfeed where they’re most likely to take notice.
So they can be a great way to better reach your audience. Check out my 5 Facebook story ideas to share with your audience.
Where to track story stats
In Page Insights, scroll down to the ‘stories’ tab on the left. Here you’ll find all the details of the people who opened your individual stories, forward swipes and total engagement.
Facebook has a ton of insights for you to get your teeth into. And hopefully by now you have a much better idea of what/ how to measure your page’s performance going forward.
If you’re looking to ramp up your growth and engagement on Facebook, come and join us inside the Pet Biz Thrive Online Club. We have a wealth of knowledge and support to help you grow your business online.
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P.s. If you need help to reach more pet parents and sell more of your products or services, there are a few ways I can help you do that:
For 44 ways to get more clients for your pet business, grab the FREE Pet Biz Sales Booster Bible.
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