Facebook Analytics will no longer be available after June 30, 2021
With that simple announcement in the Facebook for Business help center, the social media company shocked marketers that have relied on Facebook Analytics to measure conversions. The tool, which tracks likes, page views, and audience interaction for business pages, is used by marketers typically as a way to gauge their ROI and understand how and when people interact with the content they post.
Facebook said it is retiring Facebook Analytics as part of an initiative to consolidate business tools. Marketers wonder if it’s related to Apple’s decision to require users to opt-in to tracking for all apps. Despite public protest from Facebook, Apple launched the App Tracking Transparency framework with iOS 14.5. Unless users opt-in, apps such as Facebook will no longer be able to track what users do elsewhere on the internet when the app is not in use.
Facebook is also telling marketers that Apple’s changes will impact how events such as pixels, conversion APIs, app SDKs, and offline event sets will be received and processed. They warn that Facebook Business Tools metrics will likely show lower counts and some ads may stop delivering on some devices.
It’s not the only change to metrics Facebook is making. The company has also announced this year that they will no longer support holdout conversion lift measurement tests or A/B tests including control groups. In March, Facebook let ad buyers know that it’s disabling store visit optimization and reporting as of April and eliminating the ability to track Custom Audience for store visits and store visit lift studies.
Other Business Tools for Tracking & Advertising
Marketers wondering what to do next may be able to get most of the same data using some third-party solutions or other business tools for tracking and advertising.
Facebook recommends these options for other business tools for tracking and advertising on its platform:
- Business Suite: From the Facebook Business Suite, you can manage Facebook and Instagram accounts and get data about your audience, content performance, and trending.
- Ads Manager: Ad Manager also allows to track results for campaigns, ads, and ad sets.
- Events Manager: Events Manager can help deploy pixels and conversions APIs to report customer activity on websites, apps, or in brick-and-mortar locations.
- Facebook Insights: Insights for Facebook pages and Instagram profiles remain unchanged.
The Facebook Business Suite isn’t available for everyone yet. Currently, it’s only available for small businesses but the social media company said it plans to roll Business Suite out for all users sometime in 2021.
Export Facebook Data into a CSV File
If you want to save the data that’s in the Facebook Analytics tool, you can export data into a CSV file and download it but only until June 30, 2021. After that, it’s gone for good. To export data into a CSV file, go to Facebook Analytics on a desktop computer and click the right arrow along the top line in charts or tables you want to download.
At Idea Marketing Group, we specialize in Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn Ads to help businesses be found by their ideal customers and grow their businesses through social media.