3 Facebook Analytics Functions That Make You A Data Hero In Your Company!

When it comes to analytics, social media likes to be in the comfort zone of reach, engagement, fans, and followers. Not everyone dares to think outside the box – the insights from the relevant analyzes are extremely interesting! That is precisely why today we are looking at Facebook’s analysis tool with the simple name “Facebook Analytics.” Read on now if you want to know which three functions make you the data hero of your company if you use them wisely and interpret the results correctly!

More than “just” reach and commitment: think outside the box with Facebook Analytics 

External social media agencies or internal social media or performance managers have one thing in common: We all have to use data to show what impact our work has on the company. And that’s only possible with social analytics.

Social Analytics means collecting, identifying, and interpreting data – and of course, very important: making recommendations based on this data. Because numbers per se only have a conditional value.

You don’t get very far if pure social KPIs such as reach or engagement are used. These numbers are not unimportant. But they are just the tip of the iceberg and are too short-sighted in the context of long-term communication or corporate goals.

Therefore it is worth looking outside the box. Based on our experience, these three things have emerged as significantly more valuable :

1. Customer Insights: What can I learn about my target group? What exactly does it look like, how does it behave, and what do these insights mean for my advertising messages?
2. Customer Lifetime Value: How often does my target group buy from me? And in what period? And what does that mean for my acquisition costs?
3. Funnels: How does my target group behave in the channels and on my website? Where should I start to design the funnel optimally?

Knowing that would be a dream, wouldn’t it? You guessed it: Facebook Analytics offers exactly these three functions. And that’s exactly what we’re going to look at now – after a few short setup steps.

Facebook Analytics quick start: In three steps to the first Facebook Analytics setup

Before we look at the three Facebook Analytics functions Breakdowns, Customer Lifetime Value, and Funnels, a few short setup steps are necessary.

If the setup is already in place, you can simply skip the following explanations – everyone else should be careful ?

Setting up Facebook Analytics Prerequisite: Create an event group

1. Go to https://www.facebook.com/analytics.
2. Now select the Business Manager with whom your website, your fan page, and possibly your app are linked.
3. Once you have selected the business, you will be taken to the view that lists all the assets. If you have not yet worked with Facebook Analytics, no event groups should appear here – because we are creating them now.
4. Select which assets you want to combine in an event group since we want to generate as comprehensive insight as possible, select at least your fan page and your pixel. If you have also linked an app, please also pack it into the event group.
5. Once you have ticked all the boxes, click on the blue “Create Event Group” button in the top right corner.

That was it. Now you get to the Facebook Analytics view, which summarizes all data wonderfully and provides you with extensive analysis functions. Now let’s get to work!

Facebook Analytics feature # 1: breakdowns

Basically, Facebook Analytics offers a basic function without additional setting options: Under the “People” tab, you will find extensive data on your target group. 

On the two screenshots, you can see, for example, many details about the demographics of your target group and the technology used. 

This can result in very basic recommendations for action, such as:

• “Many users access our website on the go – it has to be mobile-optimized.”
• “Many users access our website using an Android smartphone. We only have one app for iOS. We need an Android app. “
• “Many of our users are under the age of 18. Maybe we should consider whether there are other networks where we can reach our target group. Instagram or Snapchat would be worth considering. ”

This is the basis for the actual function that we want to look at breakdowns.

Breakdowns allow you to cut the data even more. For example, do you want to know:

• Would you like to know which channel most NEW users land on your website? No problem.
• Do you want to know which combination of operating system and device type triggers the most purchases? You can even investigate that.

There are certainly an infinite number of possible combinations. You now need to find out which ones make sense for your business is and, of course (as always) to decide what the numbers for the next campaign, for optimization, perhaps even for the basic marketing mix and far-reaching decisions strategic meant.

Facebook Analytics function # 2: Customer Lifetime Value

When it comes to generating leads or buyers (especially new customers), the “ costs per new customer,” also known as “customer acquisition costs,” play an important role.

This KPI states how much money has to be taken in hand to generate a new customer. Of course, this metric is important if your campaigns are aimed precisely at it. The cheaper you generate a new customer, the better.

However, one should be careful when comparing the costs of a new customer with the shopping basket of his first purchase. Why? Very easily:

In many cases, especially with low-priced products, it can quickly happen that the new customer costs are higher than the initial shopping cart value.

However, this does not mean that the social advertising campaign is not profitable.

It is crucial to analyze the purchase frequency over a reasonable period (depending on the product) and to lay the costs for a new customer above the average shopping basket value per purchase in this period.

This is exactly what you achieve with the Facebook Analytics function “ Customer Lifetime Value ”!

You have the choice between customer lifetime value for all reached people in the respective period or only the group of people who bought.

Let’s look at a simple example to demonstrate the power of this analysis:

• We assume that you have to take EUR 10 in hand to generate a new customer.
• The shopping cart value of the first purchase is 5 EUR.
• However, the customer lifetime value analysis shows that customers buy from you once every three months on average.
• The calculation is simple: after three months, this customer you generated for EUR 10 generated a profit of EUR 5 for your company.

And that means: your new customer campaign is by no means unprofitable! The investment just pays off after three months. This consideration is even more exciting with subscription models where regular payment is part of the contract.

This is how the list looks like:

You can see very clearly what value a user has today – in this case, for all paying users – and what (higher!) Value he has due to further purchases in the defined observation period.

A little pro tip: The preliminary consideration of the customer lifetime value, for example, based on CRM data, enables the definition of a target value that your campaigns must achieve to be considered profitable. This makes optimization much easier because you have a clear goal in mind.

Facebook Analytics function # 3: Funnels

Funnels are one of our favorite functions because you can draw wonderful performance conclusions here. The conversion path can be easily traced back to the individual or combined or all elements of your event group. For example, you could examine :

• What the typical path of an online shop buyer from page view → product page view → to shopping cart → buy looks like, at which point the highest dropout rates occur and to improve here and increase the overall conversion rate of your shop.
• Which contribution on the fan page could be largely responsible for the recent sales record to produce even more such successful content.
• How strongly your activation measures in the context of community management ensure that your app is accessed more often and in-app purchases are made.

All of this can be mapped via the funnel function of Facebook Analytics if the Facebook pixel on the website or the Facebook SDK is built into your app.

So it is a very strong analysis lever that reveals which measures work in the context of a clearly defined goal and which do not. To make improvements at precisely these points to achieve real goals. And that’s just the point, isn’t it?

Whoever masters the data masters social media

These are just three of the many functions that Facebook Analytics offers. But here alone, the chaff separates from the wheat: While others still eject conventional social KPIs from your social media tool without questioning them, you are already ten steps further with the rudimentary use of Facebook Analytics. Be sure to take the deep dive into Facebook Analytics.

The tool is extremely strong if you know it and can use it – and very important: not just looking at the data but interpreting it and deriving recommendations for action. Only in this way can social analytics develop its true strengths!