Which Facebook analytics tools should you choose for your business?
What makes Facebook such a great social network for businesses, marketers, or even content creators? It might be the fact that the social network effortlessly gets millions upon millions of people to check in daily. Its ability to compete with Google’s advertising product – even though they work best when used together – is another important draw. Then there’s the space it gives its users to do anything from watching videos of pets to promoting their brand-new websites.
The real reason for the awesomeness of Facebook is the same reason why we think Google is so awesome – it gives us ways to reach a lot of people. But that’s only a part of it – without the data these entities harvest, we’d be damned to roam their services half-blind, hoping that we’ll eventually find a willing recipient to our messages. Even worse, we’d have no way to tell when and if we’ve had any success.
The true value of Facebook lies in its data. Whether you’re using it to research an audience before actively targeting it, to find the sections of the audience that might be a fertile ground for your messaging, or to see how well your efforts have gone over, the metrics Facebook lets you track are indispensable. To track all of those metrics, however, you’ll need the best Facebook analytics tools on the market – and we’ve listed them right here.
How to Choose the Best Facebook Analytics Tool for You
Facebook analytics tools come in all shapes and sizes, at different pricing points, and with different functionalities. Some are better suited for organizations; others are better suited for individuals. When trying to figure out which one is right for you, here are some of the questions you should ask yourself:
- How many profiles or pages do I want to track? Often, the more you want to track, the more you’ll have to pay.
- How many people do I have on my team? Again, it’s common for tools to charge extra for additional team members who need access.
- What’s my budget? It’s possible to get a lot of mileage from Facebook’s built-in Insight tools for free, but the bigger your budget the fancier the tool you can use.
- Do I need additional functionalities? Some tools will handle scheduling, for example. Others will give you visualization and reporting options.
- Is Facebook the only network I’m using? Chances are you’ll be using other networks, too, and having a single tool that handles analytics on multiple networks might be better than using a tool for each.
It’s worth saying that your personal preferences in terms of looks, style, and customizability will play a role. Not to mention that, whatever tool you decide you’ll use, it will have to fit into your workflow, or at least be malleable enough to be nudged into it. With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the best Facebook analytics tools you could be using.
The Native Facebook Analytics Tools – Audience Insights and Page Insights
Facebook wouldn’t be Facebook if it didn’t do its best to keep you from wandering away from the page. That’s why it offers easy access to not one but two awesome tools that have a rightful place among the best Facebook analytics tools. They help you better understand who you can reach using the platform, and how the people you’ve reached have interacted with your page.
The way Audience Insights and Page Insights work best is if you use them together because they will allow you to follow different metrics. With Audience Insights, you’ll get all the metrics that will help you know your audience better – you’ll be able to understand what they like, what they interact with, what types of devices they use. You can use those metrics to power your decision making when it comes to running ads on Facebook, as well as when creating content.
Either way, when those audiences come to your page, they’ll appear in the Page Insights. That’s where you get the analytics about a concrete Facebook Page, with all of those metrics that include page actions, views, post reach, engagement metrics, and all that juicy stuff that people who are serious about using Facebook like to see.
To recap: If you would have to limit yourself to just two out of all the best Facebook analytics tools, these would be it. They are free, they come with the platform, and they provide access to an incredible wealth of data. Still, you might not like its looks – user interfaces are a thing of personal preference. What isn’t is the fact that the Audience and Page Insights only work on Facebook. Logical – yes. Practical? It depends, but probably not.
Iconosquare
Need an analytics tool that’s flexible enough to cater to a single person monitoring their profile, as well as an agency monitoring many Facebook pages? Iconosquare is a great solution. It’s easy to use, it comes with tons of analytics, and it will scale together with your needs.
Iconosquare will offer you a full suite of stats and metrics that show you how specific aspects of your Facebook presence are performing. For example, you’ll get demographic metrics that will explain what type of audience you’re managing to pull in. You’ll get posting metrics that explain to you when you’re posting to Facebook the most, which you can then cross with in-depth post or page metrics to get the most relevant insight.
To recap: Iconosquare offers analytics for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, which is decent coverage. Its plans start at around $29 per month – when billed annually, and it can easily scale with your demands, whether you need more personnel to access it, or if you plan to monitor multiple profiles with it.
Rival IQ
None of us is ever alone on Facebook, whether we’re regular users or people who utilize Facebook in business or creative pursuits. If we belong to the second group, the people we’re connected to might be colleagues – but they also might be our competitors. And there’s nothing more important when dealing with competitors than having a way to measure up against them.
Rival IQ is the analytics tool that can help with that. Right from the start, it will help you get a clear image of your Facebook performance. By following the engagement metrics and keeping an eye on demographics numbers, the tool can help you stay on point with your targeting and messaging.
The tool also offers a competitive analysis that should show you exactly where you’re at and where you can arrive. Thanks to comprehensive reporting and competitive Facebook benchmarking, Rival IQ can give you a better sense of direction for a stronger Facebook presence. It doesn’t hurt that it will also catch the posts your competitors boost and that you can even set up alerts based on specific competitors’ actions – making this truly one of the best Facebook analytics tools you could use.
To recap: Rival IQ is a great tool if you want competitive benchmarking. It works with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. If you opt for more expensive packages, the tool will also help you monitor paid content such as ads. All of this comes with a hefty price tag though – the least expensive package starts at around $169 per month, and it lets you track five companies.
Falcon.io
Falcon.io might not be the best solution for the lone Facebook entrepreneur who runs a small page and is looking for ways to improve on it. It’s much better suited to medium-sized to enterprise companies – at least if you want to roll out all the guns it has to offer. If not, the Essentials package will do wonders, too, for those willing to spring out for the fee.
Still, it might be worth it, as long as having a content calendar and planner, a dashboard with advanced analytics, community management tools, and in-app support are things that might interest you. For Facebook, for example, this translates into over a hundred different metrics available for measurement, and hundreds more available via APIs and CSV export.
Falcon.io will also provide video-centric metrics – perfect for video content creators and everyone looking to bank on the latest trends in content. Metrics such as view-through rates, auto vs. click-to-play, and sound on vs. sound off will be available right there, at your fingertips. And that’s without mentioning the awesome visualization and reporting options Falcon.io offers to its users.
To recap: Falcon.io is a full suite of tools that lets you do some amazing things. Whether it’s listening on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, or managing engagement on platforms that include those three, as well as Messenger, LinkedIn, and YouTube. The entry-level pricing for the service is $129 per month and it lets you have one user for the platform, and connect up to five channels.
Quintly
Quintly is built with one thing in mind – advanced analytics and how to use them to the fullest extent. In that sense, it’s a purely analytical tool that’s a perfect ally when you need data-driven insights to power your decision making.
When it comes to Facebook monitoring, Quintly will let you choose the metrics you want to focus on, whether they pertain to audiences, content or the way the audiences interact with the content. Quintly gives you metrics about the organic as well as paid performance, and it makes it incredibly easy to display, export, and share the information you can use to make your next big decision.
To recap: Quintly is a service with several use cases. It’s a great solution for brands, agencies, and the media. It’s also a service that works with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Snapchat. The pricing is on the more expensive end, starting at $300 a month for custom plans. For those that can afford it, the tool is likely more than worth it – following 400 metrics is an impressive feature.
Unbox Social
Influencer marketing is still one of the most vital parts of the digital business landscape, and social networks – Facebook included – is where it’s all going on. If you’re looking for a tool that mixes Facebook analytics with some good old influencer marketing analytics, you don’t have to wander further than Unbox Social.
This tool has several use cases and it works on several networks. In general, you can use it to map and track the success of your influencer marketing campaign – from finding and gauging influencers to industry benchmarking and brand listening. It offers a similar level of service for competitor tracking and social media analytics.
As for Facebook specifically, Unbox Social helps track metrics that allow post-level insights, metrics that provide a broader context of what brings people to view your content, as well as the metrics that describe your audience. There’s also some competition tracking and benchmarking going on, and you can get notified about it in a pretty and practical report.
To recap: Unbox Social is a great tool if you’re using influencer marketing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube. The tool will work well even if you’re not using influencers, too. You will have to contact Unbox Social, however, to find out how much all of this would set you back based on your specific needs.
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