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June 2018
Facebook Ads API Update 22.6.18.1
Facebook Ads API Update 22.6.18.1
Sam S avatar
Written by Sam S
Updated over a week ago

Facebook is removing approximately 23 ad metrics that marketer feedback has indicated to be redundant, outdated, not actionable or non-insightful. 

And so these metrics will no longer available in ReportGarden.

Facebook says,

"Removing these metrics will make it easier to identify those metrics that are best suited for measuring business outcomes or providing actionable insights on creative, audience and optimization strategies."

  1. Unique Actions Per Reach (%)

  2. People Taking Actions 

  3. Actions 

  4. Unique Social Clicks

  5. Social Clicks

  6. Social Impressions

  7. Social Reach

  8. Positive Feedback

  9. Negative Feedback

  10. Cost Per All Actions

  11. Button Clicks or Call To Action Clicks

  12. Page Tab Views

  13. Cost Per Page Tab View

  14. Cost Per Page Mention

  15. Mobile App Credit Spends Convesion Value

  16. Mobile App Purchases Conversion Value

  17. Mobile App Checkouts Conversion Value

  18. Mobile App Adds To Wishlist Conversion Value

  19. Mobile App Adds To Cart Conversion Value

  20. Mobile App Ratings Conversion Value

  21. Mobile App Content Views Conversion Value 

  22. Mobile App Actions Conversion Value

  23. Page Mentions

Facebook is also making some improvements to the metrics in ads manager to provide more clarity and guidance when it comes to understanding an ad performance.

Facebook has given the full list of these metrics along with the reasons behind the big step. So, let us take a closer look on why these metrics are on the chopping block.

Outdated: The metrics which marketers are no longer using.

Redundant: The metrics that have somewhat similar or better insights.

Not actionable: The metrics that don’t provide any insights for the advertiser to act on.

Infrequently used: The metrics that are not commonly used by the advertisers.

Here you can find some guidance on other metrics they have recommended advertisers to use instead:

Actions, People Taking Action, Cost per All Actions

The Actions metric is a composite of various actions and events, such as engagement, clicks or conversions. 

As Facebook introduces more actions that people can take on an ad, this metric becomes more nuanced, and a less relevant signal for measuring business outcomes. 

Recommendation by Facebook

So, Facebook is recommending to customize your own composite metric reflecting actions that are meaningful to your business, instead of using Actions.
However, in ReportGarden you can customize your own metrics easily with our new Custom metrics feature.
Reach us at [email protected] for a quick demo on 'Custom Metrics' and request for beta access:-)

Button Clicks or Call To Action Clicks

The Button Clicks metric shows the number of times people clicked the call-to-action button on your ad. 

Button Clicks is redundant because these clicks are also either reflected in the Link Clicks metric or other distinct metrics like the “Event Responses” metric and the “Offers Saved” metric. 

Recommendation by Facebook

Facebook recommends using “Link Clicks,” “Event Responses” or “Offers Saved” instead of Button Clicks.

Mobile App Actions Conversion Value

The Mobile App Actions Conversion Value metric is based on the value you assigned to an app action when you set up the app event.

Page Mentions, Cost per Page Mention

The Page Mentions metric is an outdated metric and is not indicative of either positive or negative sentiment towards your brand. 

Recommendation by Facebook

Facebook recommends using the “Page Mentions” to evaluate campaign performance. Instead, if you're running a “Page Likes” campaign, they recommend using the “Page Likes” metric or the “Page Engagement” metric, as they're more indicative of the success of a Page Likes campaign.

Page Tab Views, Cost per Page Tab View

The Page Tab Views metric measures the number of views of tabs on your Facebook Page that are attributed to your ads. 

Recommendation by Facebook

If you're running a Page Likes campaign, Facebook recommends using the “Page Likes” metric or the “Page Engagement” metric, as they're more indicative of the success of a Page Likes campaign than Page Tab Views.

Positive Feedback, Negative Feedback

The “Relevance Score” metric already uses Positive Feedback and Negative Feedback signals as inputs, and the granularity provided by breaking out positive and negative feedback creates more confusion than useful insights. 

Recommendation by Facebook

Facebook recommends using “Relevance Score” instead of Positive Feedback and Negative Feedback to understand how well a target audience is responding to ads.

Social Reach, Social Impressions, Social Clicks (All), Unique Social Clicks (All)

Social metrics (ex: Social Reach, Social Impressions, Social Clicks) are outdated metrics that show the number of people who saw an ad when displayed with social information. The Social Reach metric isn't meaningfully different from the Reach and Impressions metrics and the insights provided aren't actionable, since advertisers don't have control over when ads are/aren't shown with social information. 

Recommendation by Facebook

Facebook recommends using “Reach” instead of Social Reach, and using “Impressions” instead of Social Impressions to evaluate the campaign performance.

Wrapping up

The metric clean up will occur at some point in the month of July, 2018.

Facebook continually evolved to meet the needs of the people and businesses they use them. Lets hope this change will provide the marketers with more insights for planning and decision making. 

Have questions about the deprecated metrics? Feel free to reach out to us at [email protected]

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