A quick update for those using Meta’s Page Insights API, with Meta now set to merge more of its data into its “Views” metric.
In November last year, Meta announced that Facebook would be switching to “Views” as its primary metric, in alignment with shifting user behaviors and how they’re reflected in its engagement data.
That followed Instagram also moving to “Views” as its primary metric, with all of Meta’s data tools now providing enhanced view data as a cumulative engagement stat, while shifting away from others, including “plays”, “impressions” and “accounts reached.”
And now, Meta’s updating its Page Insights API to also reflect the same.
As per Meta:
“To continue to align the functionality of the Page Insights API with the Facebook app and Meta Business Suite, we’re deprecating the `impressions` metric. This metric will be replaced by the `views` metric on all API versions."
In addition to this, Meta's also getting rid of its "page fans" insights:
"With the migration of all Facebook Pages to the new Pages experience, the Page Insights tab for classic Pages has been fully deprecated as of November 1, 2023. As part of this deprecation, we are deprecating the `page fans` metrics.”
So two more metrics will soon be gone from your third-party analytics platforms, with “Views” taking over as the primary focus.
Meta says that the shift towards views aims to create a single distribution metric for all content types that’s calculated in the same way across Facebook and Instagram.
That, ideally, will facilitate a more streamlined, and understandable way to compare your content performance across both apps, with “Views” now measuring all types of consumption behavior.
Given that this has been in place within Meta’s own system for some time, the change here should be minor, but it’s another data update of note for your Facebook and IG planning.
Meta says that once the change is implemented, the API will return an invalid metric error when calling any of these metrics.
So again, your third party Facebook and Instagram tools will soon shift to views as the main focus, while losing access to these additional elements.
