Facebook to Shut Down Analytics on June 30th - Why it Matters

  In late March, Facebook quietly announced that it was shutting down its free Facebook Analytics tool. Facebook Analytics will no longer be available to multi-location marketers after June 30th, 2021. As a multi-location marketer, you may currently use Facebook Analytics to understand how people interact with your website, apps, and local Facebook pages.   While this news may come as a surprise, it's essential to know the facts. Throughout this blog, we'll explain why it's necessary to be aware of this shutdown and provide ways your multi-location business can still get similar insights to the ones you were getting from Facebook Analytics.  

Why Facebook Analytics is Shutting Down 

  One of the biggest questions you may ask yourself is why is Facebook shutting down its analytics program? What caused this? Facebook continues to drop updates, including how brands acquire data. According to Facebook, the social media platform is retiring Facebook Analytics “as part of an initiative to consolidate business tools.” Facebook believes that there are alternatives to Facebook Analytics that will provide value to its users. We'll get more into those later. As we've mentioned in a previous industry news blog, Apple plans to release a new iOS14 privacy update that is also expected to impact Facebook Analytics. It is another likely reason Facebook has chosen to get rid of the standalone analytics tool before Apple's privacy update goes into effect.  

Alternatives to Facebook Analytics 

  While Facebook Analytics will no longer be an option shortly, there are other ways for your multi-location business to collect insights into your Facebook accounts. The primary tool your multi-location business can leverage is Facebook's Business Suite. Facebook Business Suite is currently available to most Facebook users and allows you to manage all of your connected accounts across Facebook and Instagram in a single location. For multi-location marketers, this is super helpful.   With Facebook Business Suite, your multi-location business can:

• View your business from a glance - From your home screen, you can view updates to your account, recent posts and ads, insights, and more!
• Create posts and stories - Through Facebook Business Suite, you can schedule posts and stories across your Facebook and Instagram accounts.
• Access insights - Here, you can see detailed information about your business's performance across your local social pages, including activity on the content you share and information about your target audience.
• Develop ads - Ads are a crucial component of a winning localized marketing strategy. Facebook Business Suite allows your multi-location business to create ads for your Facebook and Instagram accounts, boost your posts, and promote your pages.

  While Facebook Business Suite is a great tool to use in place of Facebook Analytics, there are a few other tools that can help close the gap as well. For instance, Facebook's Ad Manager will provide you with data on how your ads, ad sets, and campaigns perform on Facebook. It's essential to keep track of your ads and optimize based on performance. Facebook Ad Manager can accomplish both of those tasks.   The last tool your business can leverage in place of Facebook Analytics is Facebook's Events Manager. Your multi-location business can use this tool to set up pixels on your website and the Conversions API. Through Event Manager your multi-location business can also see the actions taken on your business's website, app, and physical store.   With the combination of all three of the tools mentioned above, your multi-location business will be able to fill the gap Facebook Analytics left.  

Crush Your Local Social Efforts and Beyond 

  Now that you know when Facebook Analytics will shut down, it's time to get prepared. As previously mentioned, it's essential to keep track of your efforts on local social. Set goals for your multi-location business before you execute your local social strategy so you can track performance and see if your multi-location business is meeting its objectives.   While doing so, your multi-location business should also start transitioning away from Facebook Analytics and test the other tools mentioned above. This will give your multi-location business time to compare your current data and insights from Facebook Analytics to the data provided in Facebook Business Suites, Ads Manager, and Events Manager. With enough preparation, you'll be able to ensure that there aren't any holes in the data you're collecting.   At SOCi, we understand that managing local social efforts across 100s or even 1,000s of business locations can be tricky, but we're here to help. SOCi's Content Manager enables multi-location businesses to manage and deploy localized content at scale while maintaining brand consistency at both the enterprise and local levels. SOCi's Content Manager also allows your multi-location business to analyze performance at the account, group, or location level to ensure that your content is getting the most engagement for your brand.  

  Once you have a solid local social strategy, you can start improving other aspects of your localized marketing efforts as well. SOCi is the central command for multi-location marketers and the all-in-one platform for your localized marketing needs. For more information on how SOCi can elevate your multi-location business to the top of its industry, request a demo today!