Facebook Analytics will stop being accessible after June 30, 2021, which gives marketers less than three months to export their data and find other solutions.
Considering how marketers rely on Facebook Analytics to measure conversion data, this announcement comes with decidedly short notice.
The announcement that Facebook Analytics is going away at the end of June was quietly published in the Facebook for Business help center. Navigating to analytics.facebook.com now redirects users to the announcement, which reads:
“Facebook Analytics will no longer be available after June 30, 2021. Until then, you will still be able to access reports, export charts and tables, and explore insights. To export data into a CSV file from Facebook Analytics on your desktop, click the arrow in the top-right corner of each chart or table.”
The company doesn’t offer a reason for its decision to shutter Facebook Analytics. Instead, it directs users to other business tools that are not exact 1:1 alternatives.
Facebook points users to the following business tools to use after Analytics is removed:
- Facebook Business Suite: Allows users to manage their Facebook and Instagram business accounts. Offers detailed insights about a business’s audience, content, and trends (but is not available to everyone).
- Ads Manager: Lets businesses view, make changes, and see results for Facebook campaigns and ads.
- Events Manager: Can help users set up and manage Facebook business tools like the Facebook pixel and Conversions API. Also reports on actions taken on a business’s website, app, and physical store.
If marketers can adapt to using a combination of the above tools they may be able to accomplish the same tasks they’re used to getting done in Facebook Analytics.
Facebook Analytics is used to connect data from a Facebook page with data from the Facebook pixel. When the data is connected, Analytics can show a conversion path between a customer engaging with a business’s content and eventually making a purchase off of Facebook.
That data has recently become more difficult to track using any tool – with or without Facebook Analytics. That’s because of an update in iOS 14 which asks users whether or not they want to be tracked by apps on their phone.
If a user says they don’t want the Facebook app to track them, then it’s not possible for marketers to get the same conversion data from the user as they previously could.
Again, Facebook has not given a reason for shuttering Analytics, so it’s not known whether the decision has anything to do with the iOS update.
Facebook has lofty goals to make Business Suite the only interface businesses needs to manage their activity on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger.
There’s one problem, however, which is Facebook Business Suite is only available to small businesses at this time.
When Facebook Business Suite was announced last year the company stated it intends for the tool to be available to businesses of all sizes in 2021.
Facebook has yet to follow through on that promise, or offer any kind of update regarding its plans to roll the tool out more widely. Perhaps an update to Facebook Business Suite will be available before June 30.
Source: Facebook Business Help Center
