How do I create Facebook metrics in PowerMetrics?

In this article, you'll learn how to connect PowerMetrics to your Facebook data and create Facebook metrics. 

PowerMetrics supports two types of Facebook metrics: Instant metrics (pre-built by industry experts, ready to add in seconds) and Custom metrics (built from data feeds you define, for when instant metrics don't cover the data you need).

This article covers:

• Before you start
• What's the difference between instant metrics and custom metrics?
• How do I connect PowerMetrics to my Facebook data?
• How do I add Facebook instant metrics?
• How do I create Facebook custom metrics?
• Next steps — interacting with your data
• Frequently asked questions

Before you start

Make sure you have the following before connecting PowerMetrics to Facebook:

• A Facebook Business page — PowerMetrics connects to Facebook business pages, not personal pages.  Your business page must be linked to an authentic Facebook account.
• Admin access to that page — You need administrative rights to authorize PowerMetrics to access your Facebook Business page's data. See the Facebook help article How do I manage roles for my Facebook Page? for instructions on adding users with admin rights.
• Your Facebook login credentials — You'll need them the first time you connect.

What's the difference between instant metrics and custom metrics?

How do I connect PowerMetrics to my Facebook data?

Whether you're adding instant metrics or creating custom metrics, connecting PowerMetrics to Facebook is one of your first steps. Here are a few things to note about connecting:

• Your data is safe. The first time you connect, you'll be prompted for your Facebook login credentials and asked to grant PowerMetrics permission to access your account data. Learn how PowerMetrics protects your data privacy.
• Managing connections. Your connection is named yourname<date and time created> by default. You can rename it from your Connections list (click the in the left sidebar and select Connections), or as you add metrics. Learn more about managing account connections.
• Reusing connections. You can use the same Facebook account connection each time you add metrics. If an existing connection stops working, your OAuth token may have expired. See OAuth token troubleshooting tips.

How do I add Facebook instant metrics?

Facebook instant metrics are pre-built by PowerMetrics based on industry best practices. Use them to start tracking your Facebook data immediately - no data feed setup required.

• Note: Managed by PowerMetrics, each instant metric has a fixed date range for the data being retrieved. If the date range doesn't meet your needs, we suggest you create a custom metric instead.
• Tip: Have your Facebook login credentials ready;  you'll need them the first time you connect.

To add Facebook instant metrics:

1. In the left navigation sidebar, click the + button beside Metrics and select See all services.
   Note: You can also add instant metrics from the Metric List page, from Explorer, or from an open dashboard in Edit mode.
2. On the Where is your data? page, select Facebook.
3. Select one or more instant metrics (up to 5 per visit).
   Click the information button to see a metric's definition, available dimensions, and formula. Click the MetricHQ link for more detailed information.
   
4. Click Add metrics.
5. First time connecting to Facebook: Click Add new account.
   
6. Enter your Facebook login credentials and click Log in.
7. Under Choose account settings, select your Facebook Page from the drop-down and click Use account.
   
   Note: The next time you add Facebook metrics, PowerMetrics skips the login and account settings steps and uses the same account as before. To connect to a different account, before clicking "Add metrics", click the account connection in the top right of the window (see below) and select an alternate, existing account or click Add new account.
   

Your Facebook instant metrics are added to your PowerMetrics account. Metrics added from the navigation sidebar or Metric List display in your metric list. Metrics added from an open dashboard are added to the dashboard and your metric list. Metrics added from Explorer open in Explorer and are added to your metric list.

How do I create Facebook custom metrics?

Use custom metrics when Facebook instant metrics don't cover the data or date range you need. Creating a custom metric involves four steps:

1. Connect to your Facebook account and add a data feed
2. Choose the data to include in your data feed
3. Refine the data in the data feed editor (optional)
4. Configure your custom metric

Step 1: Connect to your Facebook account and add a data feed

Every custom metric requires a data feed. As you create your metric, you'll either create a new data feed or select an existing one. Learn more about data feeds.

The first time you connect to Facebook, you'll log into your Facebook account, grant PowerMetrics access, and select your Facebook Page. When you create custom metrics next time, your existing connection is reused automatically, or you can switch accounts in the query builder.

To connect and add a data feed:

1. In the left navigation sidebar, click the + button beside Metrics and select See all services.
   Note: You can also create custom metrics from the Metric List page, from Explorer, or from an open dashboard in Edit mode.
2. On the Where is your data? page, select Facebook.
3. Click Can't find the instant metric you need? Build a custom metric instead. (Located at the end of the instant metrics list.)
   
4. First time connecting to Facebook:
   • Click +New data feed > Select Facebook data.
   • Click Add new account.
     
   • Enter your Facebook login credentials and click Log in.
   • Under Choose account settings, select your Facebook Page and click Use account.
     
   • Proceed to Step 2: Choose data to include in your data feed.
5. Already connected to Facebook:
   • PowerMetrics skips the login steps and takes you directly to creating or selecting a data feed.
     Note: If you want to connect to a different account, when choosing data to include in your data feed, click the account connection at the top of the data preview window in the query builder (see below). And, select an alternate, existing account or click Add new account.
     
   • To create a new data feed: Click Select data feed > +New Facebook data feed > Select Facebook data, then proceed to Step 2: Choose data to include in your data feed.
   • To reuse an existing data feed: Click Select data feed, choose from the list, and click Select. Then skip to Step 4: Configure your custom metric.

Step 2: Choose data to include in your data feed

In the query builder, you select the data view and columns that define the Facebook data that gets pulled into your data feed.

Using the data view you select, we’ll run a query to get a list of available columns (fields) from within the data view. You’ll then choose from those columns to specify what data to include in your data feed.

 When you build metrics using this feed, you'll choose which columns to display for each metric.

Tip: You can apply filters to the data view and to columns in the left sidebar and the data preview table to narrow down the data before querying. Filtering at the source reduces query volume, improves speed, and makes data easier to work with. Learn more about filtering in the query builder. See Facebook-specific filtering tips.

To choose data for your data feed:

1. Under Data view, click the drop-down to select the subset of Facebook data to query.
   
   Tip: Search by data view name or by a column/field name to find the right data view.
2. Under Data view filters, apply required (if applicable) or optional filters (if desired).
   Tip: If the API supports "StartDate" and "EndDate" as filter options, applying them here (at the query source level) improves efficiency over filtering later on query results.
3. Under Columns, check the columns to include in your data feed (up to 30 columns per data view).
   Tip: Use the search box to find a specific column by name. Each selected column will display as a column in the data preview table.
4. Optionally, apply filters to specific columns to narrow down your data before previewing.
   Note: You can also filter in the data preview table (next step), where your data is more visible. Filtering in the sidebar first is most useful when the dataset is too large to preview all at once.
5. Click Preview data. The preview populates with results for your selected columns.
   Note: The preview shows up to 1,000 rows. Use the row count dropdown (50, 100, 500, or 1,000) to adjust display. The query completion time is shown in the preview.
   
6. If the preview isn't what you need, adjust your data view or column selections, then click Preview data again or click Reload data (located above the preview table).
   Note: To switch Facebook accounts, click the account connection at the top of the preview window (see below). Switching accounts clears your current selections and restarts from the data view step.
   
7. Apply additional column filters directly in the data preview table to narrow down the data further as needed.
8. When satisfied, click Use this data.

Proceed to Step 3: Refine the data in the data feed editor.

Step 3: Refine data in the data feed editor (optional)

In the data feed editor, you can accept the automatic settings or customize further. Learn more about editing data feeds.

• If you're happy with the automatic settings: Click Save data feed and proceed to Step 4: Configure your custom metric.
• If you want to make changes: Common adjustments include renaming columns, changing data formats, updating the data feed name, and combining columns with formulas. When you're done making changes, click Save data feed.
• To go back and adjust your query (e.g., add/remove columns or filters): click the tile under Data service to return to the query builder (see below).
  

Note: Once you've saved a data feed, you can reuse it to create additional custom metrics. Go to Data Feeds in the left sidebar, select the data feed, and click +Add metric.

Proceed to Step 4: Configure your custom metric.

Step 4: Configure your custom metric

When you configure a custom metric you select the measure and dimensions from the data feed to include in the metric and choose settings that determine how the data will be visualized.

Tip: Click the button beside Measure, Date and Time, and Date handling for an in-context guide to each setting. The metric preview window updates live as you make changes — experiment freely before saving.

To configure your custom metric:

1. Under Data source, optionally click Filter source data to include or exclude dimension members. Excluded members won't display or be available as dimensions in the saved visualization. Note: You can filter by member or by condition. By default, the first time you apply filters to a metric, you’ll see the UI for member filtering. To filter by condition, click the “Condition filters” link. You can apply up to 10 filter conditions/dimension.
   Tip: Click the data source tile to view and edit the associated data feed.
   
2. Under Measure, select the data feed column containing the values you want to track.
   
3. Under Dimensions, select the columns by which to segment or filter the metric value (measure). For example, segment social data by post type, page, or time period.
   • By default, selected dimensions are available for both filtering and segmentation in the final visualization. To change this for individual dimensions, click All beside the name and adjust as a filter or as a segment checkboxes.
     
   • To create a metric with no filtering or segmentation, leave all dimensions unselected.
   • Note: Only columns with a text format are available as dimensions. If the data feed has no text columns, no dimension options display.
   • Tip: Rename a dimension by clicking its name and typing a new one. This changes the display name only (not the data feed column name). Hover over a renamed dimension to see the original data feed column name. Note: Renaming a dimension used by other metric visualizations will remove associated filters and segmentations from those visualizations — they'll need to be reapplied.
4. Under Date and Time, select the data feed column that contains the date/time associated with each value.
   
   If no date column exists in the data feed, disable the Data feed contains historical data toggle to use the data feed's refresh date/time instead.
   
5. Click the Settings tab.
   
6. Under Date handling, select Use all values or Use most recent values only. This determines which data points the metric uses when calculating the value for a time period.
   
   If you chose Use most recent values only, also select the time period.
   
   Help choosing the right date handling method.
7. Under Format, choose Numeric, Currency, Percentage, or Duration.
   
   • Currency: Defaults to USD $. Choose an alternate symbol from the drop-down. Note: This is a display option only. Currency is not converted.
   • Duration: Optionally adjust Maximum and Minimum Granularity.
8. Under Decimal places, select 0–9 decimal places. Auto shows up to 4 decimal places and drops trailing zeros. To restore the original settings, reselect Auto.
9. Under Aggregation, review the aggregation type. It’s based on the measure you selected for the metric. Numeric columns default to "sum"; text columns default to "count". This aggregation type is used wherever no user override is in effect and when no configuration options are available (e.g., the Metric List page).
   
10. Enable Users can override aggregation if you want to allow changes to the aggregation type in metric visualizations.
    
    Note: PowerMetrics sets the most appropriate aggregation automatically. We recommend leaving override disabled in most cases.
11. Under Blank values, choose how to treat empty values.
    Tip: For transactional metrics, treat blank values as zeros.
    
12. Under Favourable trend, choose whether ascending or descending values indicate a positive trend. For example, if your metric includes sales totals, a higher (ascending) number demonstrates a positive trend but, if your metric includes cost to acquire customers, a lower (descending) number indicates a positive trend. Positive trends are indicated by a green arrow; unfavourable changes are indicated by a red arrow.
    
13. Click the About tab.
    
14. Optionally, enter a name and description for the metric. The metric is auto-named based on the measure you selected.
15. Under Metric image, optionally click Edit image to change the service icon. Learn more.
16. Under Certification, optionally enable the Certify this metric toggle. Learn more.
17. Click Save metric.

Your Facebook custom metric is saved and added to your metric list. If you created it from an open dashboard, it's also added to that dashboard.

Next steps — interacting with your data

Now that your Facebook metrics are set up, here are some ways to start working with your data:

• View your data from multiple perspectives on the metric overview page.
• Organize your account by certifying metrics and applying asset tags to metrics, dashboards, and data feeds.
• Investigate and analyze your data in Explorer.
• Get contextual answers to your questions with the PowerMetrics AI Assistant.
• Gather your metrics onto dashboards and share them with your colleagues.
• Add goals to your metrics to track progress.

Frequently asked questions

What is a data feed in PowerMetrics?

A data feed is the connection between PowerMetrics and a specific subset of your Facebook data. Instant metrics rely on managed data feeds (pre-built by PowerMetrics). Custom metrics use data feeds you create; they define the data view and columns that are queried for your custom metrics Learn more about data feeds.

What's the difference between Facebook instant metrics and custom metrics in PowerMetrics?

Instant metrics are pre-built by PowerMetrics based on industry best practices; you select them and they're ready to use immediately with a fixed date range. Custom metrics are built from a data feed you define, giving you full control over the Facebook data you track, how the data is filtered, and what date range is used. Build custom metrics when instant metrics don't cover the data or date range you need.

Does PowerMetrics connect to Facebook personal profiles or business pages?

PowerMetrics connects to Facebook business pages only, not personal profiles. Your business page must be linked to an authentic Facebook account, and you need admin rights to authorize the connection.

Why do I need admin access to my Facebook Page to connect to PowerMetrics?

Facebook requires you to have an administrative role on a business page before any third-party application can access that page's data. See How do I manage roles for my Facebook Page? to add yourself or another user as a page admin.

Can I use the same Facebook connection for multiple metrics?

Yes. After connecting to Facebook for the first time, PowerMetrics reuses that connection automatically each time you add instant or custom metrics. You can also connect additional Facebook accounts if needed.

What should I do if my Facebook connection stops working?

If an existing connection fails, your OAuth token may have expired. See OAuth token authentication FAQs and troubleshooting tips for steps to reconnect.

How many columns can I include in a Facebook custom metric data feed?

You can include up to 30 columns per data view in a Facebook custom metric data feed.

Can I reuse a Facebook data feed for multiple custom metrics?

Yes. After saving a data feed, go to Data Feeds in the left navigation sidebar, select the data feed, and click +Add metric to create additional metrics using the same feed.

How do I switch to a different Facebook account or page in PowerMetrics?

When adding instant metrics: before clicking "Add metrics", click the account connection in the top right of the window and select a different account or click Add new account.

When creating custom metrics: in the query builder, click the account connection at the top of the data preview window to switch accounts.