The Difference Between Facebook Click Metrics

Facebook’s analytics offer a huge amount of metrics to report on and sometimes it can get confusing, especially when they roll out new functionality so frequently… Are you aware of the difference between Facebook clicks?

After reading this post, you’ll have a clearer understanding of what each click metric means and which you should be using in your own reports. Here they are:

> Clicks (All)

> Link Clicks

> Outbound Clicks

> Landing Page Views

> CPC

> CTR

> Unique Clicks

WHERE TO FIND THIS INFO

Facebook makes it super easy to find out what each metric means. Simply hover over the header row within Facebook Ads Manager and you’ll get a succinct breakdown.

Take it a step further by clicking on “See more” and you’ll get a full breakdown. It’s thorough so we’ll break it down for you simply here to make sure what you think you’re reporting on is what you should actually be reporting on!

Still can’t see these metrics? Go to columns and then Customise Columns…

CLICKS (ALL)

As it sounds, Clicks (All) reports on the cumulative total clicks on your advert. Any click on your ad, whether scrolling through a carousel or clicking to your landing page counts.

Here’s what would be considered a Click (All)

> Link clicks to your Facebook page or website

> Reactions (likes, shares, comments etc.)

> Expanding media to full screen

> Clicks to take an action as per your campaign objective (page like, click through to website etc.)

As you can see, it’s a lot. And can be incredibly misleading if you’re reading Clicks (All) as the amount of clicks through to your site, for instance. If you have been doing that, it’ll explain in part why your Facebook Analytics are showing different stats to Google Analytics. More on that here if you want to see an in-depth answer around attribution.

Clicks (All) is a decent metric to measure engagement on your ad, though, so it’s useful to be aware of but shouldn’t be your North Star.

LINK CLICKS

Link Clicks is a little more defined and measures the “number of clicks on links within the ad that led to destinations or experiences, on or off Facebook.”

Link Clicks culls things like clicks to expand media or reactions for example but still includes any click through to websites, messages, lead forms, videos hosted by another site etc.

It’s more defined than Clicks (All) but remember that it includes links within Facebook as well.

OUTBOUND CLICKS

Outbound Clicks is quite self-explanatory and measures any time you click a link that takes you away from Facebook.

Clicks to:

> Your website

> An app

> Anything else off the Facebook platform

So, Outbound Clicks should be the North Star for metrics, right? Not always. Facebook’s recently rolled out Landing Page Views…

LANDING PAGE VIEWS

Landing Page Views measure the number of times a person clicked on an advert and then successfully loaded the site you’re sending them to. See, not everyone who clicks on your outbound link stays until your page has loaded, and as a result you might think you’ve got conversion issues if you just use Outbound Clicks as your core metric.

The catch with Landing Page Views though is that you must have the Facebook Pixel installed – a snippet of code that allows Facebook to capture data on your site visitors and measure their interactions. If you’re running any ads, or even thinking about it, install the Pixel ASAP.

The primary difference between Outbound Clicks and Landing Page Views is the page load. It’s a minor detail but super important. People abandon clicks for various reasons but load time, poor internet and accidental clicks are just a few reasons.

Landing Page Views are measuring quality and confirm the value of a click.

CPC (COST PER CLICK)

Another obvious one: CPC measures the cost per click. Whether that’s a Click (All), Outbound Click etc. you can (and should) get granular with these metrics to understand your advertising costs in a little more detail.

That said, we often find companies who are obsessed with maximising clicks for their ad budget and get tunnel vision on cheap clicks. On the face of it, that sounds like a great idea but it’s important to remember your strategic objectives and analyse the quality of the clicks you’re encouraging.

CPC does not directly equate to Cost Per Conversion or Cost Per Acquisition (CPA). Yes, it’s good to get cheap clicks but only if the clicks through to your site are targeted and relevant prospects. If you’re pushing anyone and everyone to your site your bounce rate will be through the roof, time on site will be poor, conversions will be low and most importantly you’ll be polluting your Facebook audiences.

Send poor traffic to your site and then run Lookalike Audiences and you’ll be stuck in a downward spiral where Facebook will continue to find you sub-optimal customers based on that poor traffic.

Polluting your audiences like this is one of the major reasons companies fail to have the success that’s possible with Facebook advertising, so keep an eye on the quality of your traffic in Google Analytics and not just what you’re paying for it.

CTR (CLICK THROUGH RATE)

CTR (All), much like Clicks, can measure a wide range of variables from engagement through to Outbound Clicks.

In effect, CTR (All) is the % of times someone saw your ad and performed a Click. We’ve already covered why Clicks (All) isn’t necessarily the most important metric you should be monitoring and the same applies to CTR (All), although it does give another good indication of overall engagement.

Drill a little deeper with CTR and start using metrics like Link CTR and Outbound CTR to get a clearer picture of the true CTR you actually want to measure.

UNIQUE CLICKS

Unique Clicks are one of the most important metrics to consider when reporting. Whilst other Click metrics are cumulative, Unique Click metrics break clicks down by individual user, so you can get a clearer picture of how many people are actually engaging with you.

Consider this: Clicks (All) gives you a figure of 500 clicks whilst Unique Link Clicks might only show 250. In short, whilst there were only 250 individuals performing the clicks, some people clicked more than once.

Just like other Click metrics, you can get granular with Unique Clicks and report on Unique Outbound CTR, Cost Per Unique Click [Link Click, Outbound Click, Click (All)] etc. to really understand how your advertising budget is being spent and what results you’re really getting.

WRAPPING IT UP

> Clicks (All) is a cumulative measurement of all clicks on your ad

> Link Clicks is a cumulative measurement of all clicks on your ad that led to destinations or experiences on or off Facebook

> Outbound Clicks is a cumulative measurement of any clicks that take the user off Facebook

> Landing Page Views is a cumulative measurement of the number of times someone clicked on an ad link and successfully loaded the destination page (Pixel must be installed for this metric)

> CPC is your Cost Per Click. Select CPC “??” for the Click metric you decide is most appropriate. Don’t assume low CPC equals low CPA.

> CTR is your Click Through Rate and measures the % of times someone saw your ad and performed a Click. Again, select your preferred CTR metric.

> Unique Clicks measure clicks by individual, rather than the amount of times they perform a click. Again, select your preferred Unique Click metric.

All these metrics have a defined purpose. Clicks (All) is great for measuring engagement but abysmal for reporting on visitors to your site, for instance. Unique Landing Page Views would be a much better metric for measuring the amount of people through to your site, whilst incorporating the load time as an extra layer of traffic quality into the mix.

Perhaps a little confusing to begin with but go ahead and have a play with them all, just make sure you’re reporting using the right one!

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