When you connect a channel to Social Media Management for the first time, the platform will automatically backfill as many of your existing posts, engagements, and insights as possible. If you reconnect a disconnected channel, we will also attempt to backfill anything that was missed during the disconnection.
This type of data is called historical data because it predates the channel connection. Other connection types, like ad account or content source connections, may also allow us to backfill historical data.
In this article, we will review the historical data availability for Facebook connections.
Note: Depending on how much historical data you have, backfilling it may take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours. If it's been over 24 hours and you're still missing the data below, please don't hesitate to contact Support.
Backfilling owned Facebook channels
If you're an Admin or Team Leader in Social Media Management, you can connect your owned Facebook channels to the platform by going to Settings > Channel admin.
After you connect a new Facebook channel, or reconnect a disconnected Facebook channel, we will automatically backfill the following historical data:
Module | Backfilled Facebook Historical Data |
Publish | Posts and comments from the past 2 years (up to 600 posts total). |
Engage | Posts, comments, and mentions from the past 2 years (up to 600 posts total). Direct message (DM) conversations with at least one sent or received message within the past 15 days. For those conversations, all messages are indexed. |
Audience | Audience profiles for all participants in the content backfilled by Engage. |
Measure | Channel metrics from the past year. Content metrics and posts from the past 2 years (up to 600 posts total). |
Backfilling Facebook ad accounts
If you're an Admin or Team Leader in Social Media Management, you can connect your Facebook ad account to the platform by going to Organization admin > Ad accounts.
After you connect a Facebook ad account, we will automatically backfill the following historical data:
Module | Backfilled Facebook Historical Data |
Advertise | Ad campaigns, ad sets, and ads from the past 2 years. Ads Manager metrics from the past 90 days. |
Measure | Promoted posts from the past 2 years. Ads Manager metrics from the past 90 days. |
Backfilling non-owned Facebook channels in Benchmark
If you're an Admin in Social Media Management, you can connect your competitors' Facebook channels to Benchmark by going to Settings > Benchmark admin and adding them as Benchmark brands.
After you connect a Facebook channel to Benchmark, we will automatically backfill all public Facebook posts and public data from the past 2 years, except for fans data, which is only available from the channel connection date onwards.
Tip: You can also connect your owned Facebook channels as brands to Benchmark to compare your public data to your competitors'. Please note that you will still need to set up the channel as a brand in Benchmark admin, even if your channel is already connected in Channel admin.
Note: Benchmark data is shared across all Social Media Management organizations. If one organization connects a channel to Benchmark, any other organizations that connect the channel will be able to see all its historical data (including fans data) going back to the original connection date.
You can check any Benchmark channel's data availability in Benchmark admin.
Backfilling Facebook content sources in Listen
If you're an Admin or Team Leader in Social Media Management, you can add both owned and non-owned Facebook channels as content sources in Listen.
Note: The process to connect a Listen content source is different than the standard process to connect a channel in SMM. Even if you've already connected a Facebook channel in your Channel admin settings, you'll still need to add it as a content source in Listen.
Historical data availability in Listen is based on the calendar date, not the content source connection date. Listen always shows the most recent mentions relative to today's date, whether the content source was added two days ago or two years ago.
After you connect a Facebook channel as a content source in Listen, Listen will show the following historical data:
Quick searches: All Facebook mentions and data from the past 30 days.
Saved searches: All Facebook mentions and data from the past year.
Learn more: What Historical Data Will I See in Listen?
Backfilling Facebook channels in Influence
After you connect a Facebook account to Influence, we will automatically backfill the following historical data:
Authenticated accounts: All available data from the past 180 days.
Non-authenticated accounts: All available data from the past 180 days.
Learn more: Data Availability in Influence