Measure regularly syncs with social media networks to ensure your data is as up-to-date as possible. The frequency of these updates is known as the data refresh rate, and it may differ depending on the specific network you're looking at. In this article, learn more about the data refresh rates for each network and how you can use this information to better understand your results in Measure.
In this article:
What are data refresh rates?
Most social media networks have their own, in-house reporting tools, which are often able to be updated in realtime with new data. However, Social Media Management, like all third-party tools, must wait for this data to be delivered to us via the network’s Application Programming Interface (API).
As a result, there will always be a short delay between a network's updates and our own. For content data, there will also be a limit to how long these updates can be delivered. These rules vary from network to network, so, if you’re troubleshooting data discrepancies, checking the network's data refresh rate is a good place to start.
Channel data refresh rates
Channel-level data is refreshed once every 24 hours at 7AM UTC for all networks except for YouTube, which delivers its channel data 36 - 72 hours after it's been recorded natively.
Tip:
Facebook and Instagram's native reporting for channel data is shifted forward by 24 hours. For example, if you set your date range to January 1 - January 5, Meta's Insights will show you the data for December 31 - January 4. This is because each day's data is collected until 11:59 PM and reported at 12:00 AM — technically the next day.
Measure shifts the data back 24 hours to account for this, so if you set your date range to January 1 - January 5, you'll see the data from those exact dates. However, it will correspond to Meta’s data for January 2 - January 6, so please keep this in mind if comparing the two.
Content data refresh rates
Content-level data is refreshed based on two schedules that run simultaneously: one triggered by a post’s publication, and one triggered by its incoming engagements (reactions, comments, and shares). The frequency and duration of these schedules varies from network to network.
For example, let's say you've just published a post to Instagram. This will start the clock on a data refresh schedule for all the post's metrics. On Instagram, this schedule runs for 14 days.
When your post receives its first engagement, that will start the second data refresh schedule, which is also for all metrics (not just engagements). On Instagram, this schedule runs for 180 days.
If a new engagement comes in while the second schedule is still running, the schedule's clock will be reset. The engagements-based schedule is always based on the most recent engagement within the post's tracking period. Instagram's tracking period is 14 days after a post's publication, so if your post receives an engagement on the last tracked day (Day 14), then the final data refresh will occur 180 days later (Day 194). At this point, lifetime data collection for the Instagram post is considered "complete."
This two-schedule approach ensures that no data is missed. The engagements-based schedule may reset itself many times during a post's first few days, making it difficult to predict when to expect the next update, so the publication-based schedule offers a baseline. On the other hand, the publication-based schedule is relatively short-lived, so the engagements-based schedule guarantees that your most viral posts will continue to be monitored further into the future.
Facebook data refresh rates
- Facebook posts are first refreshed with new data 15 minutes after publication. This schedule continues at varying intervals for 14 days.
- Facebook posts are also refreshed with new data 150 minutes after each engagement. This schedule continues at varying intervals for 28 days, and posts are tracked for new engagements indefinitely.
- Lifetime data collection for a Facebook post is considered complete at 28 days after its most recent engagement.
Note:
Most of Facebook's paid metrics require a connected ad account. Once connected, Measure will backfill the previous 14 days of paid data, which will then be updated based on the guidelines above.
Instagram data refresh rates
- Instagram posts are first refreshed with new data 15 minutes after publication. This schedule continues at varying intervals for 14 days.
- Instagram posts are also refreshed with new data 60 minutes after each engagement. This schedule continues at varying intervals for 180 days, and posts are tracked for new engagements for 14 days.
- Lifetime data collection for an Instagram post is considered complete at 194 days after publication.
Note:
Instagram Story data is refreshed once, 25 hours after publication.
LinkedIn data refresh rates
- LinkedIn posts are first refreshed with new data 15 minutes after publication. This schedule continues at varying intervals for 7 days.
- LinkedIn posts are also refreshed with new data 15 minutes after each engagement, and posts are tracked for new engagements for 14 days.
- Lifetime data collection for a LinkedIn post is considered complete at 14 days after publication.
X (Twitter) data refresh rates
- X (Twitter) posts are first refreshed with new data 15 minutes after publication. This schedule continues at varying intervals for 30 days.
- Lifetime data collection for an X (Twitter) post is considered complete at 30 days after publication.
TikTok data refresh rates
- TikTok posts are first refreshed with new data 4 minutes after publication, and again 5 hours after publication.
- TikTok posts are also refreshed with new data 4 minutes after each engagement, and posts are tracked for new engagements for 365 days.
- Lifetime data collection for a TikTok post is considered complete at 365 days after publication.
Forcing a refresh of your data
While it's not possible to manually trigger a data refresh, there are a couple exceptions for specific use cases.
The first is for posts that have already completed their publication-based data refresh schedule. People are less likely to engage with older posts, so if a post is several days or weeks old, its engagements may have plateaued. However, other metrics — such as reach, impressions, and clicks — may continue to slowly accumulate over time. This data will no longer be delivered to Measure until/unless a new engagement comes in, leading to minor discrepancies between the network's native reporting and our own. As a workaround, as long as you are still within the post's tracking window for engagements, you can "force" a data refresh by engaging with your own post.
For example, the Facebook post below received an additional four impressions after its final, engagements-based data refresh, and these impressions were not delivered to Measure. However, since Facebook posts are tracked for engagements indefinitely, you could like (then unlike) the post to restart the schedule.
If you're still unable to reconcile the differences between our data and a network's, the second option is to refresh the channel in question. In case one of your scheduled data refreshes was missed for technical reasons, such as a network error, a full channel refresh will backfill the data.