While viewing a Measure dashboard, whether you have built it yourself or chosen from one of the available dashboard templates, you can always choose to edit or add to the metrics which are on display.
It’s important to note that there are two different types of metrics: Channel metrics, and content metrics. Find out below how these two types of metrics differ, and why the totals may not be the same.
In this article:
Channel metrics
If you are viewing or creating any type of widget in Measure other than a Content Performance widget (the widget which lists your individual posts), you will be looking at channel metrics.
Channel metrics cover activity which occurred across your entire channel (including all existing posts) during your chosen date range. The wide range of metrics you can choose from are designed to cover your entire channel’s followers, demographics, video views, total post insights, direct messages, and more.
Please see a few examples below:
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Fans
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The total number of people who liked/followed your channel.
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Fans decrease
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The number of people who have unliked/unfollowed your channel.
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Fans by country
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Breakdown of fans by country.
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Total direct message (DM) conversations
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The total number of people who have messaged your channel since it was created.
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Engaged users
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The number of people who engaged with any of your posts. Engagement includes likes, comments, shares, or any other clicks.
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Reach
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The number of people who had any post from your channel enter their feed.
It’s important to note that channel metrics which relate to your channel’s posts (e.g., reach, link clicks, impressions) will reflect activity on all posts, regardless of when the posts were published. For example, if someone viewed a three year old post last week, this action will still count towards last week’s reach, even though the post was three years old.
Note:
The list of available channel metrics may differ depending on your channel’s network (Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), or LinkedIn). In addition, some channel metrics may only be available for certain widgets. Please visit Measure metrics by network for the complete list of metrics, full descriptions, and applicable widgets.
Content metrics
Content metrics are included in Content Performance widgets (the widget which lists your individual posts). It’s not possible to view and select from content metrics in any other type of widget.
Rather than covering data for your entire channel, content metrics display the up-to-date activity on each of your individual posts which were published during your chosen date range. The list of available metrics are designed to cover each post’s engagement, distribution, video views, paid conversions, and cost.
Please see a few examples below:
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Reactions
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Reactions to the post. Reactions to shares are not included.
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Comments
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Comments on the post. Replies to comments and comments on shares are not included.
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Shares
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Shares or Reposts (Retweets) of the post.
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Exits
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The number of times users exited from the Instagram Story.
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Exits rate
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The percentage of users that exited the Instagram Story. Formula: 100 * Exits / Reach
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Engagements
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The reactions, comments, and saves on the post. Clicks are not included.
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Link clicks
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The number of clicks on a link in the post.
As shown above, each selected metric will display the data for each post which was published during your chosen date range. At the top of the widget, you will also see the totals for all posts included in the widget.
If you are viewing historical posts, please bear in mind that the data displayed for each post reflects the data as of today, rather than just the activity which occurred during your chosen date range. For example, if you choose to limit your date range to 2020, all posts from 2020 will be displayed with their current total reach, comments, engagements etc., rather than only reflecting what happened during 2020.
Note:
Similar to channel metrics, the list of available content metrics may differ depending on your channel’s network (Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), or LinkedIn). Please visit our complete guide to Measure metrics to find out which metrics are available for each.
Comparing channel metrics and content Metrics
You may notice that the list of channel metrics and content metrics share some metrics in common — metrics that relate to your post insights, such as reach, impressions, likes, comments, shares, and more.
In addition, when you compare post insights metrics on your entire channel vs. the totals displayed in the Content Performance widget, sometimes the totals don’t match.
It’s recommended that you don’t compare these two against each other. The reason these numbers may not match is that the two numbers are taking different things into consideration. Let’s take comments as an example:
Channel metrics
When you are viewing comments as a channel metric (i.e., in any widget other than a Content Performance widget), the number will consider:
- Any post, published at any time.
- Only the comments which were added to these posts during your chosen date range (comments added before or after your chosen date range will not be considered).
Content metrics
When you are viewing the comments of your individual posts in a Content Performance widget, the total displayed at the top will consider:
- Only the posts which were published during the chosen date range.
- The total comments on these posts as of today.
The same differences apply to any metrics relating to your channel’s posts. To accurately view the success of your channel and all posts during a particular date range, use the applicable channel metric. To view the up-to-date success of the posts published during a particular date range, check out the total displayed at the top of the Content Performance widget.