Reportei follows the Terms and Conditions of each tool, we collect data from each network through APIs. Each API has its particularities and limitations.
In the case of Facebook Ads, for example, through the Facebook Marketing API, we were able to collect data that “matches” 100% of the time with what is shown in the Ads Manager. On Instagram and Facebook, due to the limitation of the Graph API, there are some metrics that may differ because of this.
In the Facebook and Instagram reports you can see the Total Reach metric, this metric shows the sum of the daily unique reach. So this means that it doesn’t just show the unique scope of the period, this happens precisely because of an API limitation. In this article, we will explain better why this metric shows the data in this way.
We were able to request Account Reach in three options:
- daily reach;
- cumulative reach of the last 7 days;
- cumulative reach of the last 28 days;
In these three “information sets” the Reach is, in fact, unique. However, what if we want to analyze a different period of these three?
In a scenario where we are going to generate a 60-day report, for example, we can request this data in several ways:
- 2 sets of 28 days + 4 unique days information
- 1 set of 28 days, + 4 sets of 7 days information + 4 unique days
- 60 unique days.
Choosing this set of information would be similar to choosing money in bills and coins when making a payment. There are several options. In this case, there is still an aggravating factor in that the order of these sets of information would directly impact the final value. For example:
- 1 set of 28 days, then 2 single days, then another set of 28 days, then 2 single days
It would be different from:
- 4 single days followed by 2 sets of 28 days.
This complexity for choosing Reach information sets would rapidly grow the longer the analysis period selected when generating a report. Worse, none of the options for combining these sets of information would bring us a “real” unique Reach, because whenever there is a sum of more than one set, there will be a chance to add a visitor more than once and make the number different than shown in the application interface.
That’s why, here at Reportei, we’ve chosen to make it as simple as possible and also easy to explain to our customers and our customers’ customers: we add up the unique daily reaches.
Unfortunately the API currently does not provide any other way to deal with this issue at the moment.
How to deal with the situation then?
We suggest that you use the “Page reach” metric on Facebook and “Sum of daily unique reach” on Instagram as a reference only. For in-depth analysis and to show the customer, focus on the Reach chart that shows data by day. This one, showing each day individually, will bring important insights of a truly unique reach and that will match what is shown in the applications interface.
If you have any other questions, please contact our support team!
