Dive Brief:

• Facebook is now placing Page performance metrics, such as reach and clicks, on the Page and News Feed level.
• Previously Page administrators had to go to Facebook Insights to access that data.
• The social network also slightly extended its lead in referral traffic over Google, new Parse.ly data shows.

Dive Insight:

Facebook is making life for Page administrators a bit easier by placing performance data including display stats for reach and clicks directly at the Page and News Feed level. The move means Page administrators are no longer required to go to Facebook Insights for those metrics. Facebook Insights will still offer those metrics, along with more detailed stats, but the shift allows marketers on the platform to more easily track basic Page performance. The new functionality has rolled out to all U.S. administrators, but so far not globally where it’s still being tested.

Facebook and Google have been trading off leading in referral traffic, and according to research from Parse.ly, a content analytics platform, Facebook retook the lead in June and increased that lead by three percentage points in July.

Martin Laprise, Parse.ly’s algorithms lead, told Marketing Land, "Although we can’t know for certain if Facebook’s share of traffic referrals will continue to grow, we can see that the percentage increase in referrals from Facebook is more significant than it was last fall."

Referral traffic from Facebook had surpassed that of Google last fall, but the difference was a only around 1%, so Laprise explained this time around the difference is "far more substantial," and thereby more meaningful for predicting future figures.