As part of the work to migrate Facebook profile pages from "Classic" to the "New Page Experience", Meta will be deprecating a number of metrics by March 14, 2024. See also Meta's announcement of the changes.
This will impact the Supermetrics Facebook Insights data source and requires that we sunset or change some of the fields we support based on these upcoming deprecations.
This article contains a full description of all the updates and what you need to do to prevent any possible issues.
As announced, some fields will be replaced. Our team is working on releasing those fields as soon as possible before the actual field deprecation takes place.
Special note for data warehouse users
Standard table groups will not be updated at this time, which means that the deprecated fields will return empty values after March 14. Backfilling data after the sunset date will also overwrite data with empty values and should be avoided.
Keep in mind that removing fields from your custom tables can lead to that field being removed from your tables in the data warehouse, in particular, if you're using our BigQuery, Snowflake, Azure Synapse, Azure SQL DB, or AlloyDB integrations listed in your storage destinations on the Supermetrics Hub.
For other destinations, such as our direct BigQuery integration on Google Cloud, AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Storage, and SFTP, only shards and files are overwritten for the dates you're backfilling and transferring daily within your refresh window.
If you want to preserve the historical data of those fields in your destination, you have two options:
- Keep the affected fields in the custom table, and they will start returning empty values after March 14. If there are replacement fields available, you can add them to the custom table and continue using your custom table as before in your reports.
Note that if you run a backfill after March 14 for such custom tables to fetch historical data, such as for year 2023, this might also overwrite your historical data for the affected fields with empty values. - Rename your custom tables in the Table Managerand make the necessary changes to the custom table according to the information in this article in case your custom table contains combinations of fields that will lead to transfer failures after March 14. Renaming custom tables in the Table Manager will lead to new tables or files being generated in your destination.
- If any of your reporting is dependent on the affected custom tables, you'll either need to point the reports to the new tables, or combine the data of the new tables with the tables that contain your historical data (using SQL, ETL tool, or by combining the data inside a BI tool), so that your reports contain both the historical and the latest data.
- Note that you need to rename the custom tables, not the table group. Renaming the table group won't have any impact on the transfer, and this scenario would lead to you losing data for the fields you removed or replaced in your custom tables.
Deprecated fields with no replacements
The following fields will be deprecated on March 14, 2024, and will no longer return results after that date. While including these in queries won't break them, we recommend you remove the fields as they will no longer provide value.
| Field name | Field ID | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Content stories | page_stories | |
| Post stories | post_stories | This is "Content stories" used with any post dimension, field is otherwise hidden |
| Engaged users | page_engaged_users | Page version only |
| Engagement rate | EngagedUserPerc | Page version only |
| Page like source | like_source | |
| People checkin in using mobile | page_places_checkin_mobile_unique | |
| Check-ins using mobile | page_places_checkin_mobile | |
| People taking positive actions | page_positive_feedback_unique | |
| Positive actions | page_positive_feedback | |
| Positive action rate | positiveActionRate | |
| Post positive feedback | post_positive_feedback | This is "Positive actions" used with any post dimension, field is otherwise hidden |
| People visiting your page | page_views_unique | |
| Likes | page_likes | |
| Shares | page_shares | |
| Comments | page_comments | |
| Comments on shares | post_comments_on_shares | |
| Shares on shares | post_shares_on_shares | |
| Likes on shares | post_likes_on_shares | |
| Page tab | tab |
Deprecated fields with replacements
The following fields will be deprecated on March 14, 2024, and will no longer return results. While including these in queries won't break them, we recommend you update your queries to use the replacements to continue to get data.
- Content consumptions → Will add new "All clicks" field to use instead
- Post consumptions → Use "Post link clicks" instead
- Post shares → Use "Shares on post" instead
- Post comments → Use "Comments on post" instead
- Post likes → Use "Likes on post" instead. Note this replacement is not exactly the same data as the original and reports only the count like-reactions made to the post. It does not count other reactions or likes on shares of that post. If you need the total count of all reactions, use "Total post reactions" instead
- Engaged users with post dimensions → Will expose existing "Post engaged users" field to use instead
- Engagement rate with post dimensions → Will add new "Post engagement rate" field to use instead
New fields will be added sometime before March 14.
Fields with behavior changes
In the following cases, there’s a metric and dimension pair that will no longer be supported by the API. Depending on the change, there may be different behavior changes and actions you may need to take.
Content consumptions with Consumption type dimension
The "Consumption type" dimension will no longer work with the deprecated "Content consumptions" metric. Using this combination will result in an incompatible fields error.
What you need to do: Please use the new "All clicks" metric, which will work with the "Consumption type" dimension. We will also add new metrics with the breakdowns to use - "Link clicks", "Video play clicks", "Photo view clicks", and "Other clicks"
Content Stories with Story type dimension
The "Story type" dimension will no longer work with the deprecated "Content stories" metric. Using this combination will result in empty results.
Sadly, there is no replacement for this combination. The "Story type" dimension, however, will still work with other valid metrics.
What you need to do: Please remove this combination from your queries.
Check-ins with Demographics dimensions
The "Age", "Gender", "Gender & Age", "Country", and "Language" dimensions will no longer work with the "Check-ins" metric. Using these combinations will result in incompatible fields errors.
Sadly, there is no replacement for these combinations. However, the metric "Check-in" itself isn't deprecated and will still work in other combinations.
What you need to do: Please remove this combination from your queries.
People visiting your page with Demographics dimensions
The "Age", "Gender", and "Gender & Age" dimensions will no longer work with the deprecated "People visiting your page" metric. Using these combinations will result in empty results.
Sadly, there is no replacement for these combinations.
What you need to do: Please remove this combination from your queries.
Positive actions metrics with Action type dimension
The "Action type" dimension will no longer work with the deprecated Positive actions metrics, including:
- Positive actions
- Positive action rate
- Positive page feedback
- Post positive feedback
Using these combinations will result in empty results.
Sadly, there is no replacement for these combinations. Please note that "Action type" will still work with the Negative action metrics.
What you need to do: Please remove this combination from your queries.
Total likes with Demographics dimensions
The "Age", "Gender", and "Gender & Age" dimensions will no longer work with the "Total likes" metric. Using these combinations will result in empty results. (This differs from the above behaviors - this was done to keep existing DWH transfers running as the standard schema contains this combination.)
Sadly, there is no replacement for these combinations. However, the metric "Total likes" itself isn't deprecated and will still work in other combinations.
What you need to do: Please remove this combination from your queries.
We're here for you
If you have any questions or concerns about this change, contact our support team.