Meta Reporting Has Changed. What You Need to Know

Meta’s reporting has changed, and for many advertisers and creators it has created more confusion than clarity.

Dashboards look different. Familiar metrics have been renamed, reweighted, or quietly retired. As a result, the numbers you are seeing today no longer line up neatly with what you were used to.

That does not mean performance has suddenly dropped. It means Meta has changed how it defines what matters.

Here is what has changed, why it has happened, and how we are interpreting performance at Paladin going forward.

Views (Previously Impressions)

Meta has replaced Impressions with Views.

Views count every time your content appears on screen, including repeat exposure to the same person.

Under the old Impressions model, Meta attempted to distinguish between unique and repeat exposure. Views take a simpler approach and focus purely on visibility.

What this means is that view counts will almost always look higher than legacy impression numbers. That increase is expected. Views are designed to reflect total exposure rather than perceived efficiency.

Viewers (Previously Reach)

Reach has been replaced with Viewers.

Viewers measure the number of unique people who saw a specific piece of content. This is already live on Facebook, with Instagram expected to follow the same approach.

Previously, reach could be inflated by aggregating exposure across different placements and formats. Viewers remove that layer and focus on the post itself.

As a result, viewer numbers will often look lower than reach did before. This does not signal weaker performance. It reflects a tighter definition that prioritises accuracy over scale.

Interactions and Engagement Rate

Engagement is now reported as content interactions.

The emphasis has shifted away from passive or low-intent actions such as three-second video plays, profile visits, and link clicks. Instead, Meta is prioritising deliberate signals, including likes and reactions, comments, shares and reposts, and saves.

Engagement rate is now calculated using views rather than impressions. This change alone is why many brands are seeing engagement rates drop.

Lower engagement rates do not mean weaker content. They are the result of a broader visibility metric combined with a narrower definition of what counts as engagement. The reporting is more honest, even if it feels harsher at first glance.

A Note on Engagement Strategy

This shift forces better thinking.

The question is no longer how to get engagement. It is what type of engagement actually supports your objectives.

Whether the goal is driving website traffic, increasing reel watch time, sparking conversation, or generating demand, brands need to be intentional about which interactions matter most. Content should be built to earn those responses specifically.

Visibility is no longer enough on its own. Value is what the algorithm is increasingly designed to reward.

Organic Insights vs Paid Delivery

One of the biggest frustrations we are seeing is a mismatch between numbers for the same post, depending on where they are viewed.

This usually comes down to the difference between organic insights and paid delivery reporting.

Business Suite Insights only credits views that it can confidently trace back to the original post. Ads and boosted posts count every view as soon as it happens and across all eligible placements.

In simple terms, Insights waits to be sure, while paid reporting counts immediately.

This means paid view totals will almost always be higher than organic insight numbers. When reviewing performance, paid and organic activity need to be assessed separately to avoid drawing the wrong conclusions.

What Has Not Changed in Ads Manager

Ads Manager is still operating on the original reporting framework of impressions, reach, and engagement.

This means paid performance is being measured differently from organic content in Meta Business Suite. Trying to consolidate or directly compare these two data sets will quickly lead to misleading insights.

Our approach is to evaluate paid performance in Ads Manager using paid metrics and organic performance in Business Suite using views, viewers, and interactions. They are designed for different purposes and should be treated as such.

What This Shift Really Tells Us

Meta is not breaking reporting. It is tightening it.

A larger trend towards accuracy and intent is reflected in the move towards Views, Viewers, and Interactions. There is more emphasis on significant signals and less space for exaggerated figures.

Brands that stop chasing surface-level metrics, appropriately distinguish between paid and organic performance, and establish KPIs that represent actual results rather than familiarity are the ones that adapt the quickest.

Being busy is not the key to successful social media marketing. It is about knowing what creates value and making intentional, clear optimisations for it.