This is our second video on Facebook insights. In our first video, we covered an overview of what Facebook insights are and how to navigate them. You can see the post here.
In this article, we are going to cover “Using Facebook Insights – How Effective Are Your Facebook Posts?” For businesses in Palm Desert, understanding these insights can be crucial. I’m about to dive in and show you what you can learn from the analytics and stats that Facebook Insights provides about the posts you’re publishing. If you need expert guidance, partnering with a social media marketing service in Palm Desert can help you make the most of these insights.
Facebook Post Insights: When Your Audience Is Online
If you want to follow along, you can head over to your page in a new tab in your browser and watch what we do.
Now over on the left-hand side, head down to the Posts or Content section inside Meta Business Suite. The layout has changed slightly in 2026, but the insights still help you understand how your Facebook posts are performing. For businesses in Palm Desert, a social media marketing agency in Palm Desert can help you make the most of these insights.
Now at the top here, it tells you that it’s a one-week period and these insights are based on your local time zone.
So depending on where you’re at, you’ll see the time zone in your own area. Now, this gray graph you see below, I like to call it the whale graph, it gives you an indication of WHEN your followers or your fans are online, and most of the pages that we deal with look like this shape.
So you can see on if 1 above, that there’s a dip overnight, in the middle of the night, and then as we ramp up throughout the day it gets busier. Usually, the busiest time for most Facebook pages is somewhere between the seven o’clock and the nine o’clock p.m time slot, at the head of the whale I like to call it.
Because people have finished work, they’re coming back from their day, they’re doing what they’re doing, they’re kicking back on the couch, they’re watching TV, they’re reading their Facebook feeds.
What time of day is best to post on Facebook?
Now, why is this information important? Well, if you notice that you’re posting at a time when activity is low, your content may not get enough early engagement to perform well in the Facebook algorithm. For example, if you post very early in the morning, like five or six o’clock, many people may not be online yet or actively browsing Facebook or Reels at that time.
Whereas for many business pages, engagement activity is still strongest between seven and nine o’clock in the evening, so scheduling your posts around those peak hours may help improve visibility and engagement.
You can also see in figure 2 above which days your audience is most active. If you hover over each day, Meta Business Suite will show slight differences in audience activity levels. In many cases, the difference between days may not be significant, but these insights can still help you identify the best times and days to post based on your specific audience behavior.
One important thing to remember in 2026 is that Facebook’s algorithm now prioritizes engagement quality and relevance more than just posting time alone. That means strong content, consistency, and audience interaction are just as important as choosing the right posting schedule.
Which Facebook posts worked best for me?
So now if I scroll down a little lower, and we touched on this in our first article, but what I do want to show you is this section gives you a whole lot of posts that have been published.
What it’s showing you is the type of post that works. Now, this may be a good little insight for you to be looking at. In the 3rd column, under the heading of type, it gives you a little icon. These icons represent either a photo, a link, a video, and sometimes other options like a poll, etc. By looking at these different types, you can see if this is a photo, how was my reach? How was my engagement?
If I scroll down a little further, I can see a post that was a video, and you can see that video icon in there Fig 1. Now, this one here is a video from December 23rd and you can notice that the actual engagement was a little higher than the other image posts.
If I scroll down further, there’s another video and there is some more engagement there. And as I scroll down, looking, further along, I can see that each of these videos is a bit more engaging than the actual image posts. So, if you’re looking for engagement, then maybe video posts could be the way to go.
The other type of post here that we can see is a link post, which usually doesn’t get you a lot of traffic. I’m not a big fan of link posts, but you can see on your own page metrics which one’s working for you. If you notice that videos are working for you, go and do some more videos, I would highly suggest you do that.
What are Facebook Post Types?
The one thing that I do want to also show is at the top here, is another sub-menu item called Post types.
This gives you a quick overview of which posts, which types, get the actual best reaction. The Videos type post has an average engagement of 26 post clicks (the blue bar), you can see the purple bar is for reactions or comments.
Photos are the next best successful metric for this business, followed by links and then status updates.
Watching your Competitors Facebook Analytics
The final tab along the top of this page is the “Top posts from pages you watch”.
If you go to the “Top Posts from Pages You Watch” section, you can monitor how competitor pages are performing and which types of content are generating the most engagement. In Meta Business Suite, you still need to manually add competitor pages to your watch list in order to track their activity.
In this example, General Air had three of the top-performing posts with the highest engagement, while A1 Service Heroes and Comfort Air also had strong-performing content.
This section is useful because it gives you insight into what’s currently working in your industry or local market. By reviewing competitor posts regularly, you can identify trends, content ideas, posting styles, and engagement patterns that may help improve your own Facebook strategy.
In 2026, competitor analysis is even more important because Meta’s algorithm now prioritizes engaging, relevant, and shareable content more heavily than ever before. Monitoring high-performing competitor posts can help you better understand what your audience is responding to.
Next, let’s take a look at video analytics and performance metrics, since video and Reels content continue to generate some of the strongest engagement on Facebook. If you want to improve your video performance and build a stronger content strategy, reach out our team in Palm Desert to optimize your Facebook marketing for better engagement and growth.
While you are here, we would love it if you could like us on Facebook too.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What does Facebook Insights tell you about your posts?
Facebook Insights helps you understand how your audience interacts with your content by showing metrics like reach, engagement, shares, clicks, and overall post performance. - Where can I find Facebook Insights in 2026?
In 2026, Facebook Insights are available inside Meta Platforms Business Suite under the Insights and Content sections, where you can track post and audience performance. - Why is engagement important on Facebook?
Engagement helps increase your content visibility because Facebook’s algorithm favors posts that receive likes, comments, shares, and meaningful interactions. - Can Facebook Insights help improve posting times?
Yes. Insights data shows when your audience is most active online, helping you schedule posts during the best engagement hours. - What type of Facebook content performs best in 2026?
Short-form videos, Reels, educational posts, and engaging visual content generally perform best because Meta prioritizes interactive and shareable content. - How do I know if my Facebook posts are effective?
You can measure effectiveness through metrics like reach, engagement rate, clicks, shares, and audience interaction trends over time. - What is the “Pages You Watch” feature?
The “Pages You Watch” feature allows businesses to monitor competitor activity and compare engagement performance with other pages in their industry. - Why should businesses monitor Facebook analytics regularly?
Regularly reviewing Facebook analytics helps businesses improve content strategy, understand audience behavior, and make better data-driven marketing decisions.
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