The news: Meta released a new metric for social media campaign engagement, seeking to diversify beyond clickthrough rates and track what engagement looks like on platforms like Instagram and Threads.

Marketers can now see “engage-through” attribution data, including comments, likes, shares, bookmarks, and saves. The metric also sharpens and narrows the definition of clickthrough attribution for site conversion, so only link clicks will count as clickthroughs.

The update could minimize reporting gaps between Meta Ads Manager and third-party tools such as Google Analytics. It could also help marketers capitalize on social media’s prominent role in the ad sector: Social network ad spending will account for 32.1% of total US digital ad spend this year, per our data.

Why it matters: The new attribution category could serve as an important intent signal for when users view and engage with an ad but don’t click on the link. That still offers opportunities for brand and product awareness as well as visibility via shares and reposts to reach new customers.

• The change also reflects pressure on platforms to better capture in-feed behaviors and could help marketers justify investment in performance-driven social media plans.
• More granular engagement reporting may also reshape optimization strategies, helping advertisers refine creative and targeting strategies based on interaction quality, rather than having an outsized focus on traffic volume.

Recommendations for marketers: Monitor engage-through attribution data on social campaigns that are aimed at increasing awareness, rather than conversion, to see how interactions such as likes and comments boost visibility and help posts reach new, non-following users.