How to Use Metricool: The Setup Guide for Multi-Brand Operations

Metricool’s interface is intuitive once you understand how it’s organized. The learning curve isn’t steep, but there are setup decisions that matter — how you organize brands, how you connect the Canva pipeline, how you configure the API if you’re using programmatic scheduling. Getting these right at the start saves restructuring later.

Step 1: Connect Your Accounts

Start by connecting the social platforms for each brand. In Metricool, navigate to the brand you want to configure and go to the connected accounts section. For each platform — LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, GBP, X/Twitter — you’ll authenticate via OAuth or provide page-level credentials. Facebook and Instagram connect through a Facebook Business account. GBP connects through Google OAuth.

The most common setup friction: Instagram requires a Professional (Business or Creator) account connected to a Facebook Page. Personal Instagram accounts cannot be scheduled through third-party tools. If a client’s Instagram account isn’t connected to a Facebook Page, that connection needs to happen before Metricool can schedule to it.

Step 2: Understand the Brand Architecture

Each brand in Metricool is its own isolated environment — its own content calendar, its own analytics, its own connected accounts. When you’re in one brand’s view, you only see that brand’s content and data. The brand selector at the top of the interface switches between brands.

For an agency managing multiple client brands, the discipline of staying in the right brand before scheduling is important. Posting a client’s content to the wrong brand is a real failure mode. The brand name in the interface is visible but easy to overlook when you’re working quickly. Build a habit of confirming the active brand before scheduling anything.

Step 3: The Canva Pipeline

Metricool’s Canva integration is one of its most practically useful features. Connect Canva in Metricool’s integrations settings, then in Canva, designs can be published directly to Metricool’s media library with one click. The workflow: design in Canva, publish to Metricool, attach the image when scheduling the post.

This pipeline eliminates the download-upload cycle that most social media workflows require. For an operation producing visual content at volume — multiple posts per week across multiple brands — the time saving compounds quickly. The integration requires Canva Pro or higher and Metricool’s paid plan.

Step 4: The Content Calendar

Metricool’s content calendar shows scheduled posts in a weekly or monthly view for the active brand. Dragging posts between days reschedules them. Clicking a post opens the editor for that post. The calendar view is where most of the day-to-day scheduling management happens.

The best time to post indicator — shown when scheduling a new post — is derived from the brand’s own historical engagement data. For brands with established posting history, this is genuinely useful signal. For new brands with no history, it shows generic recommendations until enough data accumulates.

Step 5: API Setup (Advanced Plan)

For programmatic scheduling, navigate to Account Settings → API and generate your API token. The token authenticates all API requests via the X-Mc-Auth header. Your userId is visible in the URL when logged in: app.metricool.com/evolution/web?blogId=XXXX&userId=YYYY. Each brand’s blogId is in that same URL when you’re viewing that brand.

Critical API detail: providers (the platforms you’re posting to) must be objects, not strings. {{"network": "linkedin"}} not "linkedin". This is the most common cause of API scheduling failures for new integrations. The API documentation is available from Metricool’s help center and covers all supported endpoint parameters.

For LinkedIn, Facebook, and GBP, network values are linkedin, facebook, and google respectively. Instagram is instagram. One post can target multiple platforms simultaneously by including multiple provider objects in the array.

The Multi-Brand Workflow

For an operation managing many brands, the practical workflow is: log in, select the brand, check the calendar for the current week, identify gaps, schedule content to fill them, move to the next brand and repeat. The Canva pipeline feeds the media library. The API handles any programmatic scheduling. The analytics tab shows how last week’s content performed.

We run this workflow across 24 brands including local news properties like the Mason County Minute and Belfair Bugle, which post daily Facebook content generated from articles published to WordPress. The article goes live, Claude generates a social post via the Metricool API, and the post schedules automatically. The manual scheduling review is for brands where that automation isn’t set up.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I find my Metricool blogId?

Your blogId is in the URL when you’re viewing a brand’s dashboard in Metricool: app.metricool.com/evolution/web?blogId=XXXX&userId=YYYY. The number after blogId= is that brand’s blogId. Each brand has a unique blogId. Your userId is the same across all brands under your account.

Why can’t I connect my Instagram account to Metricool?

Instagram scheduling through third-party tools requires a Professional (Business or Creator) Instagram account connected to a Facebook Page. Personal Instagram accounts cannot be connected. If you’re connecting a client’s account, verify it’s a Professional account and that it’s linked to a Facebook Page before attempting to connect it in Metricool.

How does the Canva integration work?

Connect Canva in Metricool’s integrations settings. In Canva, after finishing a design, use the Share → More → Metricool option to publish the design directly to your Metricool media library. The design appears in the media library as an image file ready to attach to a scheduled post. This requires Canva Pro or higher and Metricool’s paid plan.