On Wednesday, Facebook announced a major update to its platform to address newfound errors in its ad metrics calculations. The company misreported flawed numbers across different ad products and is taking concrete measures to solve the issue.
Facebook’s new update arrives as yet another controversy involving advertisement in the platform.
The social media giant recently faced some backlash from minority groups after it came to light that the company established ‘ethnic affinity’ filters for some of its ads.
The billionaire enterprise is also under pressure from investors. They want the company to be always innovating and retaining its primary ad revenue stream.
Some see Snap Inc’s upcoming IPO as a power move that could threaten some of Facebook’s core business.
What is Facebook fixing with this update?
Facebook detected four primary bugs on four of its advertisement products within the platform. The company said the errors are also a result of a bug within the platform rather than a miscalculation from its team.
The first is an issue with content viewing in the platform. Weekly and monthly reports showed inaccurate numbers. New calculations place the average viewings at $33 less for 7-day overviews, while 28-day summaries may be down as much as 55%.
Facebook had also used a wrong base for its calculations on average time spent reading articles on its site. The company fixed this, and new reports may illustrate numbers between 7% and 8% lower on average.
Moreover, Facebook found that it was over-reporting on app referral numbers. Only 30% of the actual figures meet the criteria of content consumption on Facebook directly, meaning 70% of those clicks were redirecting to other sites outside the social media giant.
Not everything is negative, though, since one of the bugs turned out to be under-reporting instead of showing small numbers. Complete video watches on-site are up approximately 35% after fixing an issue that added seconds at the beginning and end of a video.
So, what’s new on Facebook’s ad service?
To clarify its ad metrics, Facebook will introduce a couple of tweaks to its advertisement infrastructure.
The company will now use thoroughly defined names on products marketed, categorize them under specific criteria, and provide robust definitions of the terms it uses to describe ads and elements.
Facebook will also, of course, give advertisers a clearer account on the calculations performed to measure and track the metrics of their ads.
What are the new tools for Facebook marketers?
Advertisers using Facebook to promote or push forward their products and services will see the site more committed to communicating with them, and more willful to correct mistakes that may cost them money.
Facebook will enforce this new transparency policy through the installation of a global Client Council, a direct link for marketers and third parties on the platform to gain enhanced insight on what can be improved.
The social media giant will also launch a blog dedicated to these ad-related updates. The FYI Blog is already up within Facebook’s Newsroom, and the first post depicts in detail the new changes coming to the site.
