Dive Brief:
- Facebook announced three new updates to its ad metrics, including removing lesser-used metrics, updating how potential reach is calculated and replacing the single relevance score, according to a company blog post.
- The relevance score, a measure of how relevant ads are to the audience reached, will be replaced with three ad relevance diagnostics metrics, including quality ranking, or how an ad's perceived quality compared with competing ads; engagement rate ranking, an ad's expected engagement rate compared with competing ads; and conversion rate ranking, how an expected conversion rate compares to ads with the same optimization goal and competed for the same audience. The previous relevance score metric will be removed starting April 30.
- Facebook will only be including people in the potential reach metric who were shown an ad on the platform within the past 30 days. It was previously calculated based on the number of total monthly active users. The company also announced plans to remove seven ad metrics and replace them with more "actionable" ones. A "posts saved" metric will be introduced so advertisers can see how many people saved their ads, and the "offers saved" metric will be removed since it will be counted in "posts saved."
Dive Insight:
The new ad metrics updates are the latest effort by Facebook to rebuild trust with advertisers. The ad relevance metrics revamp could help advertisers better understand how changes to creative, audience targeting or post-click experience could impact performance, according to the post.
The change to the potential reach metric is likely related to the evolving way that users engage with the platform, as fewer people may be scrolling through their newsfeed but may be engaging with specific groups or other content, according to Ad Age. The change is also in response to advertiser demands for more accurate estimates for their campaign performance.
"These measurement enhancements will have a positive impact for digital advertisers looking to continue embracing the trends we're seeing today in personalization and ad relevance," said Andrea Barreto, paid social account supervisor at Adlucent, in a statement shared with Marketing Dive. "They will help tell a more detailed story about customers' behavior and hone in more accurately on business objectives."
Facebook also recently unveiled a brand safety certification within its Facebook Marketing Partners program to allow advertisers to review content options and have control over where their ads will appear. The platform also introduced new ad-buying procedures for premium video content so that the platform resembles traditional broadcast TV. Facebook Showcase lets advertisers buy spots in advance at a fixed cost, resembling TV networks' upfronts, and In-Stream Revenue helps advertisers target audiences that are verified by audience measurement company Nielsen.
Despite facing ongoing criticism over the Cambridge Analytica scandal and its handling of user data on the platform and potentially record-breaking fines as a result, Facebook hasn't seen a mass exodus of advertisers. However, the platform's revenue has seen a period of growth deceleration over the past few quarters.
Facebook is enhancing its platform at a time when it also faces increased competition from Amazon, as marketers are shifting their digital ad dollars to the e-commerce site. Amazon's U.S. ad business is projected to grow more than 50% in 2019, when it will grab an 8.8% share of the digital ad market, according to eMarketer. The combined share of the digital duopoly of Google and Facebook will drop for the first time this year, with Facebook's share increasing to 22.1% this year from 21.8% last year.
