Starting March 12, Facebook has implemented a number of updates to campaign metrics and audiences to ensure they provide accurate, actionable, and aligned data that supports real business needs. According to Facebook, these updates include:
- Potential reach: We will update how we estimate potential reach so that businesses can better gauge the number of people that can potentially be reached given specific targeting and placement criteria.
- Ad relevance diagnostics: We’re replacing relevance score with a new set of ad relevance diagnostics
- Metrics removal: In line with our bi-annual metric removal schedule, we are replacing infrequently used metrics with more actionable ones.
Potential Reach
Rolling out through mid-April and into May, Facebook will update how they estimate potential reach so that businesses can better gauge the number of people that can potentially be reached given specific targeting and placement criteria.
Previously, estimates were based on users who were active on a Facebook service in the last 30 days. Now, Facebook’s new estimates will be based on people who were shown an ad within the last 30 days (and who match the targeting and placement criteria).
In terms of campaigns impact, Facebook does not expect any repercusions on ad delivery or performance. On average, more than 75% of campaigns will experience less than a 10% decrease in potential reach. That said, Facebook audiences should be more precise, helping marketers estimate audiences and costs [with more accuracy] during the planning phase.
Ad Relevance Diagnostics
In the existing user interface, Facebook provides a single measure (Relevance Score) to help advertisers understand whether their campaign ads are relevant to the audience they reached. Rolling out over the next few months, Facebook will replace Relevance Score (1 to 10) with a more robust and granular set of metrics called “Relevant Diagnostics.” The diagnostics rank will be based on these three factors.
- Quality ranking: Perceived ad quality compared to ads competing for the same audience.
- Engagement rate ranking: Expected engagement rate compared to ads competing for the same audience.
- Conversion rate ranking: Expected conversion rate compared to ads with the same campaign optimization goal competing for the same audience.
Facebook Implements New Restrictions on Who Can Go Live to Prevent the Spread of Disturbing Content
In the wake of the Christchurch terror attacks, in which the perpetrator broadcast his crimes live on Facebook, The Social Network scrambled to remove the footage, with various users posting clips, and/or variations of them, in quick succession.
Facebook came under intense scrutiny over its perceived inability to limit the sharing of such content, with government officials from several nations calling for new regulations which would essentially hold Facebook executives accountable for extremist material hosted on their platform.
Last week, The Social Network has announced new restrictions on who can actually use Facebook Live, with users who’ve previously violated Facebook’s rules losing their live privileges – first for a month, then extending longer for every subsequent infraction.
As explained by Facebook:
“We will now apply a ‘one strike’ policy to Live in connection with a broader range of offenses. From now on, anyone who violates our most serious policies will be restricted from using Live for set periods of time – for example 30 days – starting on their first offense. For instance, someone who shares a link to a statement from a terrorist group with no context will now be immediately blocked from using Live for a set period of time.”
Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash
Sources: Facebook, SocialMediaToday.com
