Facebook execs offered a peek at how the social giant approaches measurement during a news conference today that included an update on its upcoming audit with the Media Rating Council. Facebook also announced its new measurement science center in New York, which Adweek had a first look at this week. In February, Facebook said it plans to undergo an audit from the MRC to vet its stats and data in response to marketers’ qualms about the platform’s so-called walled garden, asking for Facebook to vet its measurement through independent third parties. While Facebook has not announced a timeline for the audit, the company outlined the three steps it will entail. The MRC will first audit Facebook’s served ad impression measurements. Those efforts are “well underway,” Brad Smallwood, vp of marketing science, told a small room of reporters today. Then the MRC will dig into the data Facebook uses to calculate viewability with third-party vendors comScore, Moat and Integral Ad Science. The last step of the process will be analyzing a new buying option Facebook is rolling out that aligns with the MRC’s definition of viewability. Per the MRC, 50 percent of display ads must be considered in view for one second before advertisers are charged. Video ads are charged after two seconds. This week, Integral Ad Science, Moat and comScore started pulling such stats into their dashboards, allowing advertisers to track when 50 percent of a Facebook display ad is on the screen. “Not all measurement ends up being good measurement.” Brad Smallwood, vp of marketing science, Facebook “We’re passing detailed information about the impressions that are happening on Facebook so that advertisers can calculate whatever metrics they want about exactly what happened when they ran marketing on Facebook—whether it be how long the ad was shown for, how much of the ad was shown on the screen,” Smallwood said. “Our hope is that those viewability vendors are going to tie this concept of viewability into the business outcomes that marketers care about.” Smallwood also urged marketers to look at metrics besides viewability. “Not all measurement ends up being good measurement,” Smallwood said, speaking of the tactic of last-click attribution, which traditionally gives all marketing credit to the last click from an ad before a sale. “You have to look into some of the details and see what’s working and what’s not.” Those details include brand lift and attributing a sale to the exact campaign, creative and targeting that got someone to take an action. And in mobile, cookies—the bits of code that track web browsing—are not accurate since consumers often use multiple devices and apps. “Cookies are not a good representation of people anymore,” Smallwood said. He added that measurement can be bucketed into three areas: Audience, brand and sale outcomes. Audience outcomes measure who saw an ad, including reach, frequency and demographic. Brand outcomes build on those efforts to track attitude, awareness and recall. Sales outcomes measure conversions. Smallwood also presented data that tracked how often its users click on content and what it means for advertisers. Using Facebook’s auction as a reference point, the bottom 50 percent and therefore least ‘clicky’ people of the group were assigned a price in the auction that advertisers pay to reach. The group was then compared against the top 10 percent of ‘clicky’ people. According to Facebook, the top ‘clicky’ people cost five-and-a-half times more than the least ‘clicky’ group. “It’s because marketers are buying clicks—they’re actively trying to buy that engagement,” Smallwood said. “We’re not saying that all marketers should go buy the least 50 percent of people. What we are saying is if you can understand where value is coming from, you have an opportunity in the Facebook auction—and this will hold true in other auctions, not just the Facebook auction—to understand where value is coming from to dramatically lower your cost.” Continue Reading
Facebook intends to demonstrate the efficacy of its audience measurement techniques by inviting the Media Rating Council (MRC) to audit its stats and data. As part of the audit, the MRC will vet Facebook's served ad impression measurements, according to Moat, Facebook's VP of marketing science. The MRC will then use third-party vendors comScore, Brad Smallwood and Integral Ad Science to calculate viewability. Finally, the MRC will assess an ad buying option which Facebook will introduce to align with the MRC's definition of viewability. The audit comes after marketers including Fiat Chrysler Automobiles criticised the social giant's secretive audience measurement methods.