Facebook has chosen Meetrics as its first viewability partner from outwith the US as it continues to work on improving advertiser confidence in its figures following revelations that it had claimed an adverts reached more people than official census data. The verification firm will furnish advertisers with viewability metrics for Facebook display ad campaigns across desktop and mobile with a view to introducing video viewability measures in the ‘near future’. Philipp von Hilgers, Meetrics’ co-founder and chief executive, commented: "Everyone wants the quality and measurement of online advertising to improve and this represents the latest step in achieving that goal and helping advertisers to make more informed media decisions. However, we’re not stopping here. This first solution provides the foundation to verify more inventory across Facebook, particularly video.” Martin Ott, Facebook’s managing director for Central Europe, added: “Our commitment to third-party measurement and verification is clear, we first started working with third-party measurement partners in 2008. Today, we are very happy to add Meetrics to this set, our 25th partner globally and the first viewability measurement partner to come from outside the US. We are looking forward to working with clients to deliver the most accurate metrics possible.” With the tie-up advertisers will be able to gauge what proportion of their ads hit specific viewability thresholds; from a 50% minimum all the way up to universal reach at 100%. Meetrics calculate that advertisers lost £600m to non-viewable online adverts in 2016.
Facebook has partnered with the German analytics company Meetrics, which will provide the social media giant with data on the viewability of adverts. The deal is part of Facebook’s broader push into advertising and its efforts to improve user experience in general. The deal will help Facebook advertisers to gauge how many display ads reach their intended audience. The company plans to build on the service in future by verifying other forms of content, including video.