Facebook Advertisers rejoice! Facebook will now start cracking down on accidental clicks on the Audience Network.
We’ve all been there, going through our reports, comparing our website and Google numbers to our ad campaigns, only to find some strange anomaly that could only be attributed to one thing; accidental clicks. We all knew it was happening, but of course, Facebook pretty much flat our denied that this was the case, and even went as far as to try and justify the obvious error in their reporting. After all, last thing they want is for their advertisers to lose faith in their platform. But, as we all know, the louder we squawk, the faster these issues are resolved, and in this case it worked beautifully.
Now, some of you might be wondering; how the heck are they going to track this? Well, it’s actually pretty straight forward. In order to determine if the click is in fact accidental, Facebook will be measuring what they refer to as; intention. They will determine the “intention” by using an initial "bounce time" of two seconds, this is assuming that ads with viewing times of less than a couple seconds are probably unintentional and in turn the advertiser will not be billed for the click. Amazing, right?
“If a person clicks on a mobile ad but backtracks within two seconds. That's a telltale sign of an accidental click.” Said Brett Vogel, Facebook's Product Marketing Manager.
This small change is really just a starting point for Facebook and their efforts to improve the overall experience for users and marketers alike. But, there is no doubt this update is an awesome step forward and will only improve the overall ecosystem of Facebooks Advertising Platform.
Now, with all that said, don’t expect to see huge changes in your numbers or any refunds from Facebook. Other publications have reported that these accidental clicks from the Audience Network account for a very small percentage of your total numbers and the majority of advertisers (with the exception of publishers) will not be affected since their ads aren’t driving a significant number of unintentional clicks. From my own personal experience however, accidental clicks accounted for over 50% of the overall clicks from Audience Network. Since I was being billed on CPM and not cost-per-click it won't change the cost but it will make it easier to measure.
The main benefit here is more accurate reporting and not having accidental clicks diluting the audience of people who visit your site both for retargeting as well as lookalike audiences.
In a related change, Facebook will now also start reporting gross impressions, which will include both billable and non-billable traffic, and it will report ads that auto-refresh. In addition, Facebook is also announcing that it’s making new ad metrics available very soon.
“We’ve heard feedback from businesses that they want more transparency and understanding around their Facebook performance. As part of our commitment to measurement, about every month or so we’ll release new metrics so that businesses have better ways to measure outcomes, all in one place.” SaidFacebook“We’ve heard feedback from businesses that they want more transparency and understanding around their Facebook performance. As part of our commitment to measurement, about every month or so we’ll release new metrics so that businesses have better ways to measure outcomes, all in one place.”
Facebook announcement
Well, there you have it. As we explained in the intro, if we squawk enough, they’ll listen.
So, let’s keep on it. Any time you see something that can be changed for the better, speak up!
If you don’t you’re not only doing yourself a disservice, but you’re also denying all your fellow marketers the opportunity to benefit from your findings.
One thing is for sure, these updates are being very well received by the community and we all look forward to more of these amazing changes coming soon.
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