Facebook has made changes to the way they report ad metrics. This article will inform you of the update and give you the details you need to know.
You can see metric labels in your Ads manager as “estimated” or “in development”. These labels are being placed to provide better insight into how and where the data was collected. The labels appear in tooltips within the Ads Manager reporting table.
View details of ads metrics within Facebook's Business Manager.
Estimated Vs In Development
"Estimated" metrics are calculated based on sampling. These metrics provide guidance for outcomes that are hard to precisely quantify. Reach is a prime example of an "estimated" metric. It is hard for Facebook to know exactly how many people your ad came across so it’s defined as "estimated".
"In development" metrics are metrics that are new or in the testing phase. Facebook must give things a try (test, test, and test) to see what works and what doesn’t. Depending on the feedback from advertisers "in development" metrics are subject to be improved or changed.
Estimated ad recall lift is a metric used by brands to understand the differences between people who can recall a brand after seeing an ad compared to those who have not seen an ad. A metric like this is new and requires polling and machine learning. Facebook is still gathering advertiser feedback on this metric. Because of this, it is labeled as "in development".
Just because something is estimated doesn’t mean you should disregard the numbers. In hindsight, be aware that in development metrics are in the beta phase and may be imperfect. Like always, we recommend using all the data to help improve your campaigns because knowledge is power!
Know your ad metrics!
Metrics Clean Up
Facebook stated that they would be doing some removing of certain metrics:
“We will remove approximately 20 ad metrics that marketers have told us are redundant, outdated, not actionable or infrequently used. For example, the social reach metric shows the number of people who saw an ad with social information above it, such as noting a friend who also likes a certain brand. We’ve heard from you that this metric isn’t meaningfully different from the reach metric, and we know that the insight drawn from it doesn’t indicate a business outcome.”
The removal comes to clean up clutter and to get rid of measurements that are outdated. Six of the metrics that will be removed are currently labeled as “estimates”. Below is a list of all the metrics that have been or will be removed (“estimates” in bold).
- People Taking Action
- Amount Spent Today
- Positive Feedback
- Negative Feedback
- Social Reach
- Unique Social Clicks (all)
- Actions
- Cost per Any Action
- Button Clicks
- Canvas Component Time Percentage
- Carousel Card breakdown for conversion metrics
- Link Click Destination
- Mobile App Actions Conversion Value
- Page mentions
- Cost per Page Mention
- Page Tab Views
- Cost per Page Tab View
- Social Impressions
- Social Clicks (all)
Find Your Go-To Metrics
Facebook states exactly why they are removing each metric here. Dropping some of these outdated metrics will make your ad reporting easier. Depending on your product or campaign different metrics should be looked at.
Find what metrics matter for your product and focus on those. Don’t get lost in all the numbers such as reach that may not be viable data in the first place.
Has Facebook removed any metrics you liked or used? Comment below and let us know what metrics you focus on in your campaigns.
Happy Hunting! 🙂
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