23 Mar Facebook set to remove 20 “outdated” metrics
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Facebook set to remove
20 “outdated” metrics
Out with the ‘outdated’ metrics and in with the new, says Facebook in their latest public statement. In a bid to improve transparency and clarity, social media giant Facebook has this week announced that they will be removing twenty outdated metrics, which they argue aren’t universally relevant.
As well as removing twenty dispensable metrics, the tech giant has also stated that they will be introducing clear metric labelling that specifies when a metric is “estimated” or “in development”.
Removing Reporting Metrics
Facebook has this week admitted that over the last two years, there had been a series of metric issues which have spurned on these changes to the measurement system on the platform. The changes will substantially impact the results advertisers see and how they view them. This is why it’s vitally important that you understand these changes, should your business use Facebook as a method of advertising.
Described by the social media network, in their Thursday announcement as “redundant, outdated not actionable or infrequently used,” the twenty shortlisted metrics will be removed in July 2018. They argue that eliminating these metrics will make it easier and far more transparent to identify which measurement system is best suited for determining business outcomes and providing actionable insights on optimisation strategies.
Seen as a move towards meaningful measurement and decreased advertiser confusion, Facebook claims that the new system will allow a business to tailor their own metrics, to suit their needs and purposes. No longer will advertisers from different industries be required to use the same reporting metrics – what does this mean for your business?
Well, for example, the Actions metric is a composite of several actions and events and is used to measure engagement clicks and conversions between the audience and your advertisement. A construction company who is solely interested in gathering leads and a clothes company who is interested in increasing brand awareness need separate metrics relevant to what they seek from Facebook.
Previously, they would have been looking at a dashboard with metrics that was displaying information that wasn’t wholly relevant to their business. Whereas now, using the new metric system, the information presented to them will be customised to suit to their specific needs. To look at a full list of all the twenty redundant metrics, please follow the link to be directed to Facebook’s metric labelling and removal announcement.
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Estimated and in Development
In order to improve the tech giant’s transparency about how the metrics are calculated, to appease their disgruntled advertisers, Facebook has announced that some measurements will be explicitly labelled “estimated” and/or “in development.” What does this mean?
Facebook have explained the meaning of this in the following statement – “Estimated metrics are calculated based on sampling or modelling. They can provide guidance for outcomes that are hard to precisely quantify, and we may update our measurement methodologies as we gather more data and improve our signals.” Reach is an example of an estimated metric, as it’s an estimate of the number of people who saw an ad at least once. Simply put, metrics in development refers to new or in testing measurements, which will evolve as Facebook improves their measurement technologies and ad products.
As a technologically aware and digitally based, marketing company, our experience, expertise and insight into these changes and how it’ll affect businesses using the tech giant, is far superior. Here at edirect, we pride ourselves on offering a wide range of social media management services, which are specifically tailored to the exacting needs of each individual client. To keep ahead of the competition, get in touch with our distinguished SEO team now, to find out how we can use these new tools to benefit your business.
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