Facebook Adds Tools To Track How Long Ads Are Viewed, In An Effort To Help Marketers

Facebook is trying to make it easier for advertisers to keep track of the ads they bought on the social network.

One way Facebook is trying to help advertisers keep track of their ad spend is by making it easier for them to see how much time people are spending viewing individual ads. The social network has added new tools to its Ads Manager platform that let advertisers see how long an ad was on screen, split up by milliseconds.

Why this matters: This helps marketers understand where their money is going and also figure out whether they’re getting the most bang for their buck. For example, if an advertiser spends $100,000 on a campaign and only gets two seconds of view time for each ad, tensions could start to rise between them and the company they’re advertising with.

The big picture: Advertisers have been wary about advertising on Facebook following the Cambridge Analytica scandal earlier this year. Facebook has been trying to regain lost trust ever since by providing more transparency into its platform in addition to launching new features like Brand Safety tools.

Previously, Facebook only let advertisers know how long people spent looking at their ads.

Previously, Facebook only let advertisers know how long people spent looking at their ads. The problem with this measurement is that the longer an ad is on screen, the more likely you are to see it and subsequently ignore it. This can lead to a better time-spent metric but lower ad recall and purchase intent.

Facebook wants to build trust by providing accurate metrics that give advertisers a clear picture of how well they’re reaching potential customers, according to Brad Smallwood, head of measurement and insights at Facebook. Advertisers have been asking for more ways to measure the effectiveness of video ads on the social network in particular.

Now, advertisers can track ads by the millisecond.

It is also worth noting that advertisers can now track their ads by the millisecond. This means, for example, that if an ad is cut off after only a few seconds or has partially loaded after a few milliseconds, advertisers will have a better idea of how much time to allow for loading in the future.

Advertisers are also able to set ideal viewing times (for example: 30 seconds) and can receive notifications when those times are reached. In this way, they get more accurate data on how long people watch their ads and what sections they skip over. They can use this information to refine and improve their marketing strategies.

Facebook has also brought 100% viewability guarantees to display advertising.

Viewability in advertising is a metric that measures how long the ad unit is visible on the screen. This includes ads on both desktop and mobile, as long as they appear within the user’s viewable area without having to scroll. Viewability is measured from when the ad unit enters into view until it exits from view, with a minimum of one second required to be considered a “viewed impression” by vendors such as Google.

However, many marketers have been pushing for advertisers to be credited for impressions even if they are not seen by users. As a result, Facebook has now guaranteed 100% viewability for their display ads across all placement options including News Feed and Marketplace. This move should give advertisers more confidence that their campaigns will be viewed by an actual person rather than wasted due to fraudulent or non-viewed inventory.

Advertisers can now gain more insight into how their ad spend is performing on Facebook

You will now be able to see what portion of your ads were seen by users and how long they were visible on screen. The new metrics will offer advertisers more insight into how their ad spend is performing against campaign objectives, especially as Facebook continues its push towards more video and visual-based content. After a series of scandals regarding questionable reporting practices and other missteps, the social media giant has been forced to make a concerted effort to regain advertiser trust—and this feature is the latest in a series of moves aimed at doing just that.

Final Words

With all of the information that Facebook has on its users, it’s no surprise that it’s working to help advertisers figure out how their ads are performing on the platform. Hopefully, that can go a long way toward helping make things right with advertisers who have been disappointed by Facebook’s recent mishaps. Now we’ll just have to wait and see how this new feature shakes out for advertisers—specifically those in the e-commerce realm.