Facebook making changes to reporting metrics

May 16, 2019

Facebook is an ever-changing universe for developers and advertisers. Just when you’re getting used to a dashboard or tool, it changes. Change can be disorienting, so your partners at Crescere Digital wanted to catch you up on some changes that Facebook has recently made to its advertising metrics.

Old metrics removed

Last October, Facebook announced it that has removed seven advertising metrics from dashboards:

  • Website Conversions
  • Total Conversion Value
  • Cost per Website Conversions
  • Return on Ad Spend (ROAS in $)
  • Return on Ad Spend (ROAS in %)
  • ROI (Return on Investment in $)
  • ROI (Return on Investment in %)

Facebook is forcing users to choose more specific metrics.

If you have a Facebook ad dashboard that is showing “0” on any metric, talk to us and we’ll make sure you’re using the correct metrics.

New metrics added
On April 30, Facebook removed the single Ad Relevance Score, and has replaced it with three metrics:

  1. Quality Ranking – How the ad’s perceived quality compares with other ads competing for the same audience
  2. Engagement Ranking – How the ad’s expected engagement rate compares with other ads competing for the same audience
  3. Conversion Ranking – How the ad’s expected engagement rate compares with ads that have the same optimization goal and compete for the same audience

This change is good news for advertisers, increasing transparency into Facebook ad performance. These new scores will show you how your ads compare with your competitors’ ads. It also breaks down the relevance score into specific pieces of data that can help you optimize your ad.

Potential reach calculated differently

Potential reach provides an estimate of how many people an advertiser can expect to see their ad. You see this when setting up the ad, changing targets to get the best potential reach. Previously, this was calculated by using the total monthly active users on Facebook, but it will now be calculated using the number of people shown an ad on Facebook in the last 30 days. If your reach goes down over the next couple of months, this could be culprit.

Why it matters

We don’t blame you if you would rather leave these details to your digital marketing expert. We simply want you to be aware that Facebook is improving its advertising parameters, making your Facebook advertising dollars go farther than in the past. That’s a detail we think you can appreciate!

As always, we work closely with our clients to ensure the best ads find their way to the best potential customers.