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Facebook makes changes to how it counts users for ad measurement

Facebook has announced changes to the way it measures estimated audience size.

As part of the changes, which were made on 30 September, if a person does not have their Facebook and Instragram accounts linked in Facebook’s Account Center, those accounts will be considered separate people for the purposes of ad planning and management.

Previously, if a person had linked their Facebook and Instagram accounts via those apps or Facebook was highly confident they were the same person, for example, they used the same email address, that person was counted as one person.

As a result of the change, advertisers may see estimated audience sizes go up.

Facebook says that these changes will not impact billing. Advertisers will be billed based on the billing option chosen.

In a blog post, Facebook’s vice president of product marketing, ads, Graham Mudd said: “This update aligns with trends of offering people more control over how their information is used for ads and is consistent with evolving advertising, privacy and regulatory environments.”

As the methodology update is rolled out, advertisers may see an impact on campaign planning estimates and performance reporting for unique metrics. There will be a greater impact on pre-campaign estimates such as estimated audience size, but on average Facebook does not anticipate this will have a substantial impact on reported campaign reach.

This article has been updated. It originally stated the changes were in effect from today, 12 October, but were in effect from 30 September.

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