Facebook refunds advertisers for misreported mobile web ads

May 17, 2017 9:35

In another blow to its reporting mechanisms, Facebook has admitted to misreporting mobile web ad numbers and handed back refunds to advertisers.

A bug led to Facebook misreporting ad clicks.

Facebook made the announcement in the US overnight saying it had uncovered the discrepancy during a regular review. The latest announcement follows a series of measurement and calculation issues in recent months.

“We recently found and fixed a bug that misattributed some clicks on video carousel ads as link clicks. This bug occurred when people were on mobile web browsers on smartphones — not on desktop or in the Facebook mobile app,” Facebook said in a statement.

Under certain conditions, where advertisers on mobile using Facebook’s video carousel unit had paid for clicks through to their destination, advertisers were charged when a user clicked a video to enlarge it for viewing.

“Advertisers will receive a full credit for the charges they incurred for these misattributed clicks.”

The mistake only happened where people used Facebook through the web browser on their phones – a small proportion of total users according to Facebook.

“Most consumers use Facebook through the app on their phones, and mobile web browser ad impressions make up a small percentage of the overall ads impressions people see on Facebook,” the company said.

“Given that this bug related to mobile web for smartphones only, and specifically for video carousel ads that bid on link clicks, the impact from a billing perspective was 0.04% of ads impressions. Regardless of how many impressions were affected, we take all bugs seriously and apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.”

The announcement in the US coincided with news that Facebook in Australia is bringing back for mer managing director Will Easton to the role following the sudden departure of Stephen Scheeler in February.

Easton, who has been managing director of emerging markets (APAC) since 2015, will return to the ANZ MD role in September.

Simon Canning

Simon Canning was Mumbrella's marketing and advertising editor from 2015-2017. In a career spanning journalism and communications over more than 30 years Simon has become one of Australia’s most respected analysts and commentators on the advertising, marketing and media industries. A regular commentator on radio and TV, Simon has also worked in media in the US and UK .

Topics