Accurate and actionable ad measurement continues to be a challenge for businesses. People are discovering products in new places, using multiple devices on their path to purchase and purchasing both in-store and online. All of this behavior makes measuring the cross-device impact of ads using clicks and cookies inaccurate and misleading.
Today, many advertisers continue to rely on clicks and cookies to measure ad performance. But because most conversions occur without a click and cookies lack the technical ability to measure how ads impact conversions across devices or in-store, measuring ad performance this way can lead to bad information about which ads drive value. Cookies and clicks fail to show advertisers which ads best grow their business.
That’s why we believe in and continue to build people-based measurement tools and methodologies, which more accurately show which ads are driving business value. With people-based measurement, marketers can be sure that their ads are reaching real people, while getting insights about how well their ads are working. This measurement approach helps advertisers understand which of their ads are working, empowering advertisers to create more effective ads, which in turn makes the ads on Facebook more relevant to and enjoyable for the people who see them.
In August 2014, we launched cross-device reporting, which enables advertisers to understand all the devices people use on their path to purchase and the device they used when they made the purchase, or converted in the sales funnel in some other way. And in January 2015, we launched Lift measurement, which uses test and control groups to show advertisers the additional business generated from their ads. Since its launch, we’ve helped over 1,000 businesses in more than 10 industries run Lift measurement studies to measure ad effectiveness across their objectives.1 Now, as part of our continued commitment to empower advertisers with insightful measurement solutions, we’re adding and testing new ways to give more advertisers actionable insights on their ads. Here’s more on how we’re scaling and broadening our ad measurement solutions.
Testing and scaling measurement solutions to more advertisers
To help more advertisers of all kinds understand the real impact their ads have on their business, we are starting tests to make Lift measurement more widely available. Through our tests, select advertisers will be able to run lift measurement studies through APIs, Facebook Marketing Partners and measurement partners. By enabling our partners to more accurately measure ad performance on behalf of advertisers, we will extend the power of Lift measurement to more advertisers. We will provide more information about the availability of Lift measurement through partners and the API once we’re done testing.
Additionally, to free more advertisers from using unreliable and inaccurate methods that were born in a desktop-only world to measure which ads lead to conversions, we’re testing new fields in ads reporting. The new fields will tell advertisers which ads people saw or clicked on before they converted by taking an action, like making a purchase or becoming a qualified lead. This type of measurement can help advertisers understand which of their ads most effectively moved people along the path to purchase. We will update advertisers when and if these new fields are rolled out more widely.
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Accurate measurement helps advertisers grow their business. We’ll continue to provide updates on our continued measurement investments. In the meantime, learn more about Conversion Lift.
Read more about the studies Facebook has been involved in that compare measurement methodologies in this Facebook IQ Report.