Facebook has discovered three more errors in its ad metrics, following an investigation into how it inflated the average number of times video ads were viewed.
Back in September, a report revealed an error that inflated average viewing time by more than 80%, a revelation that could have big implications for advertisers.
The error affected a Facebook metric called “average duration of video viewed”, which was supposed to tell publishers for how long, on average, people had watched a video.
On Wednesday, after a two-month audit of its platform that involved a review of more than 220 metrics, Facebook admitted to three more errors in its calculations, which it summarised in a blog post.
Facebook has now found it also:
The “bugs” could lead to firms believing that users had spent longer reading news articles than they had done, and that more people had been exposed to non-paid posts than had been the case.
Carolyn Everson, vice-president of global marketing solutions, said Facebook had approached the probe with the “same rigour and discipline” as when it quickly changed its business model to make advertising work on mobile phones.
Facebook said that it planned to create a measurement council to give businesses a say in the development of future metrics, and that it had also created a new internal review process.
Facebook also said on Wednesday it is in the process of forming what it called a ‘Measurement Council,’ which will include measurement experts from clients and ad agencies.
One of Facebook’s prominent advertisers, Swiss food and drink company Nestle , is already on board, Everson said, and the council should be up and running by early 2017.
