Dive Brief:
- Facebook is bringing cross-device ad measurement metrics such as reach and attribution to all advertisers through Facebook Business Manager, per a company blog post. The metrics previously were only offered via the Atlas ad platform.
- Underscoring the challenges marketers face in cross-device attribution, the blog post cited research showing 82% of marketers are seeking new tools to optimize cross-device ad strategies.
- Facebook began integrating the Atlas team into its broader measurement organization last fall with the goal of helping advertisers better understand which publishers deserve credit for sales from an ad. Facebook expects to continue adding advanced measurement tools over the coming year and to start transitioning Atlas clients to the more centralized measurement approach.
Dive Insight:
Advertisement measurement and Facebook haven’t always gone hand-in-hand. The platform was slow to bring third-party measurement products to its advertisers. And just last fall the social media giant faced a scandal when it came out it had miscalculated metrics on video views as well as other ad offerings. The platform has also offered different measurement solutions across its various ad offerings, an approach it now seems to be pivoting away from as it looks to bring more advertisers into a broader measurement offering.
Digital advertising measurement is never far from top of mind for marketers, and the topic is particularly relevant right now after P&G Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard told an audience at the IAB annual leadership meeting in January that the world’s largest advertiser would begin demanding MRC accredited third-party verification for any platform where it spent ad dollars. The comments spurred an ongoing conversation within the industry about how best to bring more transparency to digital media buying and placement.
“Consistent and accurate measurement across browsers, devices and platforms is critical to evaluating marketing performance and increasing our client’s ROI,” said Slavi Samardzija, Global CEO of Annalect, Omnicom Media Group’s data technology platform, in the blog post. “As an early and ongoing advocate for a ‘cross everything standard’, and the first media agency holding company to test Atlas measurement across clients and geographies, we see the launch of advanced measurement as a significant step toward achieving that goal industrywide.”