Media buyers to Facebook: Clean up your act

It’s happening again. And media people are really starting to get miffed.

For the third time in three months, Facebook admitted to miscalculating its metrics, disclosing the problem in a blog post.

This time the glitch was nowhere near as problematic as the last two were for advertisers. The issue relates to miscounting of emojis and likes of live videos, as well as discrepancies in the numbers reported for web links.

However, even though the problem won’t really impact advertisers, buyers say it’s a reminder that they need to stay vigilant about all digital data.

They’re not at all sure which numbers they can trust.

“While recent developments reinforce the importance of taking performance data with a grain of salt, this sentiment isn’t limited to just Facebook,” says Samantha Deevy, group communications strategy director at Droga5.

“It’s not particularly shocking that bugs in algorithms or unforeseen issues exist and lead to data discrepancies. It reminds us that we always need to think of each reported data point as an input into a larger analysis versus the be-all end-all.”

In a blog post, Facebook apologized yet again for making errors and promised to improve its estimated reach methodology.

To trust or not to trust?

In the meantime, that has buyers wondering what numbers it can and can’t trust, and not just from Facebook.

Buyers note there’s a sea of data out there being fed to them every day, from individual websites, ad networks, Google Analytics, comScore and more.

Just as they’ve always approached Nielsen data with some skepticism – you’d be hard-pressed to find a buyer who fully embraces the company’s methodology – so they must do with digital.

The issue is, with digital growing so quickly and stealing so many eyeballs from other forms of media, buyers often feel pressure to invest first and ask questions second.

Though they may threaten to, few buyers would stop buying Facebook, which generates more than $10 billion per year just in display advertising, despite the issues.

“Facebook is still one of the biggest reach platforms out there and will remain a key partner for advertisers. They’ve become an agency partner/creative studio, a distribution platform and a data company,” Deevy says.

Looking to the outside

The answer to the Facebook problem may be similar to what buyers see as the answer to the greater issue of online measurement: Bring in a third party.

Perhaps then Facebook could eliminate some of the issues that have been dogging it for months.

“Perhaps they need to consider bringing in a third party to make sure their data isn’t skewing towards the best interests of their other offerings,” Deevy suggests.

“If not, what will likely change is how success is measured on the platform or how their reported data is used to inform decisions.”

Tags: digital, facebook, facebook ads, facebook measure, facebook mess up, facebook metrics, metrics facebook