Nikki Gilliland says, “In last week’s stats roundup, I reported how more companies than ever are investing their budgets in Facebook dark posts.But wait just a moment – what exactly are dark posts?You might have heard of dark social or dark web – but this is something different.Let’s shine a light on the subject.Social posts for select eyes onlyA dark post is anything a brand might post on Facebook – such as a link, video, photo or status – that will only be seen by a specific or target demographic.Unlike a regular published post, a dark post does not show up on a brand’s... [...]

Zak Stambor says, “Several retailers say Facebook’s misreported metrics won’t cause them to change the way they use the social network.Facebook Inc. today acknowledged that it miscalculated several metrics it has been sharing with retailers and other marketers. The announcement comes less than two months after the social network disclosed it had been giving marketers an inflated number for the average time spent viewing online videos.Facebook also says it has developed an internal review process to ensure its metrics are clear and up to date, while also rolling out more relationships... [...]

Zak Stambor says, “Michael Kors and Lowes are among the retailers testing the Facebook ad unit.Smack dab in the middle of the holiday season, Facebook Inc. is testing a new ad unit that lets retailers showcase multiple products in a single ad that appears in users’ news feeds.The ad pairs a large main image or video with smaller, related product images below. Clicking a More button brings up more products that take over a user’s screen. At the bottom of the screen a retailer can add a button that leads a shopper to its website.Like Facebook’s dynamic ads and dynamic ads for retailers,... [...]

Tim Peterson says, “Facebook is returning its Marketing Partners (née Preferred Marketing Developers) program to its roots as a roster of advertising and marketing technology providers and putting some agencies that had been part of the program at a further remove.Facebook plans to eliminate the “media buying” speciality from its Marketing Partners program that grants a Good Housekeeping-style seal of approval to various companies that help brands buy ads and manage their accounts on Facebook and Instagram, the company announced on Monday. The elimination of the media buying badge,... [...]

Jessica Liu says, “Yesterday Facebook blogged “An Update on Metrics and Reporting” to inform marketers that several of their organic metrics were misreported including organic reach, time spent on Instant Articles, and follower count. This follows Facebook’s revelatory September announcement that their video metrics contained a discrepancy and were over-reported.The industry was outraged. But who’s really at fault here? Tina Moffett and I break it down like Judge Judy.For The Defense: FacebookHow long did it take TV to standardize measurement? The social media industry... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “In a sort of course correction, Facebook made several announcements Wednesday pertaining to audience and ads measurement on the social network.The news includes several metrics corrections — though none likely to cause as much consternation as September’s revelation that Facebook had been overstating the “average duration of video viewed” due to a miscalculation — more third-party verification, a new blog to communicate ongoing metrics changes, and the formation of a new Measurement Council.“We want to reaffirm our commitment to the market and provide... [...]

Amanda Zantal-Wiener says, “Over the past couple of months, you may have heard some things about Facebook’s metrics.There was talk of numbers — lots of them. Things were overestimated. Others were underestimated. People were kind of upset. But mostly, they were confused. What the heck happened? How was Facebook going to respond? And at the end of the day, what did it mean for marketers? Breathe, and don’t panic — we’re here to answer all of that.But before we dive in, let’s make one thing clear — none of it is the end of the world. In fact, most... [...]

Tim Peterson says, “With more than 34,000 Messenger bots on the market since their April 2016 debut, Facebook is rolling out an analytics tool that will detail to Messenger bot makers how people are interacting with their bots and cross-reference those stats with people’s Facebook profile data, in hopes of improving people’s experiences with those bots.Developers, including brands and publishers, will be able to use the new branch of Facebook Analytics for Apps in the same way they use Facebook’s analytics platform to track how people are interacting with their websites and mobile... [...]

Andrew Waber says, “Some of the latest changes for Facebook’s Audience Network give it a legitimate claim of being a chief competitor to Google for both website publishers and advertisers. Early this year, mobile web inventory was added on top of in-app placements, and then more recently, Facebook announced the expansion of Audience Network to include non-Facebook users, along with a move into header bidding.With these developments at the forefront, you can more thoroughly evaluate the impact of Audience Network in comparison to existing Facebook and programmatic campaigns.Facebook is... [...]

Patrick Kulp says, “Facebook is making it easier than ever for brands to lure you into chatting with them.The social network rolled out a new type of ad on Tuesday that lets advertisers with or without Messenger bots solicit messages through sponsored News Feed posts.The posts look like any other ad on the site, but have a “send message” button in place of a link to an outside site.Another iteration of the format lets brands run ads within a particular open conversation on the Messenger platform in an attempt to reconnect with users with whom they’ve talked before.Facebook... [...]