The Facebook Audience Network is coming under intense scrutiny by the world’s largest social network. The company has announced plans to more closely monitor and stop invalid clicks on the Facebook Audience Network (FAN).
Facebook plans to block network providers who encourage unintentional visitss by placing ads in locations that are likely to draw accidental clicks.
Among the company’s plans, is an analysis of how users engage with an ad. For example, clicking on an ad and remaining on a landing page for less than two seconds would lead to an invalid click.
When certain ads experience inflated click-through rates, Facebook plans to pause those campaigns to determine why they are experiencing higher than normal clicks. If the company determines the ad was built poorly or deliberately designed to get unintentional clicks, it will be removed.
An Update To The Facebook Ads Policy
The Facebook ad policy (terms of service) was updated this week to fight against spammy ads that focus on unintentional clicks. The social network now prohibits clickable white space around its FAN ads.
New Metrics To Determine The Efficacy Of Ad Buys
In addition to fighting spammy ads, Facebook has also announced some new ad metrics to help advertisers optimize their campaigns.
Among the new metrics are gross impressions, a number that combines billable impressions with non-billable impressions.
Facebook is also providing auto-refresh impressions (ad impressions for right-hand side banners) and gross auto-refresh impressions.
Digital marketers only pay for billable impressions but non-billable impressions can provide deeper insights into how their ads are being targeted by users and bots.
Facebook has come under fire in the past for fake video metric reporting so the more metrics they can provide, the more trusted its network will likely become.