Facebook Metric Changes: Spring 2019

Spring has officially sprung, and just as you are seeing changes outside in the world, Facebook is making some changes, too.

Facebook is constantly working to provide a high functioning ad platform, which means metrics must evolve, too. These changes aren’t anything new; over the past few years, we’ve seen regular updates and removals of unnecessary metrics. The goal is to replace current ad metrics with more actionable ones. A recent company blog post shed some insight on a few upcoming changes. These changes will start on April 30th and we’ve compiled a list of recommendations on the metrics you should use going forward.

Offers Saved and Cost Per Offers Saved

You may be well-acquainted with the “Offers Saved” and the “Cost per Offers Saved” metrics. Those will be removed and replaced with a new “Post Saves” metric that will be more inclusive when it comes to measuring when ads are being saved. According to user feedback, Facebook determined that marketers wanted more visibility into when their ads were being saved. The “Post Saves” metric will measure the number of times an ad is saved and will include all “Offer Ad” saves. You may have already seen this metric, as it was gradually introduced starting on March 12th.

Relevance Score

The “Relevance Score” metric is being replaced with a whole new set of more actionable and clearer ad relevance diagnostics. Conversion Rate Ranking, Engagement Rate Ranking, and Quality Ranking can better help you determine whether the ads you ran were relevant to the audience that you actually reached. The metrics are best used together, and Facebook has provided some added guidance to help you interpret and make changes based on different results.

Messaging Replies and Cost per Messaging Reply

Along with April’s changes comes the removal of “Messaging Replies” and “Cost per Messaging Reply”. These metrics are being replaced with New Messaging Connections and Messaging Conversations Started. This change came about because Facebook received feedback that marketers were less interested in replies within new and existing conversations attributed to an ad and more interested in new conversations with people who had never messaged their business before or messages that started after a period of inactivity. The “New Messaging Connections” metric measures - you guessed it - new conversations. That means any messages with individuals who have already communicated with the business via messenger are excluded. “Messaging Conversations Started” measures how many times people start messaging the business after 7 days of inactivity.

Mobile App Purchase ROAS and Web Purchase ROAS

Facebook’s Return On Ad Spend metrics will now be grouped across channels. These metrics allow you to better understand the Return on Ad Spend of your ads and were previously channel specific (web, mobile, On-Facebook). As the customer’s path to purchase is often across channels, Facebook consolidated the channel specific ROAS metrics into one “Purchase ROAS” metric.

With these changes, Facebook hopes to improve the relevance of their metrics. Despite criticism over how Facebook handles user data on the platform and potentially record-breaking fines as a result, there hasn’t been much of a loss in Facebook advertising. Facebook did see a period of growth deceleration over the past few quarters, and it is enhancing its platform as it faces increased competition from a number of advertising platforms.

We hope this information gives you insight into the latest Facebook metrics updates. Please don’t hesitate to contact us with your digital marketing needs!

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