Facebook announced that it will start showing relevance scores as a visible metric in its ads reporting tools. The social network has always used the metric to deliver ads to users, but it hasn’t made the scores visible to the advertisers until now.
Facebook advertisers will now see something that looks like this when they’re looking at their reports:
The company says the score is based on positive and negative feedback it expects an ad to receive from its target audience. It says positive indicators vary depending on the objective of the ad, but include things like video views, conversions, etc. (yes the inconvenient “etc.”). If Facebook expects people to hide or report an ad, that will negatively impact the score.
The scale is one to ten, and scores are updated as people interact with and provide feedback on the ad. If an ad has guaranteed delivery (such as those bought through reach and frequency), it won’t actually be affected by the relevance score. The score also has a smaller impact on cost and delivery in brand awareness campaigns, the company says, as those types of ads are aimed at reaching people rather than driving specific actions.
According to Facebook, relevance score can lower the cost of reaching people, help advertisers test creative options before running a campaign, and help optimize campaigns that are already in progress.
“Put simply, the higher an ad’s relevance score is, the less it will cost to be delivered. This is because our ad delivery system is designed to show the right content to the right people, and a high relevance score is seen by the system as a positive signal,” the company says in a blog post. “Of course, relevance isn’t the only factor our ad delivery system considers. Bid matters too. For instance, if two ads are aimed at the same audience, there’s no guarantee that the ad with an excellent relevance score and low bid will beat the ad with a good relevance score and high bid. But, overall, having strong relevance scores will help advertisers see more efficient delivery through our system.”
The company notes that relevance score shouldn’t be considered the primary indicator of an ad’s performance.
“As has long been the case on Facebook, the most important factor for success is bidding based on the business goal you hope to meet with an ad,” it says. “Say, for instance, you own a pizza shop and want to run a campaign that drives people to order through your website. Achieving the desired outcome — in this case, driving sales online — is ultimately more important than your relevance score. If you have an average score but your ad is working, you may not want to change anything. Or you may consider tweaking the ad to see how you can get lower cost of delivery by improving the relevance score. Or you might monitor your relevance score, along with the sales you’re driving, to learn when it’s time to update your campaign.”
The scores are rolling out globally beginning this week. You’ll be able to find it in any of Facebook’s ad reporting tools as well as those developed by its API partners.
Image via Facebook