Facebook has added relevance scores to its adverts to let people see the ones most relevant to them, as the social network continues to lure advertisers away from rival Google. The social network claimed that the addition will let people see the ads that matter most to them, creating a better experience for both businesses […]
Facebook has added relevance scores to its adverts to let people see the ones most relevant to them, as the social network continues to lure advertisers away from rival Google.
The social network claimed that the addition will let people see the ads that matter most to them, creating a better experience for both businesses and users.
The more positive the interaction that an advert receives, the higher the score will be, while the more people report or hide an advert, the lower its score.
Facebook uses a mix of bid price and relevance scoring to determine which ads to show. The visual metrics of between one and 10 will be introduced from this week, and are calculated through positive and negative feedback from the target audience.
As an incentive for advertisers to improve the quality and relevance of their ads, the company is going to expose “relevance scores” (RS) to marketers.
Facebook believes the exposure of RS will produce a “win-win-win.” Better ads will be more interesting to audiences, perform better for marketers and generate more revenue ultimately for Facebook.
In its blog post the company explains how RS is determined:
“Relevance score is calculated based on the positive and negative feedback we expect an ad to receive from its target audience. The more positive interactions we expect an ad to receive, the higher the ad’s relevance score will be. (Positive indicators vary depending on the ad’s objective, but may include video views, conversions, etc.) The more times we expect people to hide or report an ad, the lower its score will be.”
Facebook also says that RS will help with A/B testing and creative optimization. They can watch the RS go up or down and adjust ad creative accordingly.
Ads with a higher relevancy score will be more competitive at auction and ultimately cost less for marketers.
However, 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.
The company says RS “should not be used as the primary indicator of an ad’s performance.” Still it gives marketers another important metric to gauge performance.
Facebook said it tested relevance score with a number of advertisers prior to rolling it out. One of the beta partner-advertisers said it saw conversion rates improve by 20 percent.
The scores will roll out globally and can be accessed through any Facebook ad reporting tool or those developed alongside its API partners.
