Facebook Audience Network aims to solve the fat thumbs problem


Facebook Audience Network is taking steps to help advertisers avoid paying for users who accidentally clicked on their ads, with users who click back to the previous page within two seconds being removed from measurement metrics and not charged for.

The change, which was announced by product marketing manager Brett Vogel, will only affect the Facebook Audience Network, which runs ads in other apps connected to Facebooks platform, and will use the two second threshold as a “starting point”, but may adjust it in the future, depending on feedback.

According to Facebook, the change should not affect publishers revenues, as the “vast majority” of clicks are intentional. Instead, it will provide both advertisers and publishers with a clearer picture of which ad formats and creative are effective with consumers.

“Ad placements that are built to drive unintentional clicks run counter to [the goal of creating a healthy advertising ecosystem],” said Vogel. “While they can be profitable for publishers, they fail to deliver good experiences for businesses or people. For advertisers, these kind of unintentional clicks can drive down the value of their campaigns.

“Over the next few months, we are making updates to stop delivering to ad placements that encourage unintentional clicks. These updates include policy clarifications on unintentional clicks, product changes to invalidate these clicks, and proactively pausing implementations that exhibit abnormal click behaviour.

“Going forward, well be experimenting with more ways to reduce the number of unintentional clicks by looking further into bounce rates, additional metrics, and trying to prevent users from accidentally clicking in the first place.”

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