Facebook launches Relevance Scores for advertisements

The scores will tell advertisers how effective their ads are, based on user feedback

We all know that advertising is extremely important to Facebook. All you have to do is look at any of its quarterly financial earnings reports to quickly understand that. In its most recently released earnings report, for example, Facebook posted fourth-quarter revenue of $3.85 billion. Of that, advertising revenue accounted for $3.59 billion, an increase of 53% from the same quarter the year before.

The trick is for Facebook to not only keep advertisers happy, but to convince them that putting their ads on Facebook, and paying the price to do so, is worth it.

So what's the best way to do that? By actually figure out a way to score each ad and how effective, or relevant, it was. And so Facebook has introduced Relevance Score.

"On Facebook, we try to show people the ads that are most pertinent to them. That’s why we’ve always used relevance as a factor in determining how we deliver ads. Taking relevance into account helps ensure that people see ads that matter to them, leading to a better experience for people and businesses alike," the company wrote in a blog post.

"Beginning this week, we’re going to start showing relevance scores as a visible metric in our ads reporting tools."

The company calculated the score based on the feedback it gets on each ad. It's pretty simple: more positive reactions give the ad a higher score. Things that can lower a score include people hiding, or even reporting, the ad.

As Facebook points out, positive indicators are not universal, and can "vary depending on the ad’s objective," but generally include video views and how many conversions they generate. Ads can achieve a score as low as 1, or as high as 10, and can change as more and different feedback starts coming in.

Facebook said that ads with guaranteed delivery, including those bought through reach and frequency, will not be impacted by the relevance score, as it  "has a smaller impact on cost and delivery in brand awareness campaigns since those ads are optimized for reaching people, rather than driving a specific action like installs," it wrote

The point of giving each ad its own score can result in a number of positive for advertisers, including reduced costs, as a higher relevance score means that the right people are seeing the ad meaning it '"will cost to be delivered."

In addition, it can also help advertisers test out different options, including 'combinations of image and copy with different audiences," and learning which work best, before launching an official campaign.

Relevance score are being rolled out globally starting this week, and can be viewed in ads reporting tools and through tools developed by Facebook's API partners.

(Image source: exactdrive.com)