Hasta La Creative!

Seismic. That’s the best description of the revelation that Facebook inflated the level of its users’ time commitment to video. “Inflated” as in 60% to 80% too high, according to the first round of credible estimates. Predictably, the news triggered an earthquake from U.S. advertisers, and we probably haven’t felt the last of it.

Why? Telling advertisers that they weren’t billed for inflated audience numbers, and providing third-party verification that their ads ran, doesn’t solve the underlying issue of transparency. The single biggest decision advertisers make is allocation: which media channels receive how much of the budget. To get this right, advertisers rely on credible, comparable audience estimates. No one buys media on time spent, but everyone allocates with it. As the video marketplace expands, the pressure for transparent time measures will only increase.

Before the new revelations, Facebook’s promise for advertisers was rightly compelling: mining/matching/marrying advertiser data and Facebook data for precision targeting, with ads served just-in-time to mobile viewers, all powered by “world class” Facebook data. There was a meteoric rise in ad dollars directed at Facebook Mobile, and the social media units at agencies gave rise to social-dedicated agencies.

Continue reading at AdAge.com