Facebook Updates Estimated Reach, Streaming Reactions, And Graph API Metrics

In October, Facebook found that it had “a discrepancy” between the definition and the calculation of video metrics, and publicly apologised – then fixed a bug that affected engagement counts on Pages. Now, the company is updating metrics for Estimated Reach, stream Reactions and its Graph API.

Together with the new metrics enhancements, Facebook is also created a “channel for regular information on” changes. Here are today’s changes.

Ads Creation—Improvement To Estimated Reach Methodology

In ads creation, Facebook is updating how it calculates the numbers that appear for the estimated reach tool, to “help advertisers get a better view of the number of people they can expect to reach with ads.”

[quote]When an advertiser begins creating a campaign, the tool provides them with an estimate of both the potential overall reach and the estimated daily reach of their ad campaign.[/quote]

Facebook says that this tool doesn’t reflect real reach for campaigns that have run, and it doesn’t affect other reach metrics. The metric’s sampling and extrapolation methodology is now being improved

[quote]to provide a more accurate estimate for a given target audience and to better account for audiences across multiple platforms (Facebook, Instagram and Audience Network). In most cases, advertisers should expect to see less than a 10% change (increase or decrease) in the audience sizes shown in the tool.[/quote]

Live Video Metrics In Page Insights—Reallocating Streaming Reactions

Facebook introduced “streaming reactions” especially for your videos on Live – the same person can have more than one reaction during a stream. This is logical, since the same person can react differently to different parts of a Live video.

In a Page’s Insights though, in the “Reactions on Post” column, Facebook only shows “one reaction per unique user.” The extra reactions during the live broadcast were “misallocated” to “Reactions from Shares of Post,” instead of “counting them in the “Reactions on Post” section.” This is now being updated and corrected.

Facebook says that

[quote]total counts were and are correct; some of them were just captured in the wrong reporting column when broken out.[/quote]

The company also explains that the fix will apply to Live videos created mid-December. On average, “Reactions on Post” should increase around 500% and will decrease “Reactions from Shares” around 25%.

#Facebook scrambles to correct new discrepancies in its estimated reach and live video metrics

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Like, Share Buttons and Mobile Search Discrepancy

Facebook has also found a discrepancy “between the counts for the Like and Share Buttons” via the Graph API, as well as the counts of entering a URL into the search bar Facebook’s mobile app.

Like and Share button metrics pull the number of likes of a URL off Facebook, the number of shares of a URL off Facebook (this includes copy/pasting a link back to Facebook), and the number of likes and comments on stories on Facebook about a URL.

It was found that there may be a difference between these metrics and mobile search query counts. And Facebook is looking into it, explaining that it’s

[quote]working to resolve this issue so that the Like and Share button metrics and […] mobile search query metrics match up, and […] will notify partners as soon as [there’s] an update.[/quote]

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