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Facebook lured advertisers by inflating video ad-watch times: lawsuit

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Re: Facebook lured advertisers by inflating video ad-watch times: lawsuit

#111
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google, as far as I know, was never caught in dark ui patterns or fake number reports to generate revenue. They don't seem to need it. Autoplay videos with ads?

Youtube's autoplay actually works for some people. They want to watch the next video many times. It's far different from let them click on this by mistake

I assume parent was referring to... gets up and walks away, while youtube continues to autoplay

Re: Facebook lured advertisers by inflating video ad-watch times: lawsuit

#112
post #18

Pretty sure Twitter has an ad metrics problem too. As I wrote last year: > When I ran a Twitter Ads campaign for one of my clients, within two days I noticed that Google Analytics was reporting nearly 100% fewer visitors from the campaign than Twitter was reporting clicks. That is, if Twitter counted (and charged for) 100 clicks, Google Analytics showed fewer than 5 visitors from the campaign. > The support team at T…

Also, I thought something like 40% of browsers run adblockers, and possibly a disproportionate amount in your demographics. That could explain the bulk if the difference.

Re: Facebook lured advertisers by inflating video ad-watch times: lawsuit

#113
post #112
post #18

Pretty sure Twitter has an ad metrics problem too. As I wrote last year: > When I ran a Twitter Ads campaign for one of my clients, within two days I noticed that Google Analytics was reporting nearly 100% fewer visitors from the campaign than Twitter was reporting clicks. That is, if Twitter counted (and charged for) 100 clicks, Google Analytics showed fewer than 5 visitors from the campaign. > The support team at T…

Also, I thought something like 40% of browsers run adblockers, and possibly a disproportionate amount in your demographics. That could explain the bulk if the difference.

Wow, that would be a lot more than I would expect. Did you have a source for this number?

Re: Facebook lured advertisers by inflating video ad-watch times: lawsuit

#114
post #18

Pretty sure Twitter has an ad metrics problem too. As I wrote last year: > When I ran a Twitter Ads campaign for one of my clients, within two days I noticed that Google Analytics was reporting nearly 100% fewer visitors from the campaign than Twitter was reporting clicks. That is, if Twitter counted (and charged for) 100 clicks, Google Analytics showed fewer than 5 visitors from the campaign. > The support team at T…

Why do you (and why do people in general) not use server logs for analytics of this sort?

Seems like it might show requests that failed to get to the point of processing the analytics JS as well as those running adblockers.

Re: Facebook lured advertisers by inflating video ad-watch times: lawsuit

#115
post #112
post #18

Pretty sure Twitter has an ad metrics problem too. As I wrote last year: > When I ran a Twitter Ads campaign for one of my clients, within two days I noticed that Google Analytics was reporting nearly 100% fewer visitors from the campaign than Twitter was reporting clicks. That is, if Twitter counted (and charged for) 100 clicks, Google Analytics showed fewer than 5 visitors from the campaign. > The support team at T…

Also, I thought something like 40% of browsers run adblockers, and possibly a disproportionate amount in your demographics. That could explain the bulk if the difference.

That’s a good point! Twitter’s tracking is almost perfect with their link shortener. I wonder if/when adblockers will take care of that as well (resolve the link once then cache it).

Re: Facebook lured advertisers by inflating video ad-watch times: lawsuit

#116
post #15

On a side note, if you use instagram, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but literally every 3-4 pictures is an ad now. It's so annoying, they're completely ruining the experience and it affects my retention rate and my will to come back.

They're just reinforcing the demise of the platform. Over 80% of the last followers I picked up were bots. At least I'm assuming anyone who followers 4800 people can't be human.

You can follow 100k people, it won't matter. You'll still see updates from about 20-30 people or so.

Re: Facebook lured advertisers by inflating video ad-watch times: lawsuit

#117
post #115
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, I thought something like 40% of browsers run adblockers, and possibly a disproportionate amount in your demographics. That could explain the bulk if the difference.

That’s a good point! Twitter’s tracking is almost perfect with their link shortener. I wonder if/when adblockers will take care of that as well (resolve the link once then cache it).

There's actually no need to resolve it. At least so far, they put the full url in the page source. I have a proof of concept extension already coded up for removing the redirects. I plan on adding a bunch of other sites (google, facebook, whatever else) and releasing it.

Re: Facebook lured advertisers by inflating video ad-watch times: lawsuit

#118

Seems to be a pretty big nail in the coffin for them and this is just the tip of the iceberg. lol. A class action of one of their core revenue streams is going to be very expensive. I think we should just make Facebook a public utility, and do them like the utility companies were done; congress can easily decide to transfer control of the company and all of its assets in a single resolution. Then, drastically reduce…

I'd like this more than the status quo, but this still leaves the door open for governments to read private messages and leverage social platforms for manipulation. In my mind, and I admit I am not certain this is possible - the only right way for a social network to function is for it to be decentralized and user data controlled by individual users - with optins for any "sharing".

Re: Facebook lured advertisers by inflating video ad-watch times: lawsuit

#119
post #2

I have mentioned that several times before, but I always believed that FB's but also Google's metrics are at least borderline fraudulent. Inflated by bots and apps that simulate DAUs and clicks. I only have anecdotal evidence from Google, where I was frequently charged over my campaign limit on ad clicks that I could never validate on my own site. I believe FB is same.

I personally suspect that’s why Twitter has failed to deal with their bot problem, fixing it would make their usage metrics plumit.

My previous company stopped advertising on Twitter for precisely this reason. Our own analytics showed that the majority of the clicks we were getting and being charged for were obviously either bits or other spam accounts. It was actually crazy what we were being charged for.

Re: Facebook lured advertisers by inflating video ad-watch times: lawsuit

#120
post #114
post #18

Pretty sure Twitter has an ad metrics problem too. As I wrote last year: > When I ran a Twitter Ads campaign for one of my clients, within two days I noticed that Google Analytics was reporting nearly 100% fewer visitors from the campaign than Twitter was reporting clicks. That is, if Twitter counted (and charged for) 100 clicks, Google Analytics showed fewer than 5 visitors from the campaign. > The support team at T…

Why do you (and why do people in general) not use server logs for analytics of this sort? Seems like it might show requests that failed to get to the point of processing the analytics JS as well as those running adblockers.

Not sure how I’d set up server logging on a serverless site. (Not being snarky; I really don’t know.)

I accept that GA will be off +/-10% because it’s clientside. Don’t need total accuracy to make marketing decisions.

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