Facebook video advertising miscalculation alters millions of views

Facebook has come clean about its video advertising miscalculation. The Facebook video advertising miscalculation means that the company had been overestimating the average time people spent watching a certain video. This is bad news for advertisers who spend so much money on Facebook advertisements. The inflation of views has been going on for about two years. Marketer spending on Facebook ads has come under an impact because of this. This news is mildly shocking for advertisers but overall, the impact is one that can be easily tolerated.

Facebook video advertising glitch meant inflated views

The metric system for video advertisement only counted videos as viewed when they had been viwed for three or more seconds. It did not take in to account the shorter views of videos. The miscalculation of views likely oversaw an estimation of 60 to 80 percent. This goes down to 12 to 14 then. The disparity of video views that Facebook will show from onwards to what they were two years ago is not minor.

Facebook launched the live video feature for desktop this month. Previously, it was only available on mobile phones.

This means that the views on them will now be different from before. The live video feature on Facebook has been involved in major events from shooting deaths of Philando Castile and the five Dallas police officers in July. The live feature video service is in use by 1.7 billion people every day ever since its release.

Read about Facebook live feature for desktop

The social networking giant has taken necessary steps to correct the video advertising glitch. It has sent out relevant information to the advertisers. The issue came under spotlight in the Facebook advertiser help page. The entire miscalculation did not impact the billing procedure. It did however, present a very different version of post engagement.

After the announcement, Facebook shares fell $1.78 to $128.30 in after-hours trading.

Image via Adweek