Facebook Finds More Ad-Metric Errors

Facebook said it discovered several mistakes in its reporting of metrics to partners and advertisers and vowed to be more transparent about errors in the future as it fixes the issue, according to Bloomberg. The social-networking company conducted a broad review after discovering three months ago that it had overstated how long people watched videos on its site.

The miscalculation wasn't broadly disclosed, sparking some criticism of the social network. Now, Facebook says it has found four other instances where it miscalculated reach on its site, including overstating how long people spent reading Instant Articles and how many people interacted with businesses' Facebook Pages.

Companies and marketers rely on Facebook to tell them how well the content they post is performing, so that they can make strategic decisions about what to do next and how much to invest through advertising or otherwise. To avoid future errors, the company said it's establishing a measurement council made up of top advertisers and partners.

Facebook will also allow more third party measurement companies such as Nielsen to track and supplement its metrics. Additionally, Facebook is revising the descriptions for its data to explain exactly what they measure, for example reporting "3-second video views" instead of just "video views.