Facebook combines cost metrics, aims to offer clearer view of consumer engagement

Facebook is combining cost metrics that only report on interactions on a single channel into a single metric covering web, mobile and offline, it said in a recent blog post.For example, it is replacing Cost per Website Purchase, Cost per Mobile App Purchase and Cost per Offline Purchase with a single Cost per Purchase metric. Facebook said this metric aggregates and collectively reports purchases across all three channels as part of a single, new metric.The move is in a bid to evaluate ad performance "holistically" to account for all the ways that consumers have interacted with businesses, and the impact those interactions had on business performance. In the meantime, businesses are still able to calculate channel-specific cost per metrics by dividing its total spend by the number of conversions from the channel it is interested in.In addition, Facebook has redesigned the customise column selector in Ads Manager, to consolidate website, mobile and offline metrics. Previously, businesses had to select three separate metrics if they wanted a holistic measure of purchases across those channels.Meanwhile, it also added eight new standard events to serve business with various objectives - contact, customise product, donate, find location, schedule, start trial, submit application and subscribe.The new standard events are available across web, app and offline, and were created to enable more businesses to understand customer engagement both online and offline. Additionally, Facebook is also introducing two app-specific events: Ad Click and Ad Impression. According to Facebook, both help apps that monetised with ads understand how people coming to their app from Facebook are engaging in-app.Standard events are a structured way of communicating actions to Facebook so it can be used to inform ad targeting, optimisation and measurement solutions. Existing standard events include the Facebook pixel, the Facebook SDK with App Events and the ability to upload offline conversion data. The company said these improvements are part of its ongoing efforts to build solutions that empower businesses to understand customer interactions and boost business performance.Read also: Facebook shells out SG$1.4bn for Singapore data centre Facebook bans over 5,000 ad targeting terms Facebook gets sued for allegedly inflating potential reach Facebook value takes US$120bn hit following lower profit forecast Facebook rolls out monetisation features to draw in content creators