Platforms
1 min read

Facebook “metrics” are a joke

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For years anyone with a brain has known that Facebook “metrics” are a joke. They make stuff up, imbeciles at agencies believe it, dimwit clients fund it, and – bingo – more ad money. Most famously, not long ago they inflated video viewing time on their site by as much as 80%.

Recently in my newsletter, I recounted this story…

Facebook Discovers 300,000 Invisible Swedes

Facebook “metrics” have a long illustrious history of being laughable bullshit. Anyone who believes their numbers is an idiot. Here’s a lovely example.

According to a recently published report, Facebook says they reach 1.5 million Swedes between the ages of 15 and 24. The  problem here is that Sweden only has 1.2 million of ’em. If Facebook reached 100% of them, they’d still be 300,000 short. Sometimes I think Facebook’s calculations are done by bloggers.

But today we have something even more delicious.

According to Brian Wieser of Pivotal Research Group, one of the industry’s most respected media analysts, Facebook is at it again.

Facebook’s Ads Manager says that the website is capable of reaching 41 million Americans between the ages of 18 and 24. The problem is there are only 31 million Americans of that age. But hey, what’s 10 million people here or there?

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