Facebook says it will open up for independent ad audit

Following multiple admissions last year that it had been misreporting some of its ad numbers, Facebook just announced that it has committed to an audit by the Media Rating Council “to verify the accuracy of the information we deliver to our partners.”

The mistakes that Facebook revealed last year seem relatively minor, but collectively, they probably have added momentum to calls from the ad industry for better data from Facebook, as well as more third-party verification of that data.

In the blog post announcing the MRC audit, Facebook also says it will be providing more details about how long (down to the millisecond) an ad is actually on-screen, as well as how long 50 percent and 100 percent of the ad is on-screen. So hopefully, advertisers will wonder less about whether they’re paying for ads that aren’t actually seen.

In addition, Facebook says it’s now working with 24 independent partners for ad measurement. Plus, it will be adding new video ad-buying options — for example, advertisers could only pay for videos that are viewed in their entirety.

“As a partner to over four million advertisers across a wide range of organizations and objectives, we want to provide transparency, choice, and accountability,” Facebook says.