Facebook Knew Audience Metric Was Bogus for Years, Amended Lawsuit Claims
Never ask a barber whether you need a haircut, the old proverb goes. An updated version, considering new information in a lawsuit against social media giant Facebook (NASDAQ: FB): Never ask Facebook whether you should advertise on Facebook.
Advertisers who turned to Facebook for the massive reach of its platform have been bamboozled by a faulty metric that executives have known about for years, according to an amended complaint filed last week in a lawsuit originally filed in 2018. The "potential reach" metric, supposed to estimate an ad's target audience, is misleading because it could include fake and duplicate accounts, according to the filings.
The filings allege the potential reach metric for certain U.S. states and demographics exceeded U.S. census figures, a clear case of inflation. For example, in every state, the true population between 18 and 34 years old was lower than the potential reach Facebook reported.
Source Fool.com
