Facebook’s ad library has gone through a change, and new features have been added to up its transparency. After Facebook ads were used to sway the presidential election of the US in 2016 the new features have been added to ensure its transparency.
Policy matters or politics were the only ads to be displayed in the Facebook ad’s archive which launched in May 2018. But now Facebook ads can be about everything along with politically inactive issues.
Facebook’s new ad library allows one to search about the creation dates of pages, name changes of pages, page merger, and information about the source of page management. Such information is visible on a new option, the Page transparency tab which can be found on all pages.
Facebook ad library has made it easier to look for Facebook ads on varied topics. One can search for political and other issue ads with the help of keywords or page name. Facebook displays the related ad by auto-fill suggestions and previous related searches.
The Facebook ad library also shows the total number of political ads on a page. Unlike before the Facebook ad library now allows one to download Ad reports on a daily, quarterly, or monthly basis.
The new transparency feature will help to keep track of the misuse of Facebook ads in any way.
Recently Facebook stopped putting up outdated political ads in the Facebook ads library. It also received complaints regarding the ‘paid for by’ labels on the political ads of news publishers. As per the grievances, the label may indicate that the news publishers are taking sides. In response to this, the Facebook ad manager now doesn’t let political ads by news publishers to fall under the political tab.
In an aim to prevent influencing other country’s election Facebook started political ad labeling. The Facebook ad manager requires anyone who wants to by political ads to submit their documents for verification. The documentation must include their identity and locality verification which is reviewed by automated systems. It also identifies complaints by users on ads without proper labeling.
Facebook also began the ‘paid for by’ labels on all issues and political Facebook ads as well as on Instagram. The Facebook ads manager now puts all the active and inactive ads on the Facebook ad library.
The labels help one to identify the buyer of the ad, his location and contact details, number of viewers of the Facebook ad, and budget.
Facebook has also brought changes in allowing programmatic access to Facebook Ad library API by developers and researchers. Presently, anyone with a Facebook developer account can use the software to filter through and identify the latest trends. Such information can be accessed after one with such an account goes through the Identity confirmation process and agrees to Facebook’s terms and services.
The product manager of Facebook’s business integrity team commented on Facebook’s measures to protect API considering people don’t follow the TOS. He said that to identify misusers, Facebook has opted for identification verification which will help them to detect if anybody is trying to misuse Facebook’s data.
However, one can search through the Facebook ad library and ad reports even without being a Facebook account holder.
Although it is convenient to search Facebook ads on Facebook ads library, supervisors keep an eye on campaigns that could be to spread unrest. If supervisors spot any campaigns being held to influence elections of another country, provoke people, incite anger; such Facebook ads can be flagged to be removed from the Facebook ads library.
To make the displayed ads more transparent, several other features have been added to the Facebook ad library.
Rob Leathern, the team leader of Facebook integrity said that the Facebook ad library will now have an option to measure the ‘potential reach’ of that particular Facebook ad. This means that one will be able to understand the possible number of people eligible to view the Facebook ad.
It was possible to detect ‘potential reach’ manually by identifying the expenditure on the Facebook ad and targeting of the audience. But now with the incorporation of new listings, it’s easy to search for a Facebook ad depending upon their potential influence. It will also help to better understand a Facebook campaign.
Facebook ads will now show related ads too as a new feature has come into play. The Facebook ads manager will now assemble all related ads in the Facebook ad library. This will make it easier for users to find ads that are related. To ensure easy ad searches by users, new filters have been added.
Leathern also points out that an important feature added to the Facebook ad library is to search by Instagram handle.
Facebook Ad library opens up a whole new dimension of understanding. One can look into the ongoing campaigns and by whom they are organized. Although the focus is mostly on political ads and being transparent about candidate expenditure it’s a great platform for learning as well. One can enhance his approach towards Facebook marketing by understanding ad approaches in a vivid way.
However, the Facebook ad library must be ready to provide new updates or make changes keeping in view the US presidential election of 2020. User ratings on the Facebook ad library will only go up if it is relevant and enough data on the current political scenario.
Facebook Ad library is one of the most useful tools rolled out by Facebook. With the constant changes and updates, the Ad library is a go-to place to search for anything.
