What's the Relevance?

Starting this week, Facebook has decided to launch a relevance score to its ads to let people know which ones are most pertinent to them. Of course, the goal with this is that users get the most relevant ads appearing which ultimately would result in better business.

The new relevance rating system will be on a 10 point scale (10 being the more relevant) and will be calculated through positive and negative feedback from a target audience and the score will be updated in real time. As a result, advertisers will need and in some cases be forced to create more innovate and interesting content to meet the preferences of their target demographic. According to Jerry Daykin, global digital and client director at Dentsu Aegis Network, "As marketers focus on making better content and getting it in front of more people, rather than churning out posts every day, it does become more and more viable to thoroughly test each one." It is important to hi-light that Ads will guaranteed delivery are not impacted by the relevance score. 

According to Facebook, the relevance score matters because it can lower the cost of reaching people, help advertisers test ad creative options before running a campaign and it also has the potential to help optimize campaigns already in progress. I think there is some potential in the relevance score, but companies and advertisers need to have a goal in mind and an ad campaign can still be successful despite a low relevance score and it will be important that companies don't get hung-up on the rating. Even Facebook appreciates that the score is not the end all, be all as it relates to a successful ad campaign. "While understanding relevance scores has real benefits for advertisers, it’s important to keep this metric in perspective. Relevance scores should not be used as the primary indicator of an ad’s performance. As has long been the case on Facebook, the most important factor for success is bidding based on the business goal you hope to meet with an ad." Therefore, companies need to establish and have a goal for their ad and not let this new score interference with that. From my vantage point the relevance score is more beneficial to the end user and will force advertisers to constantly monitor their score and will try to stay aware from a low score.