Facebook’s bug caused it to undercount ad performance for 7 months

Facebook announced this week that a bug in its ad measurement system caused it to undercount ad performance data for almost seven months.

The company said that the bug which was first discovered on August 20 has been fixed and affected only iPhone 12 users using its Facebook app. 

However, it would be wrong to underestimate this bug, considering the fact that over 100 million iPhone 12 handsets were sold as of April 2020.

In an email sent to advertisers, Facebook said that the problem first started in February.

“During the affected period, SKAN app ads were being delivered and people were potentially converting, but we were unable to measure those conversions since we were not receiving the postbacks from SKAN for iPhone 12 users,” the company wrote. 

It also said that the problem caused it to undercount nearly 10% of total SkadNetwork conversions.

“Based on our iOS user base, we believe around 10% of total SKAdNetwork conversions were not counted or reported,” the company said. “The impact on specific campaign metrics will vary. We are communicating with advertisers whose metrics may have been impacted to make sure they are aware”

The social media giant also told advertisers that there could be an increase in their previous ad conversion campaigns as it has now fixed the bug.