This weekend, you may have noticed an unexpected spike in your spending on ads recently. Unfortunately, reports have been surfacing that Facebook’s ad system has caused significant overspending on many accounts due to an error in Ads Delivery. Many users reported CPM costs rising up to 500% higher than recent, normal spending, and impacting all related performance metrics too. For small businesses, this can be a major hit to their budget – but fortunately, there are ways to protect yourself and mitigate some of these effects from happening again in the future.
Facebook Ad Systems Error Causes Significant Overspend on Many Accounts https://t.co/1XVhWxxOx3
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) April 24, 2023
Overview of the Facebook Ads Overspending on Conversion-Based Campaigns
Facebook Ads are a great tool for home service companies to reach their ready-to-buy homeowners and increase conversions. This weekend, overspending happened primarily on conversion-based campaigns. This means if your campaigns are conversion-focused, for example, Facebook optimizes costs for whenever someone clicks on your phone number or fills out a contact form, your budget may have drained this weekend if you didn’t have proper budget caps and rule sets enabled.
Exploring the reports that CPMs were up 200%-500%
Reports of CPMs being up 200%-500% sent shockwaves through the advertising industry, but Meta wasted no time in addressing the issue. Within hours of the reports coming in, the company acknowledged the problem and quickly set to work on a fix.
Seeing everyone’s messages. Escalations sent.
Product & engineering teams are on it.
We take these matters seriously.
I don’t have more information right now.
When things go wrong, Meta has a history of making things right.https://t.co/yCDSymTEHI
— Yoni Levy (@MrYoniLevy) April 23, 2023
This kind of swift action is reassuring for ad partners, who need to know that they can have confidence in the platform’s ability to deliver results. The error is particularly unfortunate given that Meta has been striving to establish trust in its ad products in the aftermath of the iOS14 update, which has made it harder to track user data. By relying on machine learning and improved audience detection, Meta is positioning itself to be a reliable partner for companies looking to get the most out of their ad campaigns.
Meta Status Updates Show Ads Deliveries Are Fixed
According to the latest update on April 24, 2023 at 9:45pm ET, Meta has resolved the issue and all ad systems are back to normal. Meta has also stated that they will contact the affected ad account managers directly in the following days.
