refunds advertisers for spending glitches
Meta has started to refund advertisers who were affected by a glitch that occurred last month, which resulted in higher CPAs and overspending.
Why it matters. Meta must make this right for its advertisers, regardless of size. The refunds have started, but this issue has been ongoing for over a week.
May 12, Some advertiser got their refunds beginning on May 12. Bloomberg reports that many smaller advertisers complain about the slowness of the refund process.
Some advertisers received refunds beginning May 12th, although the amounts were distributed inconsistently. It’s unclear why some businesses got more money back. According to agency representatives, in the past, advertisers who spent a great deal of money on Facebook, or who had personal connections with the company, had a better chance at getting refunded.
The glitch. Meta used up the daily budgets of advertisers in just a few hours on April 23. CPAs tripled. You can find out more in our article: A catastrophic Meta Bug caused overspending and higher-than average CPAs.
The damage. For example, Bloomberg reported that the $13,000 budget of one ecommerce advertiser had been spent in just three hours, with no results. One business reported that it had “the worst return ever on its Sunday advertising budget, posting 85% less sales than the previous weekend and 76% below two weeks before.”
Making the situation worse. According to Bloomberg, “Refunds are usually cents per dollar for ad errors and Meta does not tell advertisers how they calculate the payout.”
Meta’s statement.
- We identified and fixed a technical problem in our automated system that was causing ad-delivery issues such as faster campaign expenditures and more variable cost. We resolved this issue as quickly as we could and apologize for the inconvenience.
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