In the wake of Facebook’s recent data scandal, advertisers are reluctantly maintaining their same budgets through Facebook marketing services.  

Facing the music

Since the reveal of Cambridge Analytica’s dodgy data harvesting of (at last count) 87 million Facebook users, marketers are continuing to promote through the social network, but have concerns moving forward.

Two recent investigative reports from The Guardian and The New York Times have shed more light on the recent scandal, suggesting Facebook may be withholding some data and insights from marketers.

It appears that the depth of data made available to Analytica is raising eyebrows, and could hint that Facebook is providing different metrics to app developers compared to advertisers.

Something funky at Facebook

Facebook has powerful data and is freakishly adept at hyper-precision audience targeting. According to eMarket’s most recent report, Facebook is poised to generate $21 billion from ad revenue in 2018, up 16.9% since 2017.

Periscope’s VP of media Jen Brady stated, “Just because we’re advertising on Facebook doesn’t mean that we’re ignoring what’s happening in the industry,” but also suggests “it’s buyer beware.”

Some onus is being placed on the consumer being mindful of what info they share online while others are concerned over failed security. With a grey area of accountability, 2019 could be the year that sees a shift in Facebook ad budgets. We’ll see.

What are your thoughts on putting onus on the users? Do you think Facebook acted in bad faith? Give us your thoughts in the comments below.