Meta's Marketers Raise Issues Over Glitch in Ad System

Meta's ad system is reportedly facing significant performance issues, as businesses relying on Facebook and Instagram ads encountered unexpected hurdles in recent months.

These problems, as marketers have noticed, include a sharp increase in ad campaign costs, coupled with mixed results and decreased sales.

Meta's Marketers Speak Out

Cody Plofker, chief marketing revenue officer at Bobbi Brown brand Jones Road Beauty, called the current situation with the tech giant's ad system "brutal" during a recent discussion on an "Operators" podcast episode.

“This has been an extremely challenging month for us. Meta is usually 65%, 75% of spend. Usually it’s our bread and butter. We do really well. And without anything changing on our end, it’s just been brutal,” Plofker said.

Plofker, who just came from a meeting at Meta to try to resolve the issue at the time of the podcast, further reveals that brands having the same issue agree that the problem has something to do with iOS data.

“iOS performance is struggling. We’ve been talking to a lot of other brands, and that’s really the one consensus,” Plofker shared.

“There’s something that has seemingly changed with how Meta is processing, or accepting, or not accepting iOS conversion data,” he added. 

Carly London, who manages over $100 million in Meta-related spending under the agency Sometimes Curly, also highlighted a 20% to 40% drop in return on advertising spending (ROAS) for some accounts over the past two months.

"Normally you can find some new creative winners, try a new campaign structure, try some different strategies and kind of find some winners," she explained.

Rok Hladnik, who is in charge of several million dollars worth of Meta-related ad spending each month through the Flat Circle agency, echoed London's sentiments, saying, "What we’re seeing right now is definitely on another level."

All these problems with Meta over the last 30 days have been ridiculously annoying.

But with that being said, we’re making sure to document every single problem and send it all to our Meta-rep

Affected campaign IDs, ad set IDs, and ad IDs and a breakdown of everything that…

— Ash (@ashvinmelwani) April 6, 2024

Meanwhile, other advertisers have reported substantial increases in key metrics determining campaign costs, such as the cost per 1,000 ad impressions (CPM) and cost per click (CPC).

The Zuckerberg-owned company acknowledged the existence of glitches but disputed claims of widespread issues, stating that their ad system is functioning as expected for the majority of advertisers.

"We recently fixed a few technical issues and are researching a small amount of additional reports from advertisers to ensure the best possible results for businesses using our apps," a company spokesperson shared. 

Marketers Try to Diversify

In response to the uncertainties surrounding Meta's ad platform, some advertisers have diverted their budgets to alternative platforms like TikTok and Google.

Plofker shared that he has cut his Meta budgets by 30% to 40%, moving most of this to Google’s YouTube, TikTok and TV.

Meanwhile, London began experimenting with platforms such as Snapchat and Pinterest, spending time away from Facebook and Instagram. 

The absence of a clear explanation from Meta has also fueled speculation within the ad industry, with many pointing to the significant ad spending by Temu on Meta platforms as a potential factor.

Temu contributed to 10% of $META ad revenue last year -> $2 billion

Roughly 8,900 ads in total.

Insane. pic.twitter.com/rDBBIWuSRy

— ANTONIO (@AntonioLavia) March 28, 2024

The Chinese-owned e-commerce giant's $2 billion ad spend makes it Meta's largest advertiser. 

Despite the challenges, Meta's dominance in the digital advertising market remains substantial.

Analysts project strong first-quarter earnings for the company, but the long-term impact of the current ad system issues on Meta's business performance remains uncertain.

Editing by Katherine 'Makkie' Maclang