In the midst of Facebook’s various mobile and other expansion attempts, the company has also taken a step toward standardizing the “wild world of Web metrics” by switching its engagement rating for applications from daily usage to monthly active user reports, according to AdWeek.
This change will have a significant affect on advertisers and third-party app developers, along with Facebook’s eventual move toward including more mobile advertising. (Currently the site features little to no advertising on cell phones, be it via the company’s dedicated iPhone and WAP sites or its Facebook for BlackBerry application.)
Analysts largely applauded the move. “The more data perspectives the better,” said Peter Blackshaw, evp, Nielsen Online Digital Strategic Services, in the report. “There’s certainly something to be said for offering developers a longer term engagement metric. This looks to be a net positive, especially if it’s truly grounded in user or application developer feedback. I think we’re in the early stages of converging around the right engagement metric.”
