When you submit an ad to Facebook, it doesn’t just suddenly become an ad. Oh, no no… It must go through a review process. And that process can feel a lot like being taunted by a sentry from the battlements. If only it were this funny.
In all reality Facebook must review your ad before it is placed before unsuspecting people’s eyeballs. Unfettered access would invite all sorts of problems. So Facebook has created a list of advertising policies everyone must follow. It checks your ad against these policies. If you pass: Yay, you’re in! If you fail: Boo, you’re out. That process takes time.
Facebook doesn’t come right out and give the details of how they operate. We know they have algorithms and we know there is some form of human review. We know this because Facebook has told us they have those things. How, exactly, does the review process work between Algorithms and Humans? We don’t know, but I can take a pretty good stab at it because I watch thousands of ads get moved through the Buzz Frenzy app.
I know what I think I know.
First thing I would like to say is this information is based on observational evidence. I am taking a couple of SWAGs here. It is what I think I know. It is NOT what I know I know. It is very important to make that distinction because I do not want you to think you know what I know I know I think I know. You know?
Now that I know we have that cleared up… let’s see what that looks like from the Ads Manager in Facebook:
WHEN THINGS GO WELL
When an advertisement gets submitted to Facebook there is a possibility for it to be reviewed twice. First by an algorithm, and then second by an actual human being. Why do I think I know this? Let’s look at what happens when a post gets buzzed on Buzz Frenzy.
First, let’s look at what happens when things go well…
Here is what that means in software speak:
4:04pm: Buzz Frenzy says to Facebook, “Hey, turn this post into an ad, will you?
4:04pm: Facebook says, “Sure thing. Let me take a look at it.”
4:07pm: Facebook says, “Everything checks out. We’re running your ad.”
4:15pm: Facebook runs the ad.
Wasn’t that lovely? The whole process took 11 minutes. Pretty quick, all things considered.
WHEN THINGS GO… NOT SO WELL
Again, in software speak:
2:34pm: Buzz Frenzy says to Facebook, “Hey, turn this post into an ad, will you?
2:34pm: Facebook says, “Sure thing. Let me take a look at it.”
3:24pm: Facebook says, “Everything checks out. We’re running your ad.”
3:26pm: Facebook runs the ad.
Hey now! What the what? This whole thing took an hour and 2 minutes. It took Facebook a good 50 minutes to review the ad. What’s happening here?
I think I know that the first ad passed through the algorithm without a hitch. I think I know the second ad went through human review. How do I know there is an algorithm? Check this out…
ALGORITHM REVIEW CLUE
This was a picture in a post that was flagged for… wait for it… wait for it… nudity! This picture was flagged for nudity.
This is a clear indication that a human being didn’t look at this. Something about that llama triggered the artificial intelligence in Facebook’s algorithm to think there was gross pornography happening in this photo.
We at Buzz Frenzy were able to successfully appeal the disapproval by saying (no joke), “Um… this is a llama…”
That’s why I think I know there is an algorithm.
Um… this is a llama…
HUMAN REVIEW CLUE
Why do I think I know that advertisements go through some sort of human review? Because last year Mark Zuckerberg posted that he was upping his reviewing staff to 7,500 people from 4,500 people. So, actually, I know I know that part.
What I don’t know is why, with that many people working on processing ads, “Pending Review” takes so long. I think I know it is simply a matter of mathematics. Facebook has 5 million monthly advertisers. They don’t tell us how many ads they actually run, but it’s going to be a whole bunch. Let’s just assume each advertiser is running one ad per day (yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s not how it works. But between campaigns and boosts, who knows what the “average” might be). That’s 365 ads per year for each advertiser. That’s 1.825 billion ads per year.
(5,000,000,000) advertisers X 365 days per year = 1,825,000,000 ads per year.
7,500 people working 40 hour weeks can cover 936,000,000 minutes in a year.
(7,500) people X (40) hours per week X (52) weeks X (60) minutes = 936,000,000 minutes/year.
Divide one by the other and we discover that each person has about 30 seconds to review an ad.
(936,000,000) minutes / (1,825,000,000) advertisements = .51 minutes per ad.
Okay, all of that being said, I think I know I am probably short on my calculations by a long shot, but still… 30 seconds per ad isn’t a very long time. Also take into consideration that these human reviewer positions need to be staffed 24/7, that staffing isn’t going to perfectly jibe with the amount of ads coming in every moment, and that humans are prone to… all those imperfectly human qualities that make them miss work. You can quickly figure out that there are going to be log-jams in the system from time to time.
What does that mean to you? It means that “Pending Review” doesn’t care what kind of time crunch you might be in.
HUMANS WILL BE HUMAN
Another thing about human review (I think): They are prone to subjectivity which can be influenced by all sorts of random things – is this particular reviewer having a good day or a bad day, are they a cat person or a dog person, do they enjoy country music or death metal, etc., etc., etc. All of this is to say that the same ad may be fine by one human’s standards and very not fine by another’s.
Why do I think that? The ads below all ran at around the same time – a fashion company, a burlesque troupe, and a photographer. One was flagged for “too much cleavage”. Guess which one…
If you guessed “mother with newborn” you are absolutely correct. We appealed, successfully, but it highlights the subjectivity of human review.
While we are on the subject of “appealing” a “flagged” ad. We here at Buzz Frenzy do that on your behalf, so there isn’t much to worry about on your end. But, just for fun, let’s take a look at how that works:
This is the alert we see on Facebook when an ad is flagged:
When that “Appeal” button is pressed this screen pops up:
Fun stuff, right?
So, what’s the point of going over all of this? Facebook has has come under scrutiny for how well it scrutinizes the advertisers on its platform. As Facebook comes under heavier scrutiny so to will we businesses who advertise on the platform be subject to heavier scrutiny. I know I know this can be frustrating. But, in the end, all of this scrutiny will purge unscrupulous advertisers from the site making it a much better experience for all involved – for both your customers and you.
I know I know this is going to be a very good thing.