Facebook Finds More Imaginary Humans
You may remember last year when Facebook was widely ridiculed for claiming that it reached more people than exist. Well, not being satisfied with that, this year the gap between Facebook's claimed reach and the number of living, breathing humans has grown. No, you can't make this shit up.
By External Source
"You may remember last year when Facebook was widely ridiculed for claiming that it reached more people than exist. Well, not being satisfied with that, this year the gap between Facebook's claimed reach and the number of living, breathing humans has grown. No, you can't make this shit up.
"Last year, in Australia, Facebook claimed it could reach 1.7 million more 15 to 39-year-olds than the official population of the country. This year, according to AdNews, Facebook's reach has grown. They can now reach 1.85 million more 15 to 39's than there are.
"You gotta give them credit. They're doing an amazing job of improving their ability to reach imaginary people.
"The really hilarious part is how Facebook justifies this nonsense by torturing the definition of what "reach" means, “Our reach estimator tool and census data are very different data sets, with different calculation methods, designed to show different results” Oh, now I see -- different data sets. Yeah, yeah...
"Imagine the arrogance that believes anyone will accept this bullshit as an explanation.
"By the way, Facebook is being sued for their lying and their "different data sets" by advertisers who've been getting screwed for years."
– From Ad Contrarian blogger, author and public speaker Bob Hoffman's current newsletter.
From left: Joey Scolari, Tom Pistore, Keith Pelley, Wayne Zronik and Tim Leiweke speaking on State of the Industry panel at Departure at Toronto's Hotel X on May 8, 2025.Mike Highfield