On Tuesday, Facebook announced Advertiser Outcome Score (AOS) for Audience Network, which is described as a measurement system to evaluate publishers’ ad placements by their ability to drive outcomes for advertisers. Outcomes would be things like app installs, purchases, or registrations.

The company says it’s providing more transparency into how placements are performing so publishers can better optimize their ads business, improve performance, and increase revenue.

“We believe that what provides great ads experiences for people drives better results for businesses,” says Facebook’s Huifang Yin. “Over the past three years, Facebook has built our advertising systems to deliver real business results for marketers and over the last year and a half, we have extended that capability through the Audience Network. By helping our over 2.5 million advertisers connect with people who are discovering their products and services, we’re able to drive value for the overall ecosystem: more relevant ads for people, real business results for advertisers, and better yield and experiences for publishers and the people who use their apps. Furthermore, as the Facebook ads system delivers ads to real people and optimizes for advertiser outcomes, it creates an environment where fraud is more difficult to exist.”

“Historically, ad networks have rewarded clicks and CTR as the primary metrics publishers should care about,” adds Yin. “Our system is different – we pay publishers based on the outcomes they create for advertisers. We have heard from publishers that they want to know how best to optimize in our system, and we are committed to giving our partners actionable insights so that they can grow their businesses.”

Publishers can look at Advertiser Outcome Score in the Audience Network dashboard.

Scores are based on a scale where one is the floor, and there is now cap (because there isn’t one on how well a placement can perform). Facebook says a strong score is eight or above. As the score improves, CPMs increase.

The company also says native ads represent 80% of impressions in the Audience Network and are delivering strong results.

Image via Facebook