Facebook has launched a new service that will allow brands to measure both reach and attribution of Facebook, Instagram and Audience Network alongside other publishers.

Called Advanced Measurement, the new offering is based on Atlas measurement solutions, an ad tech platform Facebook acquired from Microsoft in 2013.

With this launch, has incorporated measurement tools, previously only offered by its enterprise-level service Atlas, into its Business Manager dashboard.

The new measurement offering is still in its early stages but the plan is to roll it out globally over the next few months, making the measurement tools available to businesses of all sizes, worldwide.

Clients will be transitioned from Atlas to the new offering, named Advanced Measurement, over the next year and eventually, Atlas’s client-servicing arm will be discontinued.

Scott Schapiro, measurement product marketing director at Facebook was keen to emphasise that Facebook is not currently interested in turning metrics into a new revenue stream.

"We are not doing this to sell measurement. This is free right now, there’s no pricing model on this. Even if you don’t buy advertising on Facebook, this will eventually be accessible to all," Schapiro said during a video conference interview.

Instead, Facebook’s strategy is to "help more marketers do better measurement", he said. "If we can help demystify reach and attribution, we will help marketers understand and be less intimidated by digital and mobile marketing." 

What’s new
The tools will allow brands to not only gauge their performance on Facebook, but to benchmark it against Facebook-owned Instagram, Audience Network as well as others search, social and display publishers and several DSP providers.

In a demo shown to Campaign, but which may not be a universal offering, a publisher included was Google, and DSPs were Mediamath and Rocket Fuel.

The new tools will allow brands to measure the reach of their campaigns, and also gauge attribution.

"Now businesses can track their consumer’s path to purchase, not just from Facebook," Schapiro added. 

"Consistent and accurate measurement across browsers, devices and platforms is critical to evaluating marketing performance and increasing our client’s ROI," said Slavi Samardzija, global chief executive of Annalect, Omnicom Media Group’s data technology platform in a statement. "As…the first media agency holding company to test Atlas measurement across clients and geographies, we see the launch of advanced measurement as a significant step toward achieving that goal industry-wide."

Third party metrics
Facebook has been working hard to make amends for previous instances of measurement errors, but its third-party metrics partners (including Nielsen, ComScore, Integral Ad Science) will not be available on the new measurement platform.

"Today the offerings are separate. But marketers have the option of both using what we’re offering and to measure Facebook’s performance with a third-party," Schapiro said.