Meta included shipping fees and taxes in Shops ads' attributable sales, inflating reported ROAS even though those amounts never went to merchants or brands. Data scientists identified the inflation and found Shops ads performed no better than standard campaigns, yet executives continued to misrepresent ROAS. Shops was prioritized to gather first-party data after Apple's iOS 14 privacy changes impaired Meta's ad system. Undisclosed large discounts between 2021 and 2023 were used to generate purchase data and obscure ROAS reporting, and merchants reported tracking difficulties. A series of glitches also affected Shops advertisers during those years. Separately, Chinese retailers used AI avatars for continuous livestream sales but experienced noticeable glitches.
According to the complaint, Meta inflated the ROAS of its Shops ads campaigns, which incorporated the costs of shipping fees and taxes as part of the attributable sale, despite those never going to the merchant or brand. Meta's other ad products, and those of other platforms, including Google and Amazon, don't count taxes or fees in their ROAS calculations. More damning, when data scientists identified the inflated ROAS, and Shops ads otherwise performed no better than "business as usual" campaigns, higher-ups continued to misrepresent ROAS.
Virtual AI salespeople, on the other hand, are hosting 24/7 livestreams for top Chinese online retailers, including Taobao and Temu parent Pinduoduo. "You can only do a livestream as a real person for three or four hours. After that, you lose your voice, you get tired," says PLTFRM co-founder Alexandre Ouairy. Some avatars mimic specific salespeople and take over while the actual person rests. These "virtual humans," as they're dubbed, look and act almost entirely human. Well, except for the glitches.
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