How reliable is Facebook’s advertising data for use in social science research? Insights from a cross-national online survey

Abstract

Social scientists increasingly use Facebook's advertising platform for research, either in the form of conducting digital censuses of the general population, or for recruiting participants for survey research. Both approaches depend on the reliability of the data that Facebook provides about its users, but little is known about how reliable these data are. We address this gap in a large-scale, cross-national online survey (N = 137,224), in which we compare self-reported and Facebook-classified demographic information (sex, age, and region of residence). Our results suggest that Facebook's advertising platform can be fruitfully used for conducing social science research if additional steps are taken to assess the reliability of the characteristics under consideration.

Estimating the incidence of Venezuelan migration and other socioeconomic factors on urban growth in Colombia

“…Moreover, it does not provide statistical or historical data, so there will be gaps in information in some months or years when no queries were made. These limitations are commonly referenced in studies of this kind, where Facebook API data is used for analysis and estimations of certain populations, as mentioned in [ 46 ].…”

Estimating the Incidence of Venezuelan Migration and Other Socioeconomic Factors on Urban Growth in Colombia

“…Moreover, it does not provide statistical or historical data, so there will be gaps in information in some months or years when no queries were made. These limitations are commonly referenced in studies of this kind, where Facebook API data is used for analysis and estimations of certain populations, as mentioned in Grow et al [43].…”