If you checked your Facebook ads account and noticed that there was more money in there than you expected, it is likely because you were refunded for some ads that were played out of view. Facebook reported that they had some errors with their mobile site as well as Instant Articles on the Android app, which resulted in videos ads being played while out of view (as well as normal videos).
They have informed the impacted advertisers about the issue, and refunded the money as of Monday November 6th. The total impact is reported to be quite low compared to the amount of ads that were played properly, but it was enough to be noticed. At least 200 people who have reported getting a refund have said it was more than $5000, which is quite a few video ads.
One of the issues was when a person was using the mobile website. Videos should stop playing when a user scrolls them out of view or browses on another tab. Thanks to the bug, some ads and other videos were continuing to play, even in another tab. Since most people on mobile user the apps, this overall impact was minimized.
Facebook has had a series of errors, many of which caused direct impact to marketers. The two issues that caused this refund were the 11th and 12th known mistakes from Facebook since September 2016. Some people are complaining that Facebook is not being careful enough with their services, while others are thankful that they are identifying the bugs, correcting them, and issuing refunds to impacted users.
However you look at it, make sure to run through your notifications from Facebook to see if you got a refund for any of your ad campaigns.
