Social Media Advertising Risk Assessment & Management 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is 'attribution risk' in social media advertising?
- The risk of crediting conversions to the wrong channel, leading to poor budget decisions (Correct answer)
- The risk that competitors copy your ad creative
- The risk of platform attribution windows expiring
- The risk of using last-click attribution in email campaigns
Correct answer: The risk of crediting conversions to the wrong channel, leading to poor budget decisions
Attribution risk occurs when flawed attribution models misallocate credit for conversions, causing you to over-invest in underperforming channels.
Question 2: An advertiser runs social media ads promoting a health supplement with unverified claims like 'cures diabetes.' What is the PRIMARY risk?
- Low engagement from skeptical users
- FTC enforcement action and platform policy violation (Correct answer)
- High CPM in the health vertical
- Creative fatigue from repetitive messaging
Correct answer: FTC enforcement action and platform policy violation
The FTC prohibits deceptive health claims in advertising, and social platforms ban unsubstantiated medical claims, creating serious legal and account-level risks.
Question 3: What is 'lookalike audience' risk when used improperly?
- Reaching audiences too similar to existing customers, limiting growth
- Accidentally including protected class characteristics as seed signals, enabling discriminatory targeting (Correct answer)
- Overspending on broad audiences with low intent
- Creating audiences that are too small to deliver
Correct answer: Accidentally including protected class characteristics as seed signals, enabling discriminatory targeting
If a seed audience correlates with protected characteristics (race, religion, etc.), a lookalike audience can replicate that bias and violate anti-discrimination laws.
Question 4: A social media ad campaign for a financial product fails to include required disclosures mandated by the SEC. What type of risk is this?
- Operational risk
- Regulatory and compliance risk (Correct answer)
- Strategic risk
- Execution risk
Correct answer: Regulatory and compliance risk
Omitting SEC-required disclosures in financial advertising constitutes regulatory non-compliance, which can result in fines and campaign suspension.
Question 5: Why is using a single creative across all social media platforms considered a risk management gap?
- It saves time that should be spent on targeting
- Different platforms have different audiences, formats, and contexts, so one creative may perform poorly or violate policies on some (Correct answer)
- Single creatives are more expensive to produce
- It reduces frequency caps across platforms
Correct answer: Different platforms have different audiences, formats, and contexts, so one creative may perform poorly or violate policies on some
Platform-specific audience expectations and technical specifications mean a one-size-fits-all creative often underperforms or violates policies on certain channels.
Question 6: What is the role of a 'social media advertising audit' in risk management?
- To increase ad spend efficiency by removing underperforming ads
- To systematically review campaigns for policy compliance, targeting accuracy, and financial controls (Correct answer)
- To spy on competitor advertising strategies
- To generate reports for investor presentations
Correct answer: To systematically review campaigns for policy compliance, targeting accuracy, and financial controls
Regular audits identify compliance gaps, targeting errors, and financial control weaknesses before they escalate into costly violations or reputational damage.
Question 7: A brand's social media ad is screenshot and shared out of context, making it appear offensive. This represents which risk?
- Creative production risk
- Context collapse and reputational risk (Correct answer)
- Ad delivery risk
- Audience segmentation risk
Correct answer: Context collapse and reputational risk
Context collapse occurs when content designed for one audience is seen by a different audience without its original context, creating unintended reputational harm.
Social Media Advertising Risk Assessment & Management 5
What is 'attribution risk' in social media advertising?