You wouldn't see such an article on WashingtonPost before 2013. The former owner of the Post Donald Edward Graham was the mentor of Zuckerberg and Mr Graham is the lead independent director of Facebook's board of directors.
Data points that Facebook uses to target ads
41–50 of 137 posts
Re: Data points that Facebook uses to target ads
#42Contrary to popular opinion, people want to see ads. A good ad is very much appreciated. This is why magazines still make money. This is why the SuperBowl is popular amongst non-football fans. Unfortunately, most ads are spammy which is why internet ads have earned this terrible reputation.
But do people want to be tracked?
Re: Data points that Facebook uses to target ads
#43When people purchase GQ or Vogue, they are buying it as much for advertisements as for editorial content. When someone flips through one of those magazines, it's like they appreciate the designers hiring models, taking pictures, and sharing it in the magazine even though both they and the reader paid. Take the ads out of GQ or Vogue and there is almost nothing there. If I create an ad on Facebook and people click on…
To be honest, I would need the 300$ for living and not for Facebook advertisement.
But lets take the numbers: You spend 300$ and got several thousands in revenue. So I would expect something between a 3% to 15% share for Facebook. If you try to evaluate the volunteered time spend (only for the advertisement) and subtracted it from the result, the numbers would already look much worse.
In my case, as Indy developer, I would have to compete with other software companies and my (cheap Since most small projects are now exclusively financed by advertisement revenues by itself, Facebook created something like a ponzi scheme and most of the advertisement cost trickles away. With minimal profit-margins you also loose the possibility to pay any attention to product quality.
You should also consider that you also had the choice to go from door to door in your neighborhood for transactions. Since Facebook also owns the main communication channel for the web this possibility is bared.
It is not the question if people hate Facebook instead you should consider that Facebook destroyed the free market.
Finally consider that Facebook, as stock cooperation, is growth-oriented. If the advertisement market is ruined they will sell their user data elsewhere.
Re: Data points that Facebook uses to target ads
#44Does anyone know of any startups or upcoming projects that are trying to compete with Facebook (i.e building a social network?). I still haven't managed to wrap my head around how exactly facebook makes money. Do so many people actually click on ads? And this somehow makes billions? I find it very hard to imagine (for myself).
There's diaspora [0] and GNU social [1], but those haven't yet managed to pop up into the mainstream. Network effects should ensure that they do not anytime soon. With that said, the mounting controversy over Facebook and Twitter's moderation may end up pushing marginalized groups into these platforms. [0]: https://diasporafoundation.org/ [1]: https://www.gnu.org/software/social/
Both of these are doomed in the mainstream until you can "just join" instead of having to pick from a list of servers you know nothing about anyway.
Re: Data points that Facebook uses to target ads
#45Contrary to popular opinion, people want to see ads. A good ad is very much appreciated. This is why magazines still make money. This is why the SuperBowl is popular amongst non-football fans. Unfortunately, most ads are spammy which is why internet ads have earned this terrible reputation.
The SuperBowl ads (and great TV ads) are a cultural touchstone and a world away from the world of online direct response advertising.
When was the last time you saw an iconic Facebook app install ad?
Re: Data points that Facebook uses to target ads
#46Does anyone know of any startups or upcoming projects that are trying to compete with Facebook (i.e building a social network?). I still haven't managed to wrap my head around how exactly facebook makes money. Do so many people actually click on ads? And this somehow makes billions? I find it very hard to imagine (for myself).
Yes people do click on Facebook ads and they convert extremely well when utilizing Facebooks targeting correctly. I have ran very targeted ads on FB that have achieved a 20% CTR and 10x ROI. This was for a product appealing to 8 to 12 year olds. I targeted Moms with kids in this age range in specific locations and who fell within a certain income. Other small business ads such as local coffee shops, restaurants, etc.…
Facebook has nearly two billion users. The average user only needs to make FB $20 through a few ad purchases made on a whim and you've already doubled FB's yearly revenue. I've spent more money using restaurant coupons that came through the mail. It wouldn't even be that hard to target the average HN user: "20% off a GTX 1080!" Boom, done.
Re: Data points that Facebook uses to target ads
#47Contrary to popular opinion, people want to see ads. A good ad is very much appreciated. This is why magazines still make money. This is why the SuperBowl is popular amongst non-football fans. Unfortunately, most ads are spammy which is why internet ads have earned this terrible reputation.
The SuperBowl ads (and great TV ads) are a cultural touchstone and a world away from the world of online direct response advertising. When was the last time you saw an iconic Facebook app install ad?
We're getting there. I'm thinking of those Mobile Strike ads with Arnold Schwarzenegger...
Re: Data points that Facebook uses to target ads
#48Contrary to popular opinion, people want to see ads. A good ad is very much appreciated. This is why magazines still make money. This is why the SuperBowl is popular amongst non-football fans. Unfortunately, most ads are spammy which is why internet ads have earned this terrible reputation.
I kind of agree with you. What I would love is a system where I could preemptively put in all of my preferences and have some AI go and hunt for things to advertise to me. Like, if I'm in the market for a watch or a car, it knows that, and suggests deals to me. Right now, even during the 99.9% of times I'm absolutely not looking for a car, I have to see the ads, and the ad people lose money on each view. And once I've gone out and bought a car, I'd like to be able to right click the next car ad and say "Just got one, thx" and that would be that. Maybe the key to actual tailored, enjoyable advertising is making it so They know more about you.
Re: Data points that Facebook uses to target ads
#49Like everyone, we get a quite a bit of junk mail at our house. Some of it comes to "current resident", others target us by name. Broadly speaking it breaks into two groups. Things that are either geotargeted. (In my neighborhood, that would include ads such as "Why don't you lease a car through Uber and pay for it by driving!") and those that are more personally targeted (think credit card offers).
Today we got an interesting one. It was an offer to try Blue Apron. If we lived in Palo Alto, I'd chalk it up to geotargeting rich neighborhoods, but we don't live in one. Also, it came to wife who posts recipes on Facebook. It's enough to make us wonder if Blue Apron is somehow linking Facebook targeting data with real world names and addresses. Now I don't know if it's true, but if it is, that's creepy as fuck. That's autodoxing.
Re: Data points that Facebook uses to target ads
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even if you don't click on ads, it's not possible for you to cut them out of your sight. People see ads. They learn about the brand. If they are interested, they click on it to see more about it and if not, the brand getting registered in someone's mind is in itself a valuable asset. I believe that's the genius of Facebook, they have made the ad experience so seamless and intuitive. Note that, people generally don't…
Not possible to cut them out of your sight... unless you use adblock
use uBlock Origin instead, since adblock has a problematic "acceptable ads" policy.