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Ask HN: Can we find out why a specific ad appears in our Facebook feed?

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Re: Ask HN: Can we find out why a specific ad appears in our Facebook feed?

#21

Post by onion2k »

akerro wrote: post #18
amelius wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And here's another theory: you were already targeted by the Campari ad before, but you were not consciously aware of it. This triggered the conversation with your friends.

Facebook knew he was interested in Campari, so they put Campari on menu in his local restaurant? That's smart!

That's amusing, but at the same time it could make an excellent business idea - restaurants could tailor their menu based on the preferences of people who're booked to eat there. If you knew that a group of people who all really like sea bass are arriving at 6pm a restaurant could put a high-profit sea bass special on the menu knowing that those people are likely to order it. The customers are happier because they get their preferred dishes and the restaurant is happy because it makes them more money.

Re: Ask HN: Can we find out why a specific ad appears in our Facebook feed?

#22

Post by nkrisc »

Not directly related, but tangential anecdote:

I was visiting another state and while there I decided to check out a local, independent book seller. While browsing I found a very interesting and niche book a had never heard of about the linguistic and archaeological history of the proto-Indo-European language and the people who spoke it. I purchased it with cash. Perhaps a week later, the book was suggested to me by Amazon. Of course I had already bought it, but I took it as an example of how accurate their recommendation algorithm could be.

For anyone interested, the book was The Horse, The Wheel and Language.

Re: Ask HN: Can we find out why a specific ad appears in our Facebook feed?

#23

Post by LSCanaan »

I can relate and you won't believe it. Last Sunday I was at a cocktail bar and while checking the menu with a friend I had the exact same short conversation about Campari, prompted by wanting to know what's in a Negroni.

There's a phenomenon that explains this kind of illusion as a psychological effect, called the Baader-Meinhof complex. Coincidentally later that night we mentioned it too. It's basically a trick our brains play on us partly explained by the psychological processing of information, selective attention and confirmation bias.

Or maybe Facebook is spying on me, on you, and Hacker News too.

Re: Ask HN: Can we find out why a specific ad appears in our Facebook feed?

#24

Post by elzed »

If you want to know what Facebook thinks about you, visit this page while logged in https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences. FB profiled you using tons of internal data (your page like, activities, etc) and external data (bought from Epsilon, Acxiom, etc). There is a good chance Facebook already know about your habit and your choice of drinks even before you visit the restaurant.

Re: Ask HN: Can we find out why a specific ad appears in our Facebook feed?

#25

Post by midgetjones »

LSCanaan wrote: post #23

I can relate and you won't believe it. Last Sunday I was at a cocktail bar and while checking the menu with a friend I had the exact same short conversation about Campari, prompted by wanting to know what's in a Negroni. There's a phenomenon that explains this kind of illusion as a psychological effect, called the Baader-Meinhof complex. Coincidentally later that night we mentioned it too. It's basically a trick our…

I do love a Negroni. Super simple to make at home as well, just make sure you don't go for more than three.

Re: Ask HN: Can we find out why a specific ad appears in our Facebook feed?

#26

Post by rawnlq »

lazzlazzlazz wrote: post #5

"Facebook does not use your phone's microphone for ads or News Feed stories." http://newsroom.fb.com/news/h/facebook-does-not-use-your-pho... The phenomenon you're observing is due to various interesting human psychological quirks, such as priming effects. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priming_(psychology)

Frequency illusion or Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon is probably a better term to search for: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion

But I don't think it's chance here. I think the facebook app has location access and if so they are definitely using it (e.g., the place might be popular for campari, your mutual friend appearing at the same location might've searched/wrote about it, etc).

For example google is pretty good with pinpointing exactly which restaurant I went to: https://www.google.com/maps/timeline

Re: Ask HN: Can we find out why a specific ad appears in our Facebook feed?

#29

Post by J-dawg »

LSCanaan wrote: post #23

I can relate and you won't believe it. Last Sunday I was at a cocktail bar and while checking the menu with a friend I had the exact same short conversation about Campari, prompted by wanting to know what's in a Negroni. There's a phenomenon that explains this kind of illusion as a psychological effect, called the Baader-Meinhof complex. Coincidentally later that night we mentioned it too. It's basically a trick our…

To what extent does Facebook allow its advertising clients to target users based on location? Down to the level of individual buildings (e.g. a bar)?

Is it possible that Campari could be running a campaign targeting people who recently visited bars that serve Campari? Or even simply people who recently visited a bar?

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