Live data from Hacker News

Twitter Will Show Who Pays for Ads and How Much They Spend

bloomberg.com

21–30 of 94 posts

Re: Twitter Will Show Who Pays for Ads and How Much They Spend

#21
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

astroturfers influencing public opinion. For the most part, people don’t look to social media to find content that helps them form their opinions; they look to it to reinforce already held opinions. It's an echo chamber. That means astroturfing may lead to more divisiveness, as people seek out content that makes them more sure than ever that their opinion is the one and only correct one. But it does not “influence pu…

That seems unlikely. For anything new or unfamiliar, people will not have established opinions yet. Their opinions will form under the influence of their experiences, including astroturfers on social media.

Sure, for something new or unfamiliar. But most astroturfing campaigns are not directed at such issues.

Re: Twitter Will Show Who Pays for Ads and How Much They Spend

#23

This is going to give away a huge competitive advantage for good marketers. If I know my political ads are most effective with Women, 45-65, who are Hispanic, and that's where I'm focusing my spend.... Is it fair for the opponent to have that information? If they give that level of detail for political ads, I hope they at least spare startup businesses who are still researching to find their ideal audience.

Yes it's fair. In the 2016 presidential election campaigns were using micro-targeted voter suppression campaigns that attempted to get certain demographics to stay home. From a story in The Atlatnic: "The animation will be delivered to certain African American voters through Facebook 'dark posts'—nonpublic posts whose viewership the campaign controls so that, as [campaign digital guru Brad] Parscale puts it, 'only the people we want to see it, see it.'" If the opposing campaigns had this information they could potentially re-deploy resources.

Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/10/trumps-...

Re: Twitter Will Show Who Pays for Ads and How Much They Spend

#24
This is smart. It can help move the responsibility away from Twitter's issues with policing it's own platform and onto the people paying for the advertising. Without transparency the blame stops at the platform. With this people can scrutinize the actual content and sources of the content.

Re: Twitter Will Show Who Pays for Ads and How Much They Spend

#25

This is going to give away a huge competitive advantage for good marketers. If I know my political ads are most effective with Women, 45-65, who are Hispanic, and that's where I'm focusing my spend.... Is it fair for the opponent to have that information? If they give that level of detail for political ads, I hope they at least spare startup businesses who are still researching to find their ideal audience.

Yeah, as a consumer, this sentiment isn't gonna get any sympathy from me ... I already despise being "marketed to", which has made me really jaded about content marketing; particularly when I consume it but only realize it's just shilling some product or service after the fact.

All advertising should be (by law, or at least industry standard) clearly marked and disclosed.

Re: Twitter Will Show Who Pays for Ads and How Much They Spend

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This ad was purchased by Americans for America.

At least that's something you can research, unlike now where you have no information.

I want to be optimistic about this ... but it's not like people particular care who is feeding them this stuff. They will complain about shadow government fake news in one breath, while at the same time sharing loads of drivel from `UberPatriotEagleGuns News`, or to be fair, `SocialistOther96PercentDemocratHose`

Re: Twitter Will Show Who Pays for Ads and How Much They Spend

#28

This is going to give away a huge competitive advantage for good marketers. If I know my political ads are most effective with Women, 45-65, who are Hispanic, and that's where I'm focusing my spend.... Is it fair for the opponent to have that information? If they give that level of detail for political ads, I hope they at least spare startup businesses who are still researching to find their ideal audience.

Perhaps this will make more money for Twitter due to advertisers who buy ads for irrelevant segments to obfuscate their strategy.

Re: Twitter Will Show Who Pays for Ads and How Much They Spend

#29

This is going to give away a huge competitive advantage for good marketers. If I know my political ads are most effective with Women, 45-65, who are Hispanic, and that's where I'm focusing my spend.... Is it fair for the opponent to have that information? If they give that level of detail for political ads, I hope they at least spare startup businesses who are still researching to find their ideal audience.

If your marketing strategy requires depends entirely upon your market not knowing they're being marketed to, or your competitors not knowing who you're marketing to, there's something wrong with the strategy.

It's similar logic in the security industry to the idea of security by obscurity alone.

Re: Twitter Will Show Who Pays for Ads and How Much They Spend

#30
post #4

This only applies to overt ads which are hardly the problem. It does nothing to mitigate the armies of astroturfers influencing public opinion.

astroturfers influencing public opinion. For the most part, people don’t look to social media to find content that helps them form their opinions; they look to it to reinforce already held opinions. It's an echo chamber. That means astroturfing may lead to more divisiveness, as people seek out content that makes them more sure than ever that their opinion is the one and only correct one. But it does not “influence pu…

For a lot of people it’ll be their first time being exposed to a concept.
Post reply on HN