If you want to see SkyMall open aliexpress and with no search terms start scrolling. Some of my favorites: a watch with a lighter flame, toilet with motion sensor that switches a blue led on and champagne squirt gun.
Instagram Has Become SkyMall
191–200 of 341 posts
Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall
#192It's so weird how long the reach is. Just yesterday I was looking up a product on a company's website on my phone. Then I went to use my desktop and logged into facebook and there was an ad for the product I was looking at on my phone's web browser.
Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall
#193I don't use Instagram much, but I am on Facebook too often. The limitations of the advertising algorithms are very interesting to me. For example: I participate in ex-evangelical groups because of my childhood experiences. Also follow pages which discuss American Christianity from a secular or journalistic perspective, and in Christian groups which interpret their beliefs from a left-ish ideology. "Liking" any post f…
At any rate, I suppose it's oddly reassuring Facebook is so inaccurate.
Facebook's ad market tools give advertisers plenty of power to choose who to advertise to. If advertisers didn't want your demographic cohort to see their ad they could easily filter you out. Rather than seeing this as inaccuracy, it might be more prudent to ask why they haven't. It's probably just that the advertiser hasn't configured their ad settings very well, but it's also possible that they believe skeptical people will return to their church in a crisis and they're building brand recognition or something.
Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall
#194I don't use Instagram much, but I am on Facebook too often. The limitations of the advertising algorithms are very interesting to me. For example: I participate in ex-evangelical groups because of my childhood experiences. Also follow pages which discuss American Christianity from a secular or journalistic perspective, and in Christian groups which interpret their beliefs from a left-ish ideology. "Liking" any post f…
Sure the algos can always be better, but consider the possibility that conservative churches just spend absurdly, mind-boggingly large sums of money on fb advertising.
To pick a nit, I don't think that it's the churches per se that do most of the advertising (though they probably do some), it's mostly Evangelical publishers, etc. selling to church-goers.
Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall
#195I don't use Instagram much, but I am on Facebook too often. The limitations of the advertising algorithms are very interesting to me. For example: I participate in ex-evangelical groups because of my childhood experiences. Also follow pages which discuss American Christianity from a secular or journalistic perspective, and in Christian groups which interpret their beliefs from a left-ish ideology. "Liking" any post f…
> It's very rare when I see progressive churches advertise.
You’d just be setting your money on fire. You’re trying to find the people at the intersection of progressive attitudes and serious commitment to Christianity. Progressive churches have lower commitment because they have minimal to zero differences in morality with progressives who don’t go to church and they’re less likely to have children continue in the faith. Same phenomenon as how the Jewish assimilation treadmill goes Orthodox > Conservative > Reform > Secular > does not identify as Jewish.
Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall
#196I don't use Instagram much, but I am on Facebook too often. The limitations of the advertising algorithms are very interesting to me. For example: I participate in ex-evangelical groups because of my childhood experiences. Also follow pages which discuss American Christianity from a secular or journalistic perspective, and in Christian groups which interpret their beliefs from a left-ish ideology. "Liking" any post f…
If you were running these ad-campaigns, how en who would you target and what would be the revenue? I think those ads could have a very good return, the more provocative the ad the more they will be talked/thought/bought, and that is the whole idea of advertising.
It would be interesting to know the return.
Probably only 10% of my religious ads come from large, well-funded churches or organizations with any remote understanding of marketing. The rest are largely just "here's our meeting time" for a 50 member church 800 miles away from me. Or some text-only rant that goes on for 12 paragraphs. Those rants are usually not selling anything. Those ads are probably just from people who paid $20 to "promote this post". Not some substantial campaign run by social media professionals.
At least from my experience, there's a ton of misfires in terms of targeting. And it's largely small time advertisers. But I have no idea about the revenue. Perhaps all those $20 ads add up to some substantial amount.
Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure the algos can always be better, but consider the possibility that conservative churches just spend absurdly, mind-boggingly large sums of money on fb advertising.
To pick a nit, I don't think that it's the churches per se that do most of the advertising (though they probably do some), it's mostly Evangelical publishers, etc. selling to church-goers.
In my experience, this is incorrect. Majority of the religious ads are directly from churches or individuals. And, what's interesting to me, is most of those ads are from people who have no experience with marketing. The ads are often very crude.
But that's just my timeline. For other people who live in the evangelical universe 24/7, maybe they mostly see ads for Zondervan or the big brand-name churches. I wouldn't be surprised.
Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall
#198Is there anyone else out there who refuses to buy something if they first learned about it from an ad?
I make it a point to support small businesses that are creating interesting products, even if I learned about them from ads.
Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall
#199Before I completely dropped social media, I had a f—k the algorithm attitude towards the ads. I made a point of clicking through everything that was completely uninteresting to me. That road led to a non-stop flood of class-action lawyer ads.
I’ve heard that mesothelioma class action lawyer advertisements are among the most expensive on social media. Cynical hypothesis: once the platforms realized you’ll click on anything, they decided to show you their highest-compensated ads.
It’s funny, once I started watching luxury houses (I became rich last year, bought a house and wanted inspiration to decorate), I got flooded with ads about “How to become rich”. (Obviously none of those include programming…).
Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall
#200I don't use Instagram much, but I am on Facebook too often. The limitations of the advertising algorithms are very interesting to me. For example: I participate in ex-evangelical groups because of my childhood experiences. Also follow pages which discuss American Christianity from a secular or journalistic perspective, and in Christian groups which interpret their beliefs from a left-ish ideology. "Liking" any post f…
I don't necessarily think you're experiencing an important flaw here. I'd wager that the vast majority of people interacting with content related to evangelical Christianity are in the "pro" category, so people in the "anti" category are an acceptable false-positive. For example, if I'm trying to sell something to evangelical Christians and 95% of my views are "pro" and 5% are "anti", that's still hugely valuable to…
You're probably right and it isn't necessarily a huge flaw. But, the failures are interesting. Especially when it involves a subject where the for / against lines are so clearly drawn. If Facebook is failing at such an easy subject, then what else are they getting wrong?