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Facebook Fraud [video]

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Re: Facebook Fraud [video]

#241

Post by lstamour »

joe_the_user wrote: post #235
notlisted wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since it was my post, let me hijack the hijack and refocus the discussion. FB advertising has major issues and not just fraud. #1 - FB has a feedback loop issue The main reason why (for us) Google works so much better, is that it spans the full sales funnel, from impression to click to registration and finally conversion (room bought). Google optimizes ad serving for themselves AND for me, and I can see the results.…

Well, since you're "here" Here's the question I'd want to ask: if the Facebook ad clicks are from click-farms but you don't pay for them, how did they get there? One guess would be that click-farm people like stuff at random to "seem legitimate". Maybe Facebook itself incentivizes fake account to like stuff by not deleting fake accounts that behave "conveniently". But that's just a guess, I've look for someone to do…

The parent comment author is not the original video author, given his appreciative comments for the video. (Not sure otherwise what you meant by 'Well, since you're "here"')

As to your question, that's exactly what the video covers. With a nice animation and everything. And really, I expect Facebook to post some useful numbers rather than forcing us to do the research.

Re: Facebook Fraud [video]

#242

Post by brandnewlow »

cinquemb wrote: post #123
lingben wrote: post #6

If you haven't yet watched Derek's earlier video about "the problem with facebook", you should: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9ZqXlHl65g because in it he lays bare several fundamental structural issues about facebook which 99% people don't realize. Well worth the watch. Unless fb changes drastically, it will die a surprisingly fast death.

What I don't understand is why doesn't facebook try to leverage it's data and serve contextual/interest ads on other sites in similar way that google does with adsense? I know I would use it with my startup. That way, they don't have to conflate the incentives of the different parties involved as much as they are doing now.

Those ads typically perform pretty terribly

Re: Facebook Fraud [video]

#243

Post by Avitas »

dfabulich wrote: post #237
xxbondsxx wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey everyone -- sorry to hijack the top thread but I’m an ads engineer at Facebook so I feel qualified to respond. I posted this over on reddit too but it's still pending approval. In the case of this ad — I think we actually delivered on what was asked for. The targeting specs were fairly broad (cat lovers in four countries). Getting 39 people who like cats to like a page with a cute cat picture in 20 minutes sounds…

Peter, Derek did not get 39 people who like cats. He got 39 Likes from fake accounts. There is no option in the Facebook Ad UI to "exclude fake accounts." Don't blame him for broad targeting when the result is fake accounts. > Fake (and low quality) likes are bad for everyone. But they're endemic to the advertising product you sell. "It sucks for us, too!" is no comfort.

> He got 39 Likes from fake accounts.

>> Fake (and low quality) likes are bad for everyone.

> But they're endemic to the advertising product you sell. "It sucks for us, too!" is no comfort.

Not only is it endemic, it is well-known at Facebook. Thousands upon thousands of Facebook employees at all levels have known this deception has been taking place. We are not talking about a few days, weeks or months....

This multi-billion dollar company is knowingly generating revenue via this nonsense. It's not a mistake. This has nothing to do with cat lovers reflexively clicking like.

Re: Facebook Fraud [video]

#244

Post by lstamour »

tzs wrote: post #216
onedev wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the newer generations who grew up online tend to be oblivious to Ads. It's just an instinct to ignore them.

More likely they THINK they are oblivious to them, but they are not. I recall (sorry, I have no citation) a survey of people who played the California state lottery that asked people if they had paid attention to any of the state's ads for the lottery. They also asked the people why they played the lottery. A very large fraction of the people who said they had not noticed the ads repeated slogans and tag lines from t…

Funny thing: (a) I don't watch live TV and sign in to Chrome everywhere so my Adblock follows me from computer to computer and browser to browser. Therefore I don't notice many ads.

(b) I notice ads more than ever now that I block them. I'm not as used to ignoring them, so when I see them, they stand out. Especially on mobile. Oh, not the content, not unless it's irritating or advertorial (or YouTube without YTO), but even so, it's interesting to notice adblock backfiring.

I wonder if there's a common ground between adblock and annoying that won't require advertorial?

Re: Facebook Fraud [video]

#245

Post by brandnewlow »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #96

I have my pet theory. I'm yet to find significant evidence for or against it, but it's what my hunch tells me. The theory goes like this: All on-line ads are mostly worthless - most clicks are from clickfarms, and the genuine parts are mostly by clickjacking or accidental misclicks. Almost no one really wants to buy stuff via ads. Ad agencies keep telling companies that advertising online will generate lots of revenu…

This is just not true. There is much, much, much waste in online advertising, but there are companies who make it work and then go on to go public or get acquired for large amounts.

Right now at Perfect Audience, we have many customers using our tools and seeing anything from $5-15 in sales from each $1 they spend. It takes time and work to get to the high end of that spectrum, but people get there and it grows their business swiftly.

Re: Facebook Fraud [video]

#246

Post by brandnewlow »

mikeg8 wrote: post #67
JacobJans wrote: post #35

I run profitable Facebook marketing campaigns. Here's the problem with this guy's argument: He expects people from Somalia to be as responsive to his content at people from the United States. That makes exactly zero sense. These aren't "likes", these are people. And the people from Somalia apparently don't like his content. But, according to his very own numbers, people from the United States are very responsive. Are…

Please write an article about how you run these "profitable" campaigns. Seriously. It seems like you are the only person I've ever heard make this claim and I'm sure people here are dying to know the secret.

Our company has seen lots of profitable campaigns run through us onto Facebook. We know this because our customers track the sales they get from the ads and it can be easily compared against the amount they spent.

Re: Facebook Fraud [video]

#247

Post by x0054 »

joe_the_user wrote: post #235
notlisted wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since it was my post, let me hijack the hijack and refocus the discussion. FB advertising has major issues and not just fraud. #1 - FB has a feedback loop issue The main reason why (for us) Google works so much better, is that it spans the full sales funnel, from impression to click to registration and finally conversion (room bought). Google optimizes ad serving for themselves AND for me, and I can see the results.…

Well, since you're "here" Here's the question I'd want to ask: if the Facebook ad clicks are from click-farms but you don't pay for them, how did they get there? One guess would be that click-farm people like stuff at random to "seem legitimate". Maybe Facebook itself incentivizes fake account to like stuff by not deleting fake accounts that behave "conveniently". But that's just a guess, I've look for someone to do…

Jesus, did you watch the video that's subject of the post, or are you just posting, since "you are here." This is exactly the information that the video covers, with animations, explanations, and even links to sources.

Re: Facebook Fraud [video]

#248

Post by dminor »

mullingitover wrote: post #21

I found a way to dramatically improve facebook. Around the beginning of the year I unfollowed every single friend and page, so my newsfeed is completely empty. Now when I want to know what my friends are up to, I go check out their pages, essentially going from a push feed to a pull. It gets me out of the empty crack addiction-esque cycle of going to the news feed and being disappointed/bored with the lives of my fri…

> Now when I want to know what my friends are up to, I go check out their pages, essentially going from a push feed to a pull.

I think you just invented MySpace.

Re: Facebook Fraud [video]

#249

Post by JacobJans »

jsemrau wrote: post #224
JacobJans wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I spent $46k on Facebook ads last year, with very healthy ROI. First, I want to say THANK YOU for the many improvements to the ad system that have recently taken place. Second, I want to say that you have a LOT of work left to do. Facebook marketing is hard. Too hard. I have many suggestions, but here's one of them: Allow the same targeting options when posting directly to the page, as when posting an ad. For example…

I would challenge the correctness of this post.

Any questions? Go ahead.

Re: Facebook Fraud [video]

#250

Post by deepGem »

notlisted wrote: post #219
notlisted wrote: post #26

Nice video. All true. I have performed tests with the same ad budget ($20k) and target audience for Google and FB. FB ROI was negative. Google ROI was 400% (travel space). The only thing that seemingly "works" has been buying likes by advertising. This video should help educate my clients of the utter uselessness of those too. This brings up the interesting question of the general (non)value of a lot of mobile advert…

Since it was my post, let me hijack the hijack and refocus the discussion. FB advertising has major issues and not just fraud. #1 - FB has a feedback loop issue The main reason why (for us) Google works so much better, is that it spans the full sales funnel, from impression to click to registration and finally conversion (room bought). Google optimizes ad serving for themselves AND for me, and I can see the results.…

Regarding #1 - Facebook conversion pixel (a JS script that has to be loaded the HTML header) solves the feedback loop problem.

https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/ads-api/offsi...

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