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Data points that Facebook uses to target ads

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Data points that Facebook uses to target ads

#71

Post by sgift »

erikb wrote: post #61

"perfectly targeted ads"? Never had that experience. Even if I summarize all the analytics solutions out there, like ads, Facebook stream, Youtube, Amazon, Netflix. What they usually do is they figure out what I did in recent history or in general and present me more of that. I don't know about other people, but that's absolutely not what I want. That's boring, or maybe even unnecessary. Like, if I just bought a book…

Amazon does this all the time with me. "You just buyed a headset, do you want another one?" ... really? How many people buy multiple headsets in rapid succession? Hopefully, their engine will learn with time to differentiate between categories where you often buy many in rapid succession and categories where you only buy every few years, so this gets better. At the moment, it is completely useless.

Re: Data points that Facebook uses to target ads

#72

Post by xhdjdjjxjs »

erikb wrote: post #61

"perfectly targeted ads"? Never had that experience. Even if I summarize all the analytics solutions out there, like ads, Facebook stream, Youtube, Amazon, Netflix. What they usually do is they figure out what I did in recent history or in general and present me more of that. I don't know about other people, but that's absolutely not what I want. That's boring, or maybe even unnecessary. Like, if I just bought a book…

Just because the ad didn't work, doesn't mean it's a bad ad. If the average person has a .001% chance of buying the Linux book and you have a .1% chance of buying it, the targeting improved the efficiency of the ad spend by 100x.

Re: Data points that Facebook uses to target ads

#73

Post by DavidWanjiru »

erikb wrote: post #61

"perfectly targeted ads"? Never had that experience. Even if I summarize all the analytics solutions out there, like ads, Facebook stream, Youtube, Amazon, Netflix. What they usually do is they figure out what I did in recent history or in general and present me more of that. I don't know about other people, but that's absolutely not what I want. That's boring, or maybe even unnecessary. Like, if I just bought a book…

The worst ads are the ones that advertise the very thing I've recently browsed. Say I browse some shoes (not google them, browse the site selling the shoes), that's when I start seeing tons of ads for that very site. What's the point? I thought ads are supposed to tell me something I don't know?

Re: Data points that Facebook uses to target ads

#74

Post by alphonsegaston »

burkaman wrote: post #12
chirau wrote: post #7

Contrary 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.

Super Bowl is sort of a good point, but what do you mean by magazines? Given a choice between a magazine with and without ads, are you saying some people would choose the one with ads? I don't think anybody seeks out ads, especially when they're paying for something. Super Bowl ads are only popular because they're essentially comedy skits and short films, they're basically free, and they're part of a cultural event t…

In Japan, there are lifestyle magazines that are almost nothing but advertisements and are wildly popular, beautifully designed, and remarkably informative ("Popeye" is a good example). One can argue about the social merits of consumerism, but I think the quality of advertisements is directly proportional to how much their culture of origin values "taste" (again, debatably for good or ill).

Re: Data points that Facebook uses to target ads

#75

Post by RobertoG »

erikb wrote: post #61

"perfectly targeted ads"? Never had that experience. Even if I summarize all the analytics solutions out there, like ads, Facebook stream, Youtube, Amazon, Netflix. What they usually do is they figure out what I did in recent history or in general and present me more of that. I don't know about other people, but that's absolutely not what I want. That's boring, or maybe even unnecessary. Like, if I just bought a book…

"What they usually do is they figure out what I did in recent history or in general and present me more of that."

My favourite one is travels. They keep insisting that I travel to the place I just come back.

In the other hand, I see this as a good thing. We really don't want they target you perfectly, because that means that they know everything.

Advertisers with perfect information is, in my opinion, a scary proposition, but probably unavoidable in the long term.

Re: Data points that Facebook uses to target ads

#76

Post by einrealist »

erikb wrote: post #61

"perfectly targeted ads"? Never had that experience. Even if I summarize all the analytics solutions out there, like ads, Facebook stream, Youtube, Amazon, Netflix. What they usually do is they figure out what I did in recent history or in general and present me more of that. I don't know about other people, but that's absolutely not what I want. That's boring, or maybe even unnecessary. Like, if I just bought a book…

Its worse if you click / visit stuff accidently. How many pages do we open just because we want to see what the issue is, but are finally not interested.

Re: Data points that Facebook uses to target ads

#77

Post by wvrvwwwe »

erikb wrote: post #61

"perfectly targeted ads"? Never had that experience. Even if I summarize all the analytics solutions out there, like ads, Facebook stream, Youtube, Amazon, Netflix. What they usually do is they figure out what I did in recent history or in general and present me more of that. I don't know about other people, but that's absolutely not what I want. That's boring, or maybe even unnecessary. Like, if I just bought a book…

> What we need is not a "I know what you did and here is more of that" suggestion engine

I really agree on this. The Youtube homepage exemplifies it for me. It recommends only content the same as or very similar to what I've watched before, and only the most popular of that. I've watched a ton of conference talks, programming tutorials, etc. yet those never show up. It's mostly junk with clickbait titles from big channels.

I do like Youtube's recommendation algorithm for the side bar suggestions on a video page, though I get more sponsored-looking content now than in the past. It's been useful at least for finding music. And YT does have a page for improving homepage recommendations, which granted I haven't tried yet.

Re: Data points that Facebook uses to target ads

#78

Post by raverbashing »

wlievens wrote: post #63
erikb wrote: post #61

"perfectly targeted ads"? Never had that experience. Even if I summarize all the analytics solutions out there, like ads, Facebook stream, Youtube, Amazon, Netflix. What they usually do is they figure out what I did in recent history or in general and present me more of that. I don't know about other people, but that's absolutely not what I want. That's boring, or maybe even unnecessary. Like, if I just bought a book…

So true, and it's often even worse in that you get peppered with ads of stuff you already bought.

Amazon is the champion of that

"Oh you just bough a mobile case, let me show you ten other types" or "You just bought this book, here's the paperback version of it"

Re: Data points that Facebook uses to target ads

#79

Post by TeMPOraL »

DavidWanjiru wrote: post #73
erikb wrote: post #61

"perfectly targeted ads"? Never had that experience. Even if I summarize all the analytics solutions out there, like ads, Facebook stream, Youtube, Amazon, Netflix. What they usually do is they figure out what I did in recent history or in general and present me more of that. I don't know about other people, but that's absolutely not what I want. That's boring, or maybe even unnecessary. Like, if I just bought a book…

The worst ads are the ones that advertise the very thing I've recently browsed. Say I browse some shoes (not google them, browse the site selling the shoes), that's when I start seeing tons of ads for that very site. What's the point? I thought ads are supposed to tell me something I don't know?

Nah, the worst ads are the ones that advertise the very thing I've recently bought. Almost every time I buy something on-line from Amazon or some company's store, I then keep seeing ads for that very product. Not before I buy it, but after I've already bought.

Re: Data points that Facebook uses to target ads

#80

Post by TeMPOraL »

ThrustVectoring wrote: post #66
nsxwolf wrote: post #54

I like when they show me ads for the expensive thing I already bought, as if I'm going to buy it again. Had they predicted I wanted to buy that thing, and shown me ads for things like it first, that might have been useful.

"People who have done things that suggest they're interested in buying this" is a highly valuable segment. Even if half of those people have bought the thing, it's worth advertising to them if it means you get the other half's eyeballs. They don't know that you bought it - they just know that you do things like those who want to buy. Like, I went to a coding bootcamp. Making that decision means browsing the web like…

Oh, but quite often they do know. Amazon knows perfectly well what I bought on their site. Vendor X should know perfectly well what I bought on their own site, using their own store instead of showing me the ad for that product for the next two months.
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