What Google has done here is actually very sophisticated. The Google advertising algorithm geo-targeted you based on your IP address and combined your most recent search queries in order to show you incredibly well targeted ads. This is absolutely amazing given the scale at which it is performed. Go ahead and try this on the other search engines. If your results are like mine, the ad targeting technologies will fail in comparison.
This is especially true for less traditional search engines. Today, I was served an ad for the popular social networking and people search engine, Facebook. It is the first time I have seen this company promote itself outside of its own site. This social networking platform receives an incredible amount of press and is predicted by some to become the next big advertising platform.
An Official Facebook ad promoting its advanced targeted ads
Intrigued, I logged into Facebook to test how well its 'advanced targeting' system worked. The first page (Newsfeed) greeted me with an ad for wedding rings. Odd, Facebook has data from my profile confirming that I am currently single. The potential Facebook has to to use the personal data supplied by its users for targeted advertising is almost unparalleled. Could this possibly be based on the fact that some of my Facebook friends recently got engaged? If so, it is a little rude to use this information to target me.
I clicked through to user profiles and was served ads targeted at general college students. None of the ads utilized any of the data from my profile. What a tremendous waste. Where was the personal touch? I continued to read several friends' profile pages to see how they were doing. They were friends I hadn't talked to since high school and all happened to be male. As I continued to surf I was served the following ad:
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This was pretty presumptuous for an advertising algorithm. From its perspective, I was a male who had just looked at several other males' profiles. It did appear to be targeting me based on my behavior but was ignoring the applicable information in my profile. The ads switched back to advertisements for 'local women' when I started looking at profiles of female friends. It appears that Facebook does take user behavior into account when serving ads. I finished off my rounds of the website by clicking on my little sister's profile. The Facebook advertising algorithm served me the following ad:
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Really, Facebook?! Worst. Fit. Ever. My parents are her parents and I am pretty sure they don't have nice buns. Serving me an ad for pick up lines while viewing my little sister's profile is a complete waste of advertisers' money. Facebook was apparently utilizing the fact that I was a male looking at a female's profile, but it failed again to take into account the basic semantic data listed in my profile.
I tried this same set of tests three more times. In the subsequent tests I received similar results. Only once did it use any information from my profile (favorite TV show). Facebook's advertising system seems to simply rotate between ads targeted at specific schools while taking into account what profiles the user views and the sex of the user. This is sad based on the amount of information the website stores about every user. Facebook has algorithms that can suggest friends I might know if I don't add them as friends on the social network. Why can't it use the same general technology to serve advertisers?
I must admit that I am not an internet marketer. However, I do get frustrated and angered when popular companies fail to innovate. In order for search engine marketers to be successful, they need successful platforms. The advertising on the internet is what enables people like me to enjoy so much online for free. Facebook has done a lot of work to integrate stereotypical web 2.0 AJAX effects onto every page of its site, but it has failed to prove itself as a sustainable advertising resource. By letting down advertisers, Facebook is indirectly letting down its user-base. Facebook has so much potential. It pains me to see it failing so miserably.
Are other people receiving the same poor performance as me? Is it just limited to my location or school? Let me know in the comments.
* This assumes there are malpractice lawyers that advertise on Google who are located in your area. For most Americans, this is a fair assumption.
Wow - Facebook went from pegging you as looking to get engaged, to being homosexual then back to heterosexual (albeit an incestuous one), all in a matter of a few clicks!
If nothing else - they're prolific in their judgments.
It seems that perhaps the over-riding element in their algorithm is:
"If you throw enough shit on THE WALL, something is gonna stick".
Good article.
I think the problem here is that, unlike most users, you pay too much attention to their ads. Imagine only if facebook users looked at their ads the way Internet marketeers do. The small pool of advertisers would quickly be a non existent problem :)
Although I agree that the adverts served on facebook at hopelessly untargetted I'm unsure who you think would be more appropriately targetted for wedding rings?
I think some of the problem, beyond the targetting, is the small pool of adverts available to be served. I seem to get the same ones again and again.
Someone in a relationship of course. Also generally speaking the ad would be more effective on people who are out of college.
Also, I think the small pool of ads does have a lot to do with the problem. However, before Facebook can expect more advertisers they need to improve their advertising platform. Its kind of a paradox.
This sounds like a valid excuse reason to visit facebook while at work.
For some reason I was labouring under the old single/married/divorced classifications which make absolutely no sense given the original demographic for facebook. 'In a relationship' would make more sense though that would be ignoring the whirlwind romance.
Interestingly the facebook ads platform doesn't allow you to target 'It's complicated' and 'In an open relationship.'
On the second point, they've raised a whole heap of cash so I would hope that they could keep going without showing any and every advert they possibly can until they have a working system in place. They have stated that their intention is that you never even notice the ads.
"I think some of the problem, beyond the targetting, is the small pool of adverts available to be served. I seem to get the same ones again and again."
A problem easily rectified by an aggressive marketing team... I bet they could offer X company a couple grand in free advertising and would have them hooked by the end of it. Do that for 50 companies and you're set...
Totally. I wrote a YOUmoz post on a similar theme a while back:
I remember it! great post :) It actually had me thinking for a few minutes about doing it with our main corporation - I came to the inescapable conclusion that myspace/facebook has no interest in construction and manufacturing safety... lol
Interesting as i've seen this problem with Facebook for a while now. Its true the ad's leave a lot to be desired but I think this is caused by a couple of things:1) Its a new system, so big companies and agencies are reluctant to run full scale campaigns with those ad's - due to an unsure result2) The "quality" of ad's leaves a lot to be desired - although i feel this is caused by Facebook not doing "quality score" and advertisers targeting badly/spam targeting.
I think Facebook are putting thought into this and as it matures I can see it and other social platforms becoming relevant ad platforms, its just got one hand tied behind its back due to privacy issues - not that google dont hold just as much - if not more - private information on people.
edit: as a note I get relevant ad's on my sporting/out of hours interests - cool! however i also see loads of dating sites crapola just because i'm male, 21-31 and single. Its like the back pages of FHM at times...
Excellent post! :) The fact that there are very basic mistakes in the facebook ad targeting shocks me.. it should be easy for them to "validate" the characteristics of the audience they are trying to target and be able to reach them effectively, as this is the "main value" of its ad platform.
I wonder if it's ever a possibility that advertisers will get to place circumstantial ads....
For example, when a profile who's status goes from "Married" to "Single" - they would be shown ads for divorce lawyers and bankruptcy credit repair...
As someone who has actually used the Facebook advertising system to place ads, I despise it. Sure, I was able to target local college students with ease, but the feedback and user experience in their system left a lot to be desired. Not to mention the impossibility of properly managing more than one clients ads in a single account.
When I used them, they were having billing issues and were billing ads to the wrong credit card thus charging one of my clients for another's ads. It was a mess and almost cost me a client.
I'm not sure how facebook is placing them, but the results from these ads have been mixed. I've had clients that didn't see any return and others that swear they will throw all of next years' advertising budget at Facebook instead of their typical billboards.
Interesting,
how long ago did you use them?
Loved the post! I never really paid attention to what kind of ads were showing up on Facebook, but now that I do...wow! It's pretty special.
The targeting on Facebook ads is crap. I nearly always get ads meant for women and whilst many would say that is apt, it doesn't mean I'm gonna spend any money with those companies. I wrote up my own experieces a few months back.
We feel your pain. Everytime we login, we're greeted with ads about love handles...showing fat hanging over jeans. Uh... eh.
I see a mix of well targeted ads and horrifyingly uninformed ones. I don't see ads for singles, but I see ads for people who are having kids. Note to Facebook (and the people I went to high school with): Just because you're listed as married doesn't mean you're having children. That said, I don't know how Facebook could do a better job at deciding who'd like to see these ads.
I'm a bit disturbed by the number of ads I get shown, advertising programmes for gambling problems. Is it targeting my photo albums?
Was just shown a Seattle-centered reigious services ad, suggesting I read the Bible, which is either really savvy advertising or a really bad idea, considering my religious views are listed as "Scandalous." I mean, maybe I'm a good subject for a conversion attempt or something...
FB has a lot of work to do, but hopefully with the addition of Sheryl Sandberg (of Google AdWords fame) their ad targeting will better utilize the plethora of consumer information available at their fingertips.
I can definitely envision a time when I am being served ads that not only take into account all of the information I provide on my profile (single, female, 24, SEO, loves Bob Marley...) but also that my friend posted a comment on my wall about the new Subaru I just purchased. Ad content served not only to my profile, but to the current conversations I am holding there, a la Gmail.
"Subaru Soundsystems at www.CarNoise.com - turn up the volume on No Woman, No Cry and tack on FREE shipping. Code: FBADS"
It's creepy, but let's not lie -- it's also convenient.
Before any of us get carried away, I prescribe a does of drama 2.0
Hello everybody.
FaceBook could, even with their simplistic form of Algorithms, and Robot crawl index would do a way better job if they stuck to a couple of simple things.
(1) When some one signs up with FaceBook they should have the option of whether or not if they want to recieve out side advertisements.
(2) Have a more specific sign up page where people are given more options, and an application thats just a tad bit more informitive, so that if you decide to accept advertisements the way that they place you into a demographic catigory is not so blind.
(3) Stick to the application instead of following a to lax standard of overgeneralization.
Don't you think that one day search engines will collect much information enough to predict what an end user would like to search for?
If they collect all searching info and perform analysing algorithms geo-targeted, gender-targeted, age-targeted, specific user targeted, etc. then one day you would not need to print the keywords you want to search about. Maybe it would be enough just to log into the system and search engine would provide several alternative results from all the probable keyword or phrases you were about to search.
Of course, this may sound very unrealistic, but something like that may happen one day...
I have a site, and I am collecting info about the behaviour of the visitors. I think that after 2-3 years I will be able to predict which part of the site a user would like to visit. So, I will display the links that he/she would like to use and will collect the other links in one group so that a user would be able to reach other parts of the site whenever needed.
Great post and the comments are awesome. I've never noticed the ads I'm being targeted but would love to see the laughs that generate from Calamier's "next step" suggestion --
That would be absolutely hilarious - given their follies with the current system.
M.
While Google's advertising algo does seem very sophisticated, try doing two unrelated searches - you'll find ads relevant to your first search in the results for your second. That feature can then actually be quite frustrating in that it isn't showing you ads relevant to what you are actually searching for. I think Google needs to spend a bit more time tweaking that feature...
Another problem with advertising on social networking websites is the typical low CTR and conversion rates.
As long as that is the case, Google will continue to triumph Facebook and other sites.
I think that depends completely on the type of conversion you're looking for...
People go to google intending to click on one of the results, so under ideal circumstances the CTR is 100% - basically divied up between X amount of results on the page (with a few modifiers in there, such as position 1-10, attractiveness of ads, etc)
On the flipside - People go to facebook to find friends, see pics, etc, I doubt anyone ever goes onto facebook to do some pointless shopping based on what they throw at you. So the CTR is, by nature, drastically lower.
In any case I don't think that has anything to do with danny's post :/
Exactly, even Google is struggling to make ads work on networks, hence it's having to pay MySpace to show ads no-one's clicking on.
Rupert really is a very clever man..
Funny you say that. This post orginally started with with a quote from Rupert Murdoch
It was from a speech given almost exactly three years ago. Even though he said it years ago it is more true today than ever.
I agree with Antonio. Most people do not look at the ads that closely.
Live From Las Vegas: The Masked Millionaire
Agreed...I think FB would be better off scrapping their current behavioral algorithms and advertising based off of basic profile data. It seems they've been a little too overzealous in the implementation.
I think you are 100% right Danny FB can micro target the ads, considering the level of data they have. They know who my family is who I went to school with, who I dated and what I am looking for.
If I am rated as single or looking for a relationship then they should be able to target me with relevant ads. However, I constantly see banners for some weird slimming patches, which are incidentally targetted at women of a certain age group. One, I am male, two there is no way FB knows I am over weight (I am), three I am not even in the age group being targetted...
However I am not sure that those utilising FB ads are doing so properly either - I think most are picking blanket methods.
Some do get it right, by trying to gain popularity of their FB pages, which I think is a great viral method. FB pages also have a host of data Available.
That's funny because I am a female in her early twenties (the demographic the diet pills and weight loss patches usually want to market to), but whenever I login, I get ads targeted to males looking for women to date/sleep with/talk to. I think it may have something to do with the fact that the vast majority of my facebook friends are male, but the info about my gender and age is so clearly available that it seems pretty rediculous.
Perhaps it's bad targeting from Facebook, perhaps it's bad targeting from the advertiser.
I have had a look at the criteria needed to create an ad on Facebook and it's pretty good.
The ring was sloppy on the advertisers part IMO
The homosexual advert was a no no on Facebook's part (there's no criteria to say you want to target homo/hetrosexual people, so out of the advertisers hand)
The pick up line is just wrong, this is Facebooks problem again, have you told Facebook that she is your sister? if so that is really wrong!
Facebook is wasting their potential - first with Beacon, now with this "targeting". They are where search engines used to be in 90's. Lack of relevancy.
It is a shame because they struggle to monetize their audience and with the funds they have they should have done better. Maybe this is the 'Vista syndrome' provided by Microsoft. Partner with Google instead :)
good article. I stick up with the idea that there are not enough advertisers for FB to do the right job, AND FB hasn't put in place an algorithm that picks up all the datas we are filling as we register, or using the "micro tests" we are doing. There is still a long way to go for them to beat up the SE, however, they have the best database ever !
Another nice post. I have to wonder if things will begin to slowly change with the aggressive way Facebook is poaching Google execs. I know it might be likened to turning a battleship around in a cul de sac, but I think FB is definitely trying to poisition themselves to eventually compete in the online adertising space. As many have stated in the comments, they would be certifiable not to leverage the personal user information to target relevant ads.
i was gonna say something...but after reading what streety wrote i agree with streety
bloggersmosaic.com
LOL, that is some pretty top-notch marketing. Basically you are a bi-sexual member that could be asking either sex for engagement at anytime. Man look where technology has brought us.
lucky me, at least I got options...
Well, isn't everyone? :)