October 22nd, 2007
From a user’s perspective, I don’t like it. From a developer’s perspective, this is smart. Facebook has never been one to let someone else blaze a trail…
Facebook users, what do you think?
| Facebook has made some big changes to their “Flyers” advertising format that turns it into a much more advanced advertising system. Advertisers can now target users based on specific data from their profiles, such as interests, age, education, and relationship status. Much like AdWords, the advertiser sets a maximum price per click and a daily budget. Previously, Flyer ads were limited to specific universities or networks, and were charged on a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) basis. |
| Whereas Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft use algorithms to match ads to content, Facebook has the ability to do exact matching on ads to keywords a user has entered in their profile. Things like targetting ads to single males, age 18-30, that play golf, in the Washington DC area, are now possible. |
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Facebook, Noise, Social Networks |
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I have to admit: I love this from both perspectives and let me explain why:
From a user’s perspective I have to start with one assumption: there will be ads. Given that, I then ask myself: which makes me more annoyed: ads for stuff I may like, or mass marketed ads that are useless to me.
A good example right now is in my gmail. The top ad there tells me that if I click their ad, I can learn how to keep my man. As a heterosexual male, I see that ad as a complete failure. I will never click an ad like that, and it makes me feel like I’m being marketed to in a worthless way. I hate it. It makes me angry, and it’s tough to stay angry at the google.
But if there is an ad that matches my interests, I’m actually more okay with that. I can totally understand the whole “I don’t want advertisers knowing so much about me” angle. I get it. But if they’re just getting basic data that I’m already providing, with no way to actually connect my segment data to me personally, I don’t mind it.
Just my 2 cents. See you at podcamp.
Something about it just bores me. It’s like, OK, I see that you can aggregate keywords I provided and now you’re just spewing ads at me based on that. It’s just boring. It’s too easy for them. I prefer to see them fumble around… I have a million interests as a consumer that aren’t listed on Facebook, and they’ll never know and they’ll never “get it” I guess. It’s too much like A + B = C. Social networks are about people, and they’re looking at it from the lens of a formula. Too blah for me.
You’re right. It’s not very sexy, and it is formulaic. Social networks are about people, but advertising is about dollar signs. With that kind of disconnect, it’s inherently difficult to reconcile the two. Especially without seeming fake and exploitative.
And I like your point in that you’d like to see them fumble around. But when the news of the day is multi-hundred-million dollar investments, it’s much easier to do something that investors can see as a concrete (though not the most innovative) model. This is going to be a fun one to follow.