7 ms·

> "At work, happened to me though earlier this year. Working as a barista, got a burn, talked to my partner in person about it, went to Target, bought the burn

by brad0 9y ago

> "At work, happened to me though earlier this year. Working as a barista, got a burn, talked to my partner in person about it, went to Target, bought the burn cream, and saw an ad on FB for the exact product I purchased. Never searched for product either," wrote Brigitte Bonasoro. Facebook has data sharing agreements with many, many companies. It's most likely that the cream was bought with a card then linked together with your facebook profile. It's not that hard, especially when you use the same email identifier for all those loyalty cards you have. EDIT A video that explains what Facebook does https://www.ted.com/talks/zeynep_tufekci_we_re_building_a_dystopia_just_to_make_people_click_on_ads https://www.ted.com/talks/zeynep_tufekci_we_re_building_a_dy...

aluhut 9y ago
Not sure if this is better or worse.
- notyourwork 9y ago
  Agreed and I am not sure the majority of population realize this or would be accepting of it.
- madeofpalk 9y ago
  Well, I'm (marginally) more comfortable with a company like Facebook having this data compared to... Equifax
  - jacobush 9y ago
    Why? FB has agency to actually do something, probably horrible with it. Equifax would just get hacked.
    - aluhut 9y ago
      Don't forget the sell out when they finally jump the shark.
  - imron 9y ago
    Would you still be comfortable with it if Zuckerberg was running for president? What ways do you think they company might be able to use that information to sway the outcome of the election (passively or actively), and do you think there is a greater than zero chance they would try to do this?
qbrass 9y ago
I don't see how it's beneficial to the advertiser when the person has already bought the product before they've seen the ad? It sounds like someone is trying to game the advertiser by correlating ad views with sales.
- tenpies 9y ago
  > It sounds like someone is trying to game the advertiser by correlating ad views with sales. Shhh. If advertisers realize how utterly wasted most of their advertising spending is you'll destroy about 80% of "tech" companies and plunge the world into a global recession.
  - edanm 9y ago
    Or maybe you're wrong about how useful advertising is? (Is it really easier to believe that we, the "smart techies" of HN, just know so much more and can see so much more clearly than everyone else?)
  - brad0 9y ago
    To be fair, coke can't get many new customers buying their product. Yet they spend quite a bit of money advertising their product so that their existing users keep purchasing.
  - artificial 9y ago
    For example in the Automotive industry a mail piece with a tracked phone number is used and that is cross referenced with Dealer sales data. The pieces are mailed to targeted lists of people qualified by credit score, postal code and recent purchase of vehicle make. Should the site be accessed via a personalized URL the user now appears through a variety of methods, same if they come from FB they’re claimed through offline conversions where sales data is compared to audiences. Using this readily sold and available data it’s easy to calculate spend and determine response. Even with single digit response (not uncommon for email) industries thrive.
- mrchicity 9y ago
  reinforce the quality of the product to make the buyer feel good purchasing again? odds are if someone's of a certain age/relationship status and buying a pregnancy test, they're trying to conceive and will possibly buy more.
tedunangst 9y ago
Or it's coincidence? How many ads does Facebook show to how many people? It would be weird if zero of them were relevant.
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  This. With billion users being shown ads daily, coincidences are just bound to happen.
null0pointer 9y ago
I have a similar anecdote. Girlfriend was having some symptoms, we briefly talked about it then walked to the pharmacy and bought a pregnancy test. Maybe 30 minutes after purchasing the test we watched a youtube video on her phone. The ad on the video was for the exact test we bought. I figured that youtube got the credit card info from the purchase but I was shocked at how quickly that translated into something showing on the screen. I've always thought about these things in the back of my mind but this was still eye opening for me. I'd never had it happen to me personally since I aggressively block all ads :)
- imron 9y ago
  Advertisers are suckers. Facebook and YouTube are selling ads to people who have already bought their product.
  - ravenstine 9y ago
    In a sense, they are suckers. Plus, as another story on HN suggested, their abandonment of advertising you things you don't need right now(but you may find you want later in life) proves counterproductive. A heck of a lot of things advertised to me on Facebook are things I already searched for and either purchased or already decided wasn't worth buying. I don't believe that modern internet ads are as valuable as the industry seems to think, which may be a sign of an impending bubble burst.
    - londons_explore 9y ago
      Internet ads are far more measurable than most other forms of advertising. The advertiser certainly has all the data necessary to see if it's profitable or not to do those seemingly counterintuitive ad campaigns.
      - sharkmerry 9y ago
        except the data is controlled by the entity selling you the ad, so they have reasons to make the profitablity difficult to discern
emodendroket 9y ago
I'll sometimes see ads for products I bought at Costco, so that makes sense. But then again I get a lot of ads I don't understand -- Facebook has me pegged for a drug addict considering divorce who loves Urdu-language television, but where it came up with those ideas I don't know.

by brad0 9y ago

aluhut 9y ago

Not sure if this is better or worse.

notyourwork 9y ago
Agreed and I am not sure the majority of population realize this or would be accepting of it.
madeofpalk 9y ago
Well, I'm (marginally) more comfortable with a company like Facebook having this data compared to... Equifax
- jacobush 9y ago
  Why? FB has agency to actually do something, probably horrible with it. Equifax would just get hacked.
  - aluhut 9y ago
    Don't forget the sell out when they finally jump the shark.
- imron 9y ago
  Would you still be comfortable with it if Zuckerberg was running for president? What ways do you think they company might be able to use that information to sway the outcome of the election (passively or actively), and do you think there is a greater than zero chance they would try to do this?

qbrass 9y ago

I don't see how it's beneficial to the advertiser when the person has already bought the product before they've seen the ad? It sounds like someone is trying to game the advertiser by correlating ad views with sales.

tenpies 9y ago
> It sounds like someone is trying to game the advertiser by correlating ad views with sales. Shhh. If advertisers realize how utterly wasted most of their advertising spending is you'll destroy about 80% of "tech" companies and plunge the world into a global recession.
- edanm 9y ago
  Or maybe you're wrong about how useful advertising is? (Is it really easier to believe that we, the "smart techies" of HN, just know so much more and can see so much more clearly than everyone else?)
- brad0 9y ago
  To be fair, coke can't get many new customers buying their product. Yet they spend quite a bit of money advertising their product so that their existing users keep purchasing.
- artificial 9y ago
  For example in the Automotive industry a mail piece with a tracked phone number is used and that is cross referenced with Dealer sales data. The pieces are mailed to targeted lists of people qualified by credit score, postal code and recent purchase of vehicle make. Should the site be accessed via a personalized URL the user now appears through a variety of methods, same if they come from FB they’re claimed through offline conversions where sales data is compared to audiences. Using this readily sold and available data it’s easy to calculate spend and determine response. Even with single digit response (not uncommon for email) industries thrive.
mrchicity 9y ago
reinforce the quality of the product to make the buyer feel good purchasing again? odds are if someone's of a certain age/relationship status and buying a pregnancy test, they're trying to conceive and will possibly buy more.

tedunangst 9y ago

Or it's coincidence? How many ads does Facebook show to how many people? It would be weird if zero of them were relevant.

TeMPOraL 9y ago
This. With billion users being shown ads daily, coincidences are just bound to happen.

null0pointer 9y ago

I have a similar anecdote. Girlfriend was having some symptoms, we briefly talked about it then walked to the pharmacy and bought a pregnancy test. Maybe 30 minutes after purchasing the test we watched a youtube video on her phone. The ad on the video was for the exact test we bought. I figured that youtube got the credit card info from the purchase but I was shocked at how quickly that translated into something showing on the screen. I've always thought about these things in the back of my mind but this was still eye opening for me. I'd never had it happen to me personally since I aggressively block all ads :)

imron 9y ago
Advertisers are suckers. Facebook and YouTube are selling ads to people who have already bought their product.
- ravenstine 9y ago
  In a sense, they are suckers. Plus, as another story on HN suggested, their abandonment of advertising you things you don't need right now(but you may find you want later in life) proves counterproductive. A heck of a lot of things advertised to me on Facebook are things I already searched for and either purchased or already decided wasn't worth buying. I don't believe that modern internet ads are as valuable as the industry seems to think, which may be a sign of an impending bubble burst.
  - londons_explore 9y ago
    Internet ads are far more measurable than most other forms of advertising. The advertiser certainly has all the data necessary to see if it's profitable or not to do those seemingly counterintuitive ad campaigns.
    - sharkmerry 9y ago
      except the data is controlled by the entity selling you the ad, so they have reasons to make the profitablity difficult to discern

emodendroket 9y ago

I'll sometimes see ads for products I bought at Costco, so that makes sense. But then again I get a lot of ads I don't understand -- Facebook has me pegged for a drug addict considering divorce who loves Urdu-language television, but where it came up with those ideas I don't know.