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My Life on Facebook as a Woman and Why Social Network Advertising Doesn't Work

17 points by jmorin007 19y ago

attack 19y ago
Doesn't work? This feels like revealing Santa Claus to a kid... Sex still sells. Really, really sells. Just how are you measuring advertising effectiveness from which you can say that these ads aren't working? I guess you do have an interesting point about giving the users more control over the ads they see. This seems to be a semi-hot startup area right now, in case you haven't seen this.
bdr 19y ago
This post shows that social network advertising doesn't work (for the author), but doesn't say anything about why except to guess that Facebook's sales team sucks.
- sanswork 19y ago
  The sales team probably sell very few of the ads on their outside of the huge corporate branding ones. The ones you see on the side of your profile are mostly paid for and targeted by individuals.
budu3 19y ago
I've always wondered that. Facebook not to talk about Yahoo know a lot about their users and yet their ads are really lagging behind. Maybe they are being held back by privacy concerns.
- dangoldin 19y ago
  I agree entirely. First of, I am just seeing a very limited number of ads on the left hand side of the screen and they are all dating related - kind of disheartening - but this may come from being a young single guy. Is anyone from different age groups seeing any different ads?
  - lg 19y ago
    i sent a message to a friend about moving to boston, and got a boston real estate ad a couple pageviews later. I also get programming job ads (i'm graduating this year). But yeah, there's usually a girl with a come-hither gaze.
    - dangoldin 19y ago
      Hmm, so there is something more advanced that my dormant self isn't getting - definitely interesting! Unfortunately, there is no way to write a facebook app to capture the displayed ads - but I think it would be possible with a firefox plug in...
    - budu3 19y ago
      Wow, I guess I'm really boring them. Coz all I get are those lusty dating site ads.
- sanswork 19y ago
  Facebook doesn't target most of their ads the people creating them do. Go log onto facebook, scroll to the bottom click advertise then create an ad. You can to target region, gender, age, and a few other things(keywords, status, etc).
bootload 19y ago
"... Since day 1 with Facebook, I've been shocked at how poor the ad quality is. For a company that has a $15B valuation, their ad sales teams plain suck. ..." How many good advertising/marketing team members are technical & can code? That is a big hiring hurdle that Fb puts in front of new hires.
vesterr 19y ago
Why do you even look at ads? http://adblockplus.org/ http://adblockplus.org/
- 9oliYQjP 19y ago
  By default, I block ads. If I find the site to be useful (the litmus test is "will I return?") then I unblock the ads. Why do I do this? There are far too many digg/reddit link whores that for all intents and purposes add no value to the Internet, but have tricked me into clicking on their links. The sites that are linked usually repackage somebody else's work into their template, and have manipulated the system into getting people to click on their links. In some cases, it is flat out copyright infringement. And if you load the ads on their page, they have won. In fact, they'd probably use the ad revenue to help legally defend themselves if the original authors of the content they copied were to sue them. It's quite despicable and that's why I can reconcile blocking ads. Like I said, I unblock ads on websites that I find useful. If you find a website useful, I think it is much better to act in good faith and put up with the ads. If the ads bother you, then try to find an alternative website for that purpose, or contact the authors and present your dilemma. Perhaps they will offer a subscription service sans advertisements, or tone the existing ads down a notch.

17 points by jmorin007 19y ago

Doesn't work? This feels like revealing Santa Claus to a kid... Sex still sells. Really, really sells. Just how are you measuring advertising effectiveness from which you can say that these ads aren't working? I guess you do have an interesting point about giving the users more control over the ads they see. This seems to be a semi-hot startup area right now, in case you haven't seen this.

bdr 19y ago

This post shows that social network advertising doesn't work (for the author), but doesn't say anything about why except to guess that Facebook's sales team sucks.

sanswork 19y ago
The sales team probably sell very few of the ads on their outside of the huge corporate branding ones. The ones you see on the side of your profile are mostly paid for and targeted by individuals.

budu3 19y ago

I've always wondered that. Facebook not to talk about Yahoo know a lot about their users and yet their ads are really lagging behind. Maybe they are being held back by privacy concerns.

dangoldin 19y ago
I agree entirely. First of, I am just seeing a very limited number of ads on the left hand side of the screen and they are all dating related - kind of disheartening - but this may come from being a young single guy. Is anyone from different age groups seeing any different ads?
- lg 19y ago
  i sent a message to a friend about moving to boston, and got a boston real estate ad a couple pageviews later. I also get programming job ads (i'm graduating this year). But yeah, there's usually a girl with a come-hither gaze.
  - dangoldin 19y ago
    Hmm, so there is something more advanced that my dormant self isn't getting - definitely interesting! Unfortunately, there is no way to write a facebook app to capture the displayed ads - but I think it would be possible with a firefox plug in...
  - budu3 19y ago
    Wow, I guess I'm really boring them. Coz all I get are those lusty dating site ads.
sanswork 19y ago
Facebook doesn't target most of their ads the people creating them do. Go log onto facebook, scroll to the bottom click advertise then create an ad. You can to target region, gender, age, and a few other things(keywords, status, etc).

bootload 19y ago

"... Since day 1 with Facebook, I've been shocked at how poor the ad quality is. For a company that has a $15B valuation, their ad sales teams plain suck. ..." How many good advertising/marketing team members are technical & can code? That is a big hiring hurdle that Fb puts in front of new hires.

vesterr 19y ago

Why do you even look at ads? http://adblockplus.org/ http://adblockplus.org/

9oliYQjP 19y ago
By default, I block ads. If I find the site to be useful (the litmus test is "will I return?") then I unblock the ads. Why do I do this? There are far too many digg/reddit link whores that for all intents and purposes add no value to the Internet, but have tricked me into clicking on their links. The sites that are linked usually repackage somebody else's work into their template, and have manipulated the system into getting people to click on their links. In some cases, it is flat out copyright infringement. And if you load the ads on their page, they have won. In fact, they'd probably use the ad revenue to help legally defend themselves if the original authors of the content they copied were to sue them. It's quite despicable and that's why I can reconcile blocking ads. Like I said, I unblock ads on websites that I find useful. If you find a website useful, I think it is much better to act in good faith and put up with the ads. If the ads bother you, then try to find an alternative website for that purpose, or contact the authors and present your dilemma. Perhaps they will offer a subscription service sans advertisements, or tone the existing ads down a notch.