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This doesn't work anymore. All the ad platforms now require thousand(s) of users in a targeted audience.

by rrggrr 8y ago

gwern 8y ago
Just makes it more expensive! How much would you pay for your dream job or a new lead? A few hundred or thousand dollars would be chump change to a lot of people.
- bawana 8y ago
  my ignorance and naivete are really annoying me. How do you write an ad to 'target' a person? How do you personalize spam??
  - citrablue 8y ago
    If you have an infinite budget, I could 'target' you by purchasing every ad on the internet with the copy "hi bawana, click this link!" Nearly every impression would be seen by the wrong person, but a few of the impressions would be seen by you. The rest of the exercise is figuring out how to segment the audience based on whether it's likely/unlikely that you're in the segment. If I know you're from the US and live in California, I can geo-target to that region.
  - propogandist 8y ago
    modem ad technology can do it... your mastercard and visa purchase behavior, for example, is available for purchase. That data can be merged with other purchased data, and things like aggregated browsing behavior. This is all done to serve people who may be in my target audience with (semi) personalized ads. The ad may not appeal to you, so it gets classified as spam.
rando444 8y ago
There was an article on HN of a writeup from someone that pulled this off recently. I think the post was probably someone in the neighborhood of 4-6 months ago. I don't recall the company or the person that was targeted though.
downandout 8y ago
Minimum custom audience size on Facebook is currently set at 20. You can target them by email if you have it.
- txsh 8y ago
  Add one person and 19 other people of the opposite gender. Then, filter by gender.
- jmcguckin 8y ago
  Would someone elaborate how one would target an ad to an audience of 100 email addresses? Thanks, j
ericwood 8y ago
Someone recently did this for my employer, but instead of targeting just the CEO they targeted every employee working here with a Facebook ad. I have a lot of mixed feelings about it but at the end of the day I don't think they earned a good reputation with the stunt.
- jessaustin 8y ago
  Are you sure it wasn't just some larger set that included everyone at your firm? E.g. everyone in your industry, or everyone at your office park?
  - ericwood 8y ago
    Fairly sure; the ad was literally “hey _____ employees, please hire me!” with a video and everything. I believe you can filter down to “works at X company” in the ad targeting. It’s possible they did some sort of other broader targeting, though.

This doesn't work anymore. All the ad platforms now require thousand(s) of users in a targeted audience.

by rrggrr 8y ago

This doesn't work anymore. All the ad platforms now require thousand(s) of users in a targeted audience.

Just makes it more expensive! How much would you pay for your dream job or a new lead? A few hundred or thousand dollars would be chump change to a lot of people.

bawana 8y ago
my ignorance and naivete are really annoying me. How do you write an ad to 'target' a person? How do you personalize spam??
- citrablue 8y ago
  If you have an infinite budget, I could 'target' you by purchasing every ad on the internet with the copy "hi bawana, click this link!" Nearly every impression would be seen by the wrong person, but a few of the impressions would be seen by you. The rest of the exercise is figuring out how to segment the audience based on whether it's likely/unlikely that you're in the segment. If I know you're from the US and live in California, I can geo-target to that region.
- propogandist 8y ago
  modem ad technology can do it... your mastercard and visa purchase behavior, for example, is available for purchase. That data can be merged with other purchased data, and things like aggregated browsing behavior. This is all done to serve people who may be in my target audience with (semi) personalized ads. The ad may not appeal to you, so it gets classified as spam.

rando444 8y ago

There was an article on HN of a writeup from someone that pulled this off recently. I think the post was probably someone in the neighborhood of 4-6 months ago. I don't recall the company or the person that was targeted though.

downandout 8y ago

Minimum custom audience size on Facebook is currently set at 20. You can target them by email if you have it.

txsh 8y ago
Add one person and 19 other people of the opposite gender. Then, filter by gender.
jmcguckin 8y ago
Would someone elaborate how one would target an ad to an audience of 100 email addresses? Thanks, j

ericwood 8y ago

Someone recently did this for my employer, but instead of targeting just the CEO they targeted every employee working here with a Facebook ad. I have a lot of mixed feelings about it but at the end of the day I don't think they earned a good reputation with the stunt.

jessaustin 8y ago
Are you sure it wasn't just some larger set that included everyone at your firm? E.g. everyone in your industry, or everyone at your office park?
- ericwood 8y ago
  Fairly sure; the ad was literally “hey _____ employees, please hire me!” with a video and everything. I believe you can filter down to “works at X company” in the ad targeting. It’s possible they did some sort of other broader targeting, though.