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> That's not really how digital advertising targeting works though. In fact, they go to great lengths to make sure you illegally exclude by a class Facebook ab

• busterarm 8y ago
  I'm trying to explain that gender targeting is imprecise. When I say the hit rate of ads targeting women is 50%, I mean that of the number of people who see ads that were targeted at women, only 50% of them were women. Targeting men works a little bit more consistently, by usually about 10%, but I don't know why. That's industry-wide. I don't know if Facebook does better or not, but I have no reason to think so. Even if they did, it probably doesn't matter that much.
  • SuoDuanDao 8y ago
    50% of viewers were women on ads targeted to women? How much better than chance is that when you take into account there are more men than women on facebook? It seems low given how well they can guess less tangible things like sexual orientation...
    • busterarm 8y ago
      Which is why ad targeting based on gender is perfectly fine.
      • pxtail 8y ago
        well, in this case it isn't perfectly fine because it shouldn't be described as "Gender. Target ads to women, men or people of all genders." if there is only 50/50 chance to display ad to woman. Isn't it just ridiculous and straight lie to potential advertisement buyer?
        • busterarm 8y ago
          Ad buyers are very sophisticated spenders and know the score. If they don't, they're going to get their money taken anyway and a lot more savagely than a mistargeted campaign hinged on gender. I really have to drive this point home. Selecting gender as a target on Facebook isn't actually selecting gender and everybody involved knows it. It's a much simpler way to describe a much more complex set of decisions.
          • IanCal 8y ago
            What's confusing me here is that this is what you seem to be saying is happening: 1. Facebook knows my gender. 2. Facebook tell advertisers they will select/not select me based on my gender. 3. Facebook, despite knowing my gender, completely disregard that information and try and guess it with exceptionally poor results.
            • busterarm 8y ago
              I was speaking more about the industry as a whole originally. Facebook knows what you report as your gender but that's not a very good attribute to target off of. If I were doing e-commerce, for example, I would never use Facebook's implementation of that target (if they're going based off of what's reported to Facebook) because it would completely exclude gift purchases across genders. It would leave a ton of money on the table and be a very stupid thing to do. My entire argument is that splitting hairs over this is irrelevant because any advertisers who rely on the accuracy of that attribute are stupid and pissing money away to begin with.
              • IanCal 8y ago
                We are very specifically on a topic about what facebook does, and what I was originally replying to you about was that I think your general findings are not particularly relevant when looking at facebook. You said this story is totally overblown because gender targeting isn't normally very accurate, but here it absolutely will be because a large number of people will accurately set this value on their own profile. > I would never use Facebook's implementation of that target (if they're going based off of what's reported to Facebook) because it would completely exclude gift purchases across genders. It would leave a ton of money on the table and be a very stupid thing to do. But we're not talking about gifts, we're talking about jobs. > because any advertisers who rely on the accuracy of that attribute are stupid But why would it be inaccurate for adverts on facebook for logged in facebook users?
  • IanCal 8y ago
    I'd expect Facebook to be better because they ask what your gender is and many people will have explicitly told them.
    • deleted 8y ago
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