4 ms·

To what degree are advertisers aware that the profiles which see their ads may not be genuine users? I suspect they either don't know, or have no alternatives.

chrisseaton 7y ago
Do fake profiles 'see' ads? They don't artificially browse around the site, to create impressions, or do they?
- _red 7y ago
  But doesn't FB use the existence of said profiles as a lure for advertisers? (eg. Your ad could reach any of our 1B members...) Seems like a class-action lawsuit in the making.
  - dahfizz 7y ago
    It's no secret that Facebook is battling bots. Do you have anything to back up your assertion that Facebook is deliberately lying to advertisers?
    - whenchamenia 7y ago
      It is well known in sv that most if not all social media companies keep inflated numbers for investors, annother for sales and marketing, and a thrid for internal/technical use. I would like to see any evidince that this does not happen. As it stands, your claim is the one that needs to be backed up.
      - dahfizz 7y ago
        You're asserting that X is happening, so the burden of proof is on you. However, I think the lack of any forementioned lawsuits is strong evidence that the situation is at least a little more nuanced. If an internet commentor came up with the idea for a lawsuit with all of 5 minutes of thought, then I promise you that the teams of lawyers that the advertisers employ have also already thought of that, and Facebook's lawyers have also already thought of that and have made sure to limit illegal behavior. Facebook is not stupid enough to tell a bald faced lie to advertisers and hope that nobody finds out. I would be confident in saying that Facebook has very specific metrics that they present. They aren't going to shrug their shoulders and say "eh, we have about X users". They be careful to say something like "we serve X requests per day" or "we have X numbers of engagements from people". They will make specific and factually correct statements. Those statements may very well be crafted to mislead people, but Facebook has every incentive to make sure they are not actually lying. It's not like they are starved for people buying ad space. In general, I think it's pretty arogant and ignorant to claim you have a perfect understanding of a situation that you have no actual insight into. It is always safe to assume that there are better informed people who have thought a lot more about any given issue than you have.
spydum 7y ago
They know, it is measured with some degree of accuracy by the platforms, but nobody wants to remove those numbers from their marketing, except the person paying for the ad..
wesammikhail 7y ago
Advertisers simply don´t know. The reason most of them don´t know is because there are virtually no tools available that can distinguish between a real user and a fake user. Only FB can make that assessment with some degree of certainty and even that can´t be trusted. External partners have been given a choice: either advertise at the risk of it being some garbage traffic, or not advertise at all. And for obvious reasons, the latter is what people choose to do.
- randallsquared 7y ago
  > either advertise at the risk of it being some garbage traffic, or not advertise at all. And for obvious reasons, the latter is what people choose to do. Do you mean "the former"? 'Cause, you know, there are still ads.
  - wesammikhail 7y ago
    yes sorry, I had a brain fart when I wrote that!

chrisseaton 7y ago

Do fake profiles 'see' ads? They don't artificially browse around the site, to create impressions, or do they?

_red 7y ago
But doesn't FB use the existence of said profiles as a lure for advertisers? (eg. Your ad could reach any of our 1B members...) Seems like a class-action lawsuit in the making.
- dahfizz 7y ago
  It's no secret that Facebook is battling bots. Do you have anything to back up your assertion that Facebook is deliberately lying to advertisers?
  - whenchamenia 7y ago
    It is well known in sv that most if not all social media companies keep inflated numbers for investors, annother for sales and marketing, and a thrid for internal/technical use. I would like to see any evidince that this does not happen. As it stands, your claim is the one that needs to be backed up.
    - dahfizz 7y ago
      You're asserting that X is happening, so the burden of proof is on you. However, I think the lack of any forementioned lawsuits is strong evidence that the situation is at least a little more nuanced. If an internet commentor came up with the idea for a lawsuit with all of 5 minutes of thought, then I promise you that the teams of lawyers that the advertisers employ have also already thought of that, and Facebook's lawyers have also already thought of that and have made sure to limit illegal behavior. Facebook is not stupid enough to tell a bald faced lie to advertisers and hope that nobody finds out. I would be confident in saying that Facebook has very specific metrics that they present. They aren't going to shrug their shoulders and say "eh, we have about X users". They be careful to say something like "we serve X requests per day" or "we have X numbers of engagements from people". They will make specific and factually correct statements. Those statements may very well be crafted to mislead people, but Facebook has every incentive to make sure they are not actually lying. It's not like they are starved for people buying ad space. In general, I think it's pretty arogant and ignorant to claim you have a perfect understanding of a situation that you have no actual insight into. It is always safe to assume that there are better informed people who have thought a lot more about any given issue than you have.

spydum 7y ago

They know, it is measured with some degree of accuracy by the platforms, but nobody wants to remove those numbers from their marketing, except the person paying for the ad..

wesammikhail 7y ago

Advertisers simply don´t know. The reason most of them don´t know is because there are virtually no tools available that can distinguish between a real user and a fake user. Only FB can make that assessment with some degree of certainty and even that can´t be trusted. External partners have been given a choice: either advertise at the risk of it being some garbage traffic, or not advertise at all. And for obvious reasons, the latter is what people choose to do.

randallsquared 7y ago
> either advertise at the risk of it being some garbage traffic, or not advertise at all. And for obvious reasons, the latter is what people choose to do. Do you mean "the former"? 'Cause, you know, there are still ads.
- wesammikhail 7y ago
  yes sorry, I had a brain fart when I wrote that!